Wait... Saint Peter isn't in the Twin Cities

Correct - instead we took a little roadtrip.

Our Jolly Green Friend

This was my first official Sunday Adventure (given I missed last week’s trip to MIA with Katrina and Emily). The excitement dripped like the sweat on my face driving through downtown Minneapolis to pick up the first roommate. This Sunday Katrina and I were going to have our first Mini Roommate Reunion down at Gustavus Adolphus College (GAC). For the past nine months of our lives we lived as roommates with Jennifer and Mary down at GAC. Living with these ladies was probably one of the best choices I have made at college and not seeing the three of them every day for the past three weeks was kind of rough. So with Mary living down at GAC teaching at Tennis and Life Camp (TLC) we took this as a perfect opportunity to road trip down and spend the night together. And so Jenn, Katrina and I took off, windows down and music rocking, cruising down 169 to Saint Peter, Minnesota. Being recent grads this hour and a half drive seemed a little bitter sweet, for we were returning to the river valley that has been our home for the last four years. After stopping for a tiny detour in Le Sueur to see Mr. Jolly Green Giant. We finally arrived at our destination- St. Peter!

How cute is she?

You know just hanging out in Le Sueur

Miss Jennifer and Miss Katrina Rae

Driving up the main drag (College Avenue) will always bring back those memories of Greeters, of move in Days, of midnight trips to taco bell and walks home from Patrick’s Bar but arriving Sunday had a little different feel. It was defiantly a feel of coming back but not one of coming ‘home.’

Picking up our Camper!

However, the moment that we saw Miss Mary Francis Roop coming out of College View dormitory I know that all of my anxieties flew out the window. Here we were – the four of us together again! It was wonderful to see how all four of us just clicked back into our relationships. It was not as if we were estranged friends but instead we still carried a depth to our relationship that will last for years.






Here however, at the request of Katrina, I will insert this little story entitled

  “How I almost killed everyone, destroyed not only my car but also a strangers, and ruined our entire day.”
So- I love driving but I would defiantly not be someone you could or even should consider the ‘best of drivers’. However, being that I have the use of the ‘chAudi’ for a few more weeks – I drove down to GAC with Katrina and Jenn. As you know, it’s a fair drive down there and by the time we pulled in I was pretty antsy from being stuck in a car, having a medium cold press coffee, and seeing Mary burst through the dorm doors to outside. I pull the car along side the curb and hastily through the car into park and swing open the door. BUT WAIT – when I look to get out of the car I see that the road is still moving beneath me, and I am halfway out of the car with the squeals and giggles from Jenn and Katrina and Mary telling me to get back in the ‘freaking car!’ All I can think is that ‘Oh My Goodness- I’m going to kill my best friends’. So I go and jump back into the car and slam on the breaks. Heart pounding and beyond frazzled I just sit and apologize to everyone since all I could think is that ‘No one will ever drive with me again.’ Thankfully – everyone is alive, I didn’t hit the car that was next to me, and people still drove in my car back to the cities. Now back to the post…

 So I know you all must be reading and asking – what, pray tell, did you four do for dinner that evening? No, we did not cook something amazing as Miss Mary didn’t have pots or pans, but simply a few mugs that were to be saved for wine later. Instead we chose to relive our college days and ended up with a burrito in front of each of us on top of those stainless steal tables found only at none other than Chipotle. We braved the thunderstorm that was sweeping through the valley and drove the twenty minuets to Mankato and back, singing Ed Sheeran the entire way.

Dinner

Katrina and Mary - Roommate Love

Jenn and I - Love

Getting Mary ready for TLC

Our rockin' awesome new sunglasses

Visiting Matt

Mary's Creepin' Outfi

Majority of our evening turned into us sitting on the floor of Mary’s living room, catching each other up on what has been happening in our lives for the last three weeks. Talking over some rather disappointing Cherry Beer from Door County (sorry Ladies my bad) we covered everything from boys, to Jenn’s wedding dress, to our job searching (which if you hear any openings anywhere – let us know ☺), and my moving to Portland. After our life debriefing, our phones reminded us that there were ‘surprisingly’ other people on campus that we needed to go and renew friendships with as well. Venturing to the ‘student worker’ side of College View we went to go see (and bother only a little) our friend Matt. We chatted and watched a part of this terrifying movie The Departed. Well, Jenn and Katrina chatted with Matt, Mary and I ran around the dorm and tried to scare the other three. We weren’t that successful, as we lagged behind and lost them along the way walking through College View on one of Matt’s rounds.

Living room sleepovers - getting Tangled Ready!

Getting back to Mary’s room we settled in for our night of wine and Tangled. Now, Tangled has been our room’s movie all year long. Mock all you want but this is a GREAT DINSEY MOVIE! Mandy Moore? Come on- how can you not love her? We could probably quote the entire movie to you, sing every lyric and most likely will laugh at Pascal or Maximus before they even do something. And in true sleep-over fashion one by one we each fell asleep while we sat and talked after the movie. 

Fro-Yo brunch

 We had a lazy start to our Monday Morning, which we all agreed was the best way to start it. Its that kind of sleep where you know everyone around you is awake, but you are just still tired enough that you want to keep your eyes close. So you sit and talk while each person drifts in and out of consciousness. We pulled ourselves finally together in order to get Katrina her hearts desire –FROYO. Together we had our not so nutritious, but oh so delicious brunch at Frozen Creations in Mankato.


The Summer after college is about finding out what we want, about searching our souls for who we are and who we were created to be, but for us four, post-grad life is for solidifying relationships with our friends who have become our family.