Shiny Happy People

Two very important things occurred this past weekend. First, my lovely Mara graduated from college. Seriously, isn’t she the prettiest girl ever?!

Mara is one of my best friends in the entire universe, and though she loves to annoy the poo out of me (her nickname for me is Old Balls Black Bear…I have no idea what it means either, but she thinks it’s hilarious), I couldn’t live without her. She already knows how incredibly proud I am of her accomplishments, but I like embarassing her, and nothing makes Mara more unhappy then seeing photos of herself.

This happy event was a long time coming, and was totally worth it. Congrats, The Mara! I’m so happy you have made it this far and have joined me as a fellow Jayhawk alumna. Every time I hear you scream Rock Chalk or curse out UNC, it makes me smile knowing that I get to share my love of KU with you. And it’s also nice to know I’ll never be the most extreme or psychotic fan in the room, as long as you’re there with me. You did good, Mars, really good.

Now go get a job, woman!

The other big event this past weekend was the bachelorette party for Miss Mikayla. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past four years, Mikayla is the fiance of Heath, who is Trent’s business partner. We all used to live a few blocks away from each other in the West Plaza area of Kansas City, and when I was huge and pregnant and generally pissed off, Mikayla would bring me cookies and watch American Idol with me. Though we always claim to be completely different (I think we have about four things in common, total) one thing we share is our extreme dork factors. I went to Space Camp, her favorite movie is Newsies. I read books about vampires, she would like us to act out the Thriller dance, in full zombie garb, for her wedding reception. The list goes on.

But she has become a great friend in the past few years, starting with her willingness to listen to my pregnant grumblings, to becoming my daughter’s godmother, to sharing bitch sessions on whatever new scheme our boys have come up with for their business. She’s good person, a great friend, and is going to be a gorgeous bride.

You can view all of the pictures from this weekend here. If you need me, I’ll be taking a week-long nap to recover from all this excitement.