Quality Time with Girlfriends

Although I was feeling very under the weather this past weekend due to a little sinus infection, I still had the opportunity to spend some quality time with my best girlfriends.  It was one of my best friend’s 24^th birthday, and it was definitely cause for celebration. 

Despite the many acquaintances that have come and gone over the years, one group of girls will always be in my life, and has been since the first grade back in 1993.  It is hard to believe that we have stayed the tight-knit group that we are from early elementary school all the way through post-college life.  These girls are more than friends to me; they truly are like sisters to me.  Our personalities, likes and dislikes, careers, and interests are so diverse, but nothing stops us from talking and laughing for hours on end when we are together.  We have created so many memories over the years, especially during our trips to Key West, Florida.  We have been through a lot together, and I am forever grateful to know that they will always be there for me through thick and thin.  This weekend, while celebrating in Rockville Centre, I had just another reminder of how blessed I am to have these remarkable girls in my life.

2000 - Before the school dance

  2010 - In Key West, FL         

                                                                                                            

Very cute blurb about friendship.

Speaking of 24^th birthdays, mine is in one week from today!  I am still like a little kid when it comes to my birthday; driving my family and friends up a wall with my constant counting down.  One of the reasons I like my “birthday season” (as I childishly refer to the several weeks surrounding March 14^th) is because it reminds me of the time of year when Paul and I met.  Although we both attended Berner Middle School and Massapequa High School together for several years, we had never really interacted until around the time of my 18^th birthday.  The night before my birthday was one of the first time we spent hours talking on “Aim” (who still does that?? OK maybe I do sometimes J), and at the end of the conversation he said, “I’ll say happy birthday to you now because I’ll probably be too tired to remember tomorrow morning in calc.”  Ha!  I never let him live that comment down, and often jokingly say “I might be too tired to remember” when he asks me to do something early in the morning that I am reluctant to do.  After getting to know him for the past 6 years, I know that he was probably just being shy, but I have to laugh when thinking back to that conversation. 

*Opportunity - a good position, chance, or prospect, as for advancement or success.

*Acquaintance – a person known to one, but usually not a close friend

*Diverse - of various kinds or forms

*Remarkable - worthy of notice or attention

*Interact - to act on or in close relation with each other

*Reluctant - unwilling; disinclined

Vocabulary Practice:

1. It is interesting to watch children ____________________ with one another because sometimes they will speak to each other, and other times they will pretend the other does not exist!

2. The students in my class are very  ___________________; they have come to America from many different parts of the world.

3. My mother is truly a  ____________________ woman.  She is a wonderful teacher, mother, wife, sister, and daughter.

4. I do not know the boy very well.  We are simply  ___________________.

5. I was  ____________________ to wake up early on a Saturday for yoga class, but was very glad I went afterwards.

6. Not as many woman had the  _____________________ to attend college many years ago.

Idioms

The definition of an idiom as defined by linguistic researchers Simpson and Mendis is, “A group of words that occur in a more or less fixed phrase and whose overall meaning cannot be predicted by analyzing the meanings of its constituent parts.”  Some idioms that I used in my writing include, “feeling under the weather,” “through thick and thin,” and “driving them up a wall.”  The meaning of these sayings cannot be deciphered through literal translation of the words in the sentences.  Feeling “under the weather” refers to being ill, and driving someone “up a wall” means to irritate them greatly. 

Take a piece of paper and fold it in half.  On the left side of your paper, draw a literal translation of the idiom discussed above.  On the right side of the paper, draw the actual meaning trying to be conveyed by the idiom.  When you are finished, try researching more commonly used idioms in the English language and put them into sentences.