Southern Belle in Training

Fashion, Travel & Lifestyle Blog || Est. 2012 || Virginia Beach, VA

August 6, 2013

Girlfriend overload.

     Happy Tuesday friends! This certainly is a happy Tuesday for me because in ONE WEEK I leave to head back down South! :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D (Sorry for the obnoxious smiley overload, but it's crucial to express how happy I am!) I am so beyond ready to go back "home." While this summer has had some sweet moments, it definitely hasn't been my favorite summer, and I'm very ready to get out of my hometown again. 

     Speaking of my hometown, I realize that I have never before identified exactly where in Maine I'm from. I do this for privacy reasons, the same reason that I blog under "Miss ALK" (although many of you know my real name :-)). I never intended to share exactly where I'm from on this blog, but tonight a TLC special (Yes, TLC the television channel) is airing on my hometown. My town was in the news quite a bit last fall for some terrible reasons, and TLC decided to make a documentary about it. You can  read more about the show here, and feel free to watch if you want to see where I'm from! My hope is that the show will also highlight how beautiful the area is that I'm from, and not just the immoral situation that was happening here. 

     But anyways, I wanted to share with y'all what I've been up to over the past weekend! I loved the week before I went back to school last year, and I can already tell that I'm loving it again. The perk of going to school far away is that when it gets to be right around a week before I leave for school I start getting tons of texts/Facebook messages from my Maine friends telling me that we need to hang out before I leave. It always makes me feel suddenly popular, and is a great time for me to catch up with people that I haven't seen much of that summer! :-)

     I seriously had more plans this past weekend then I did in the whole month of July. July = Miss ALK becoming a hermit... but really though. So this busy weekend was a welcome change, and great chance for me to catch up with some of my favorite Maine (and international!) ladies. Here's what I did!

     In my post on Friday I mentioned how my BFF during my junior year of high school was a Japanese exchange student. Anna and I met right after she arrived in the US, because I used to help with transfer & exchange student orientation in August at my high school. We clicked right away and became very close! I also made another new friend that year named April, who was in the grade in front of me (She now goes to college in Massachusetts). My junior year was my worst year of high school: I was depressed for part of it and very unhappy, and these girls were the ones who brough some joy to my life then. Here are a couple pictures of us from that year:

Homecoming 2010 -- and another questionable Miss ALK fashion choice (A leopard print dress? Did I think I was part of the Jersey Shore cast?!)

Black Friday 2010! 






     Anna went back home to Japan in June 2011. We did a fairly decent job of staying in touch for being that far away... once we both got smartphones we downloaded an app called KakaoTalk so we could text for free, and we would Skype every few months. I wanted to see Anna so badly, but I never thought that would happen until I got a plane ticket to Japan.

      But a couple months ago Anna gave me the wonderful news that she was coming back to the US! Her and her family were coming to several different states, and they planned a stop in our hometown at the start of their trip, which was this past Saturday! I spent the day eating lunch with Anna and April and then at the beach with Anna's real family, old host family and more of her friends! It was a perfect reunion.


Reunited and it felt SO good!

     Now the next time that I see this girl probably will be if I make it to Japan. ;-) But I am so thankful that I got to see her again at the place where we have so many wonderful friendship memories! What a blessing her visit was to me, and I'm thrilled that it was before I left for school!

     Literally right after my visit with Anna, I headed to pick up my high school friend N and we headed to a lake a few towns over for another high school friend's belated graduation party! I hadn't seen this friend since last summer, and N has been working crazy hours this summer so I haven't seen much of her either. It was fun to catch up with both of these gals before we all head our seperate ways this summer. 

     Sunday morning was also filled with friendship time! A few weeks ago I had a dentist appointment, and the hygenist told me all about the church that she goes to, which is a few towns over from where I live. It sounded like an awesome church, and I really wanted to visit before I headed back down South! I asked my high school friend J to join me. J hasn't gone to church in the past, but she believes in the Lord and told me that she'd like to accompany me. I had the best time ever! I LOVED this church and am bummed that I found it so close to when I leave for school! Every part of the sermon spoke to my heart. I loved being able to discuss it with J after church, it reminded me of the conversations that I'd have with church carpool crew from freshman year. We went to lunch after at my favorite Chinese restaurant before I had to go to work. I didn't take any pictures, but here's one of me and J a few weeks ago when we went to a lake in New Hampshire together!

The sun was right in my eyes when this was being taken... hence the squinting!

     And my girlfriend plans didn't end with the weekend! Today I had the pleasure of meeting one of my newest friends for lunch. Shara is my first "online" friend that I have met in real life! She isn't a blogger, but she is a pretty awesome photographer. ;-) We met through a Facebook group called Delight that networks Christian girls who are photographers, bloggers and artists. You can read the official Delight blog by clicking here. Anyways, most of the Delight gals are West coasters or Southerners, so I was surprised when I saw that I wasn't the only native Mainer!! Shara and I began talking shortly after I came home for the summer, and back in June she came down to my town for the day so we could meet in person and go to the beach. Our conflicting work schedules made it impossible for us to hang out in July, but I made sure to see her again before I left for school! We had a lovely lunch date at iHop and then walked around the mall for a little bit. And of course we made sure to take a selife before leaving the mall!



     I am so thankful for this girl's friendship. She's an awesome girl, and I look forward to having a new friend to hang out with when I come home on breaks from school this year! Meeting Shara also helped to convince my parents a little more that you can make real friends from the online world. ;-)


     I have even more plans with more girlfriends coming up this week, and I can't wait! I want to savor my last week of the summer, and I'm glad that I'm able to catch up with some friends while doing that. The fact that all of us are growing up and have busy work schedules makes it hard for regular get-togethers now. Another hard thing is when my friends from home are all in totally different places (both location-wise and in their lives), and a lot of my friends don't even know each other. This was difficult sometimes in high school, but now I enjoy it because it means I have several different friend get-togethers to look forward to! 


     I might not be posting as much this week due to all of my plans, as well as finishing up my summer job in retail and running a ton of important errands. I do have an exciting blogging announcement coming soon though, and I cannot wait to be back on a regular posting schedule once I'm back in school! 


     xoxo Miss ALK








    
















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2 comments

  1. You are too cute!! Sounds like you had a GREAT weekend!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love your writing style! Its very energetic and reflective of you :)

    ReplyDelete

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