Bon voyage, Erin!

I know. I KNOW. I've been gone for awhile. Stuff happened, you know? Every time I started a blog post, I had nothing to write about. But now I have lots to write about, because lots has happened in the past couple of weeks.

Beginning with, Erin. Erin left! She works for the State Department and is now posted in Beirut. That is crazy to me, that Erin is in Beirut.

I know Erin because she was my RA in college. She was a pretty cool RA. But I really got to know her after I graduated, when Erin was living and working in SA when I was. And then she left to go to grad school and then DC, but before she left, we got to hang out a lot. Here's our most famous conversation:

Erin (handing a pea pod): Taste this pea pod, it has a funny after taste, a taste that comes after.
Lauren (staring at Erin): I know what an aftertaste is.
[beat]
Erin (laughing and spitting out her pea pod): You made me spit out my pea pod, you bitch!

How could you not be friends with Erin after that?

As one last hurray, Erin came back to San Antonio last Friday. Alexis, Lyla and Stephen came, and we all trucked out to Erin's family's house in New Braunfels. On the way, Alexis and I tried to find a Beirut wine at HEB, but (shockingly) they didn't have any.
Erin's parents, sister and brother-in-law were there. Erin's mom cooked a delicious meal and we all brought wine. And drank that wine. It was a lot of wine.

I probably made a damn fool out of myself in my drunkenness, but I had a lot of fun. I was sad to leave at midnight.I will miss Erin, for her crazy, explosive laughter, excellent fashion sense, rambling stories, hyperbolic descriptions ("he's the funniest/best/most awesome guy EVER!") and food. Beirut is lucky to have her. And they better return her, because we miss her already.