TGIF: Thank God ILoveMy Friends!
My takeaways from Blackout Wednesday
Last time on Viv Laugh Love: what girls' night actually looks like
Now that you’re all caught up …
I’m currently making last-minute edits on this diary entry at the DFW airport while waiting for my plane to board.
Also! If you’re not romanticizing your airport experience, WYD? I had “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” by The Script playing as I was rolling into my departure drop-off and I waiting in line for TSA. I like knowing I’m most definitely someone’s airport crush. Plus, dressing up for the airport in a cute work outfit just makes it look like you have your shit together. Literally, I probably look like I’m doing something super important at 5 a.m. while typing away on my little laptop right now. I’m inspiring the future leaders of the world, people!
Airport song recommendations, in order of drama and how emotional you’d like to be, by moi.
TL;DR Dressing up for the airport makes me feel like a rom-com character about to jet off to her next journey (which I so am).
Let’s get into the topic of today’s diary entry.
What is the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and what I learned/already knew
According to Wikipedia, “Blackout Wednesday refers to binge drinking on the night before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. Very few people work on Thanksgiving, and most college students are home with their families for the Thanksgiving holiday, which means that high school friends can catch up at the local bar as they converge on their hometown.”
This is the first time that Brittney, Ruthie, Rylie, and I have all seen each other together since March 2020. Of course, we’ve been with each other at various times and places, but it’s been a long time in the making. History in the making, if you will. Literally, my last photo from March 13th, 2020 is of Rylie and I in AP Environmental Science, eating an apple pie and making a joke about how this was our last day of school.
I drove over to scoop everyone and headed over to our neighborhood bar. It’s very scenic. The patio view is of a grocery store parking lot and dumpster of an optometry clinic. #vibes.
Immediately after we got out of the car and headed in, we saw a group of people who were in our graduating class. I honestly had to give myself a week to mentally prepare myself this weekend. Before I left Austin, Esli was helping me craft a script of my lore so I could be ready when anyone I went to high school with hit me with the “What’s up?” question.
Brittney, Ruthie, Rylie, and I sat inside while the larger group was on the patio. All three of them chose seats facing away from them so they wouldn’t have to make eye contact. However, the journalist in me had to know who all was there, of course.
We are all antsy. Brittney ordered a drink called, “ur mom.” Five minutes after we placed our order, an old classmate of ours came in and she was in shock to see all of us. And then like 10 minutes later, another classmate I went to junior high with as well and we got to catching up.
Overall the night was good. There definitely were certain people I loved getting to catch up with and wish them the best in these next couple of months and in the future. When talking about what this girl and I now do for work, we mentioned how crazy it was how our hobbies from when we were like 13 on our junior high’s weekly news show align so closely to what we are doing in our careers. Seeing those full-circle and butterfly effects for people you’ve grown up with is definitely super cool and inspiring.
Given the hometown tea, you can't help but indulge in the gossip from here to there. Who’s getting married, who’s having a baby, who cheated on their S/O, who’s succeeding in jobs, life updates, etc. But what we learned was that apparently all the people who were sitting outside had some unresolved drama/tension and act fake with each other. Not that this was shocking news, because we could’ve guessed that in high school, to be honest, but we were more surprised with how long they could deal with this. Like why even spend the short time you have on your break to be with that sorta energy?
But Blackout Wednesday went so hard that Ruthie even went outside and gave someone a hug that she had Twitter beef with from high school.
You best believe we debriefed this in the car going home.
Even throughout the night when the girls got some drinks in them, we just couldn’t help but express our gratitude for how solid our friendships have been over the course of 8+ years. LOL, there was one point where I was catching up with someone from junior high and I heard Ruthie, Rylie, and Brittney say my name and I was like, “Wait what-.” And Brittney said something along the lines of, “Out of all of us, you such a good friend, you check in with us, but we are such bad texters.”
Another time, Ruthie expressed how happy she was that I came out to Vienna. And how Rylie & Ruthie thanked me for reuniting their childhood friendship at a Niall Horan concert we went to summer going into junior year of high school.
I come back home, and I’m very blessed I have my 4-6 hometown friends that I can catch up with when we have spare time between our schedules.
After I dropped off Ruthie and Rylie, Brittney and I were talking about how, even though the issues we dealt with at age 17 are so minuscule now, it strengthened our core friendships so much. Driving and dropping everyone off this time around felt different. The same exact routes we’d take after going to CiCi’s Pizza after school to debrief everything under the sun that happened between 9 am to 4 pm. But now, this happens maybe 1-2 times a year.
And tonight was just one of those reminders of how important it is to have those friends who are rooting for you and your growth, no matter where y’all are on the Earth.
Damn, talk about giving thanks.
Ruthie, Brittney, and I at OU v. TCU this past Friday. HOOK ‘EM, I PROMISE Y’ALL.
Let me know why you’re thankful for your friends and what you love about them! Friendship is magic 💫.
XOXO
- Viv ❀