The Day for Firsts

I had no idea yesterday that when I woke up it would be a day of firsts, but was it indeed. I almost felt like a kid again, minus all the headaches, muscle twitches, joint and muscle pain that accompanies Lyme Disease.

It was the first time I saw a friend from High School at his home.
It was the first time I met his littlest daughter, who is so adorable in every way. Seriously, so cute.

It was the second time I met his wife and oldest daughter. Humor and rule maker describe this little one. Honestly 4 to 6 year olds are my favorite, his kid --- humorous and enabled me to have a few firsts of her own.

First, she wanted to show me her trampoline. Then, she wanted me to jump on it. Now I could have pulled some lame excuse about how I was too old for that kind of thing, but when a six year old girl asks you to do something fun .... well you kind of just hike up your bootstraps and do it anyways. So I crawled up into the trampoline and nearly fell over just standing on the thing, but we began to bounce. With each bounce, I got more tired. My heart rate accelerated, but I kept at it anyways. I realized with each bounce that I had bounced more on a trampoline in that moment that I had in my entire life combined. I'm *not* a get on something bouncy and jump and down kind of person, not even when I was a kid did this thought enthuse me.

Well, she got down for a minute and I fell flat on my face and just laid there. I was exhausted, but when I rolled over and saw the sky. I realized I was having a "first" moment. It was the first time ever I had laid down on a trampoline and saw the sky. Finally, I crawled out of the trampoline and barely made it to the picnic table. Then this same little 6 year old encouraged me to lay down on a hammock to get rested. Now again, I could have easily said no. In fact, I did say no. But, peer pressure by a six year old? You try to get out of it.

So while she steadily held the hammock, I laid down. I felt like I was going to fall out the entire time and I had a watching audience. Not only was the 6 year old watching me intently, my high school friend was just waiting for me to roll off so he could laugh at me hysterically (which would NOT have been a first, said friend laughing AT me). After about 3 minutes of barely hanging out for dear life (oh it's oh so dramatic you know), I rolled out on purpose barely landing on my feet and realized I had another first.

Then, the greatest first of all happened. My friend and I left to go do something. We never know what we'll do. We never really plan. We just go and do. His wife tried to plan us stuff, but we kept saying no to all of that. Yeah like I *really* want another first at Frankie's Fun House! Uh thanks but no thanks! She stayed behind with the kids and we left for mysterious funness.

Since we were close, he said that I had to see this place I had never heard of. Well why not? So we went to this place right here, http://www.southernseason.com/ I kept being asked if I wanted cheese or chocolate. And I kept saying no because if I had one piece I would want two and if I had two pieces Id want four. It would keep growing exponentially. So I kept saying no thanks. Then we went to the Carolina Roses. No joke this Roses was 1/4 of Carolina stuff. It was AWESOME! They had socks and purses and shirts and blankets and dog clothes and everything you could ever think of. I could have wasted good money in there!

One thing you must know is that my friend and I are HUGE Tar Heel fans. We had watched the game together earlier and were amped up on the win. So, where does one go when amped up on a Carolina win? Well .... CAROLINA OF COURSE! Although, it was a another first for me; to be on campus after a win and not have been there for the game or for concession working. So, we left Southern Season and Roses and drove to FRANKLIN STREET!

To top it off, we ate at Top of the Hill. This restaurant kind of hovers over the street and while I am not much of a "new restaurant" go-er because I'm so picky about what I eat, we went in with smiles on our faces. I scourged the menu to find something I could eat and settled on a plain burger with cheddar cheese. Then I got drunk on beer fries. I'm totally KIDDING about the drunk part, but it was indeed the first time I had ever eaten beer fries. Every 2 or 3 minutes, I'd start grinning for no reason. BUT, there was a reason. I was sitting at Top of the Hill Restaurant eating burgers and fries overlooking Franklin Street right at sun down. It was beautiful and fun and I was with one of my friends from High School. Seriously who was this person?

Later I had commented that I had never walked all the way down Franklin street, so guess what we did? We walked all the way down Franklin Street. With only a few moments of I just had to sit, I made it all the way down and back without having to ride piggy back, having my hand grabbed onto and pulled or just being carried. On our way back, we saw a woman that looked like a hooker. Right after we passed her, we saw 3 cops running into a Subway very quickly with another two cops siren their way in later. We thought at first they were going in for her, but they weren't. We didn't want to stick around regardless. We pretty much ran back to the car, minus the actual running part. Though wouldn't it have been funny to see me and a friend running for dear life on Franklin Street? Oh if I had had the energy I might have done it anyways. It would have been a first! Maybe next time. Besides, it was getting pretty dark at this point and it was hard to see the beautiful aspects of the campus (which I *have* seen).

We were walking back to the car when we found out his little one had a fever, so we had to get back so he could help out. And of course since I was at his house with his little one with the fever before she got the fever, I'll probably wind up with a fever too. Well, I don't know it may have been well worth it this great day of firsts with or without Lyme. I don't want to forget it so I thought I'd document. The bad part of my Lyme is that sometimes I forget things. So this blog helps remind me later when I forget * especially since I didn't bring my camera and had no pictures taken of this amazing day -- never fails, I do something fun without my camera.

My friend saves the day with a pic: The view from Top of the Hill.