I Left My Heart In Tucson

There is nothing I can write here that will convey how much fun I had this past weekend.

No words will be able to express the utter joy that filled me the moment our plane touched the ground in Tucson or the way I found myself BEAMING as I drove the rental car towards the hotel. From the very moment we landed until the moment we took off, I felt so genuinely happy and carefree. I was back in Tucson with my best friends. I was home!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I need to get myself to a Walgreens and print these because I am OBSESSED!

We lunched at Beyond Bread… twice. Ahem.

Paid a visit to AEPhi, our old stomping grounds, and temporarily borrowed their greek letters and took a few pics on the front lawn. We have no shame.

Remember last week I mentioned an itinerary? Well, Julie and Stacy went as far as to print and LAMINATE a color copy for me - complete with stickers! I carried it everywhere all weekend. Amazing.

Our first group dinner took place at a fancy restaurant, Wildflower, where no less than 8 of the 11 of us ordered their signature appetizer, smoked salmon on a potato latke. DELICIOUS.

Group dinner shot:

Floff kick - our signature move! (PS. Like my polka dot pants? They were $8 DOLLARS at Macy's!)

From dinner we headed straight to the best bar on earth - Dirtbags. We got a table and I promptly ordered everyone a round of shots. Tucson is the CHEAPEST place in the world - 11 shots and 2 drinks was only $40. #godblesstucson

On Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed over to Frog & Firkin for a little brunch and drinking before the basketball game! I designed matching t-shirts for us - the front is the Arizona "A" and the back is the outline of the state of Arizona with a heart over Tucson with the phrase "We left our hearts in Tucson, Arizona!"

After lunch it was time to head over to the basketball stadium for the game! Greene Bean got us all tickets through work and our seats were amazing!

Arizona beat Washington State and we all rejoiced - then headed down to the court to take a picture with Wilma and Wilbur Wildcat! (This is huge… it was basically like taking pictures with celebrities.)

From the moment we all booked our tickets, there was talk of a "mini photo shoot" on campus wearing our matching t-shirts. I'm only a little embarrassed to admit we pulled it off, with the help of a complete stranger named Nathaniel who had the misfortune of walking by us while we searched for someone who could take our pictures. Don't worry - we bribed him with a box of Girls Scout cookies of his choosing :) Behold - our many cheesy poses:

We spent Saturday night at Oreganos having dinner:







Thebest part was when we ordered pizzookies, their famous dessert, for the table - and Stacy was so happy she cried real tears :)

The last item on the agenda? Going back to AEPhi one more time…both for banana bread from our chef, and to take a picture with the infamous giraffe statue - and our house mom too, I guess. Here we are with K-Train, as I like to call her :)

It was so sad when we all had to say goodbye to each other. I miss my friends every single day. It is an amazing thing to know that even though we all live spread out across the country, we all still love each other and fall right back into it like a day hasn't even passed whenever we get to see each other.

There is a famous quote that perfectly, PERFECTLY sums up how I feel about Tucson, the University of Arizona, AEPhi, and my beautiful, amazing friends…"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." It's so true - no matter how old I get or where I end up in life, I'll always be one of the luckiest girls in the world for having had this experience that changed my life forever.

Tucson, my heart is yours forever. I miss you already!!!