trade our places in the night

Its true - I'm actually writing on time! This week my mind is a little more put together than last week,  so hopefully this will actually be coherent.
The week went by surprisingly fast, primarily because I was ridiculously busy all week. I had things going on every single day. Thursday I met up with my beautiful, amazing friend Jenna and her daughter Ava for lunch. Jenna is due to have her second daughter in the beginning of February, so we are trying to get together as much as we can before the new baby comes along.
Friday, as usual, I didn't work. Alyssa needed to borrow my car for the day, so I was stranded at my apartment which I took as a great excuse to catch up on sleep. Alyssa picked me up in the evening and we met some friends for dinner at Hubbard.
Saturday I spent the afternoon running errands. My biggest task was to get a new pair of boots, because mine are no longer waterproof which pretty much defeats the purpose. I ended up going to Kohls, then to every store in the mall, then back to Kohls. I spent a lot more time than I wanted on that; I don't really like shopping that much to begin with, and I got bored with it easily. But I ended up buying a pair at Kohls, and I am now 90% sure I'm going to keep them. [For the record, I have a terrible habit of buying things and then deciding later whether I really want them or not. If I decide I don't want/need something, I return it.]
After I got home from my shopping extravaganza, I made an apple pie and then went to pick up Alyssa for the highlight of the weekend: Sisters Night!!!! If I haven't mentioned it before, I met my friend Steph through work. We became really close friends almost immediately. It is hard to explain, but the more we talked the more we found we had in common and we have just connected on this amazing level. Steph has an identical twin sister, Lisa. After hearing me talk about Alyssa, Steph insisted that we introduce the two of them. The first thing Alyssa said to me after meeting Steph for the first time was, "I feel like Steph is our long lost sister."[It nearly broke my heart, in the good way, it was so cute and 100%  true.] So Steph and I decided we should have a Sisters Night where the four of us get together, and we were finally able to put it together. 
First of all, the resemblance between Lisa and Steph's relationship and mine and Alyssa's relationship is uncanny - as we all agreed, it was a refreshing and exhilarating to see that there were others out there who act like us. [hey, we're not crazy!] Anyways, for those of you who know how much Alyssa and I love to laugh, be loud, be silly, just imagine that times two - together for 6 hours, non-stop ridiculosity. Lets be honest, not many people would be able to keep up with us. 

(Amanda+Alyssa+Stephanie+Lisa)*wine+apple pie=AWESOME

My weekend rounded out especially nicely because I actually had a 3-day weekend. I had off today, which is unusual, but I had to use my floating holiday from New Years Day within the pay period, and so I decided to extend my weekend. It worked out perfectly because it was one of the only days that I will be able to see Marley who I have missed terribly. Our work schedules are completely opposite and with her time in Baraboo for her winter break, its been really hard to get together. We started off this afternoon by going to a scrapbook store for Marley to pick up some stuff for a project at the flower shop that she works at. Afterwards we went to her apartment where we hung out with her brother and chatted and caught each other up on life. We ordered Chinese food and watched a movie, and I got home a few hours ago with just enough energy to clean up my apartment. 

I'm really happy right now. And I owe it all to the wonderful people that I have in my life - Alyssa, Jenna, Lisa, Steph, Marley - all of them are so special to me in their own separate ways. I know I'm terribly lucky to have to them so close to me, and to have them tolerate, if not always appreciate, me and all my ups and downs and twists and turns. 

Off to my sanctuary of pages and pillows!