oh hey friday...

the girls of the GBC, and luka--yeah, it's better not to ask so many questions


what feels like another lifetime ago, my friend ames and i were walking up the main road in kati and somehow my birthday came up. granted at that point we were talking months in the future. we were plotting her arrival in bamako along with as much of the gang of Goodfellas we could get trying to get everyone together between regional training, newbie training, and hot season.

it was fun to think about. certainly something to look forward to. the girls and i decided the theme was to be around Katy Perry's TGIF since my birthday fell, ever so conveniently on a Friday, and anything in the song was fair game.

in the weeks after, when i was alone with my thoughts walking to and from work, i would think about that birthday extravaganza. i planned the kind of dress i would have made, whether or not to have my mom send me my favorite pair of wedges, who would show up. to me it was going to be a bash, which was great because it would also be the first birthday i ever had not seeing my mom. and that weighed on me, so i really liked having something that fun and outrageous coming up.

fast forward and we are all back. sure, i came back because of med stuff and they all came back because mali was evacuated, but here we are. everyone is somewhere else, we are thrown coast to coast. there won't be a big table of goodfellas at da guidos. marcy and i haven't been on the phone for hours going back and forth on what to wear. i don't have 12 people in my apartment avoiding the bamako stage house.

today i got to go shopping with my mom. i got to put on makeup without sweating it off. i drove in a really clean car singing along to the radio. i roamed sephora. i ate out for lunch. i had a muffin. i have chocolate cake sitting in the fridge and kind text messages and facebook posts waiting to be looked at. now i have friends from all over thinking happy thoughts for me and the comforts of home for me to savor. sure, it's quieter. it's not going to last all night. there will be no dancing on tables! today i'm going to enjoy the crazy year that happened and think about the year ahead. with great hope and a little whimsy.

and listen one more time to katy perry. just for the BGC. ;)

TGIF everyone! 

xo