Alumni weekend!!

This weekend was a "blast from the past" for me . . . I spent a few days back in Brookings, SD with some old friends/teammates to attend the basketball alumni gathering - yay for that!!  And just like old times, the fun never seemed to end!  The good times started when Gwen, Jen, and Sarah all met at my house to carpool for the long drive out into the endless fields on our way back to Jackrabbit country.  We had lots of laughs and lots of catching up to do so the 4 hour drive wasn't terrible (although it did seem like it took forever - our pit stop at a bar in Springfield might have had something to do with that though).  When we did finally arrive, we were welcomed by a few other former teammates/friends at the hotel.  We then proceeded to spend the next 4 hours chatting away until we couldn't stay awake any longer (by then it was 2am and in "mom world" that is way late) so we finally called it a night and went to sleep.  Amazingly, the next morning we were all up and at 'em by 8:30am (either we were super excited about the fun to come, or we're just so used to getting up early that we just couldn't sleep in).  By 10:00am, we were back on campus to meet up with our old coach and have a "behind the scenes" look at Frost Arena.  The tour was great.  We were able to see everything from our old locker room (we all stood by our old lockers and took pictures), to the new training area, the coaches offices, and even the old men's locker room (a place that AJ apparently thought many of us had visited before because he kept saying stuff that started with, "you remember . . ." - no, we don't remember because to my knowledge, none of us ever set foot in the men's locker room).  After the "guided" tour wrapped, AJ left and we continued on our our to check out the rest of campus.  Let's just say the place is amazing!  To see all the things that have changed, or been built in the last ten years is crazy.  It certainly isn't the old campus I remember, it is the souped up, swanky version for sure!  After all that walking and talking, we headed back to the hotel to kick back and relax for a while before the official reason for our visit, the alumni gathering, began.  But because we couldn't rest for that long, we headed out early, drove past all of our old college houses, then went to campus to get a head start on the fun.  The alumni gathering was held in the tailgating area.  And lucky for us, Kris (former teammate) and her husband Scott, have a tailgating spot of their own right next to the women's basketball team's spot so that is where we started.  Shortly thereafter, coaches started showing up, then some alumni, and more alumni, and before we knew it, the place was packed - there were even a few alums from the men's team as well!  It was an absolute blast to be able to walk around and see so many familiar faces and basically pick up right where we left things however many years ago.  After the long day, we headed downtown to relive some of our crazy nights from college and we found the perfect place to do it . . . The Latern (one of our favorite bars back in the day).  Only this time, we loved The Latern not because it was crazy and full of people, just the opposite, there was no one there!  Literally, it was us and the staff - talk about perfect!  The DJ played music that only old people like ourselves would like (I requested that he only play music from 2000-2001 and he did), and once we had the right music, we owned the dance floor (although technically no one else was there though so it really wasn't too hard to "own" it).  And although we are 10 years older and have popped out kids left and right over the past decade, our moves were still sweet!  By the end of our night (which was around 11:15pm - yes, we were tired by then), we had given the 10-15 people that made their way into the bar a good laugh or two (imagine six women in their thirties dancing, no wait, HARDCORE dancing on a stage and you'll laugh too).  After that, Sunday morning came too soon, and when it did, it was time to get on the road back to reality.  It was a super trip, a chance to remember how things used to be, and catch up with old friend - good times for sure!  Until next year . . .