Like Being Back in College, but not

Three of my best friends from law school flew in to visit me from Chicago, D.C., and New York City. After their 48 hours here I think I had them almost convinced they should move down to Austin immediately. They flew in Friday from their respective cities and we headed out for Tex Mex and margaritas (and Mexican martinis) at a favorite restaurant of mine with a balcony overlooking 6th Street. After dinner and drinks we spilled out onto that infamous landmark from my college days looking for a mechanical bull to ride. One was located a few doors down from the restaurant- drinks were bought and the next thing I knew my highly paid, highly educated attorney friends were whooping it up on the back of a mechanical bull. It was fabulous and I have the video clips to tease them with later. I didn't join in the fun because I'm only 5-weeks out from abdominal surgery and am not supposed to exercise yet, and bull riding sort of seemed like exercise. Or just a bad idea generally. We visited a few more bars and ended up being the only people on the dance floor at another rooftop venue. It was the latest I've stayed out in 2 years and it was awesome-- at least until Claire woke up seriously pissed off at 4 a.m.

On Saturday we had breakfast tacos before heading to New Braunfels to float the Comal river on tubes (or "toobs" as they call them over there, but I really can't get behind such a flagrant misspelling). I hadn't been since college (kind of the theme of their visit, really), but it was a blast. We missed one of the chutes and accidentally went over a dam where we were immediately flipped over and trapped under churning water. A hat and sunglasses were permanently lost, and part of my bathing suit top was temporarily askew, but all was well and we continued on our way down the river. Next was lunch at the historic Gristmill restaurant in Gruene, then back home for some Landon/Claire playtime, and then off to County Line for some famous Texas BBQ. We decided we were too old to go out two nights in a row (or maybe that was just me) so we ended our Saturday night drinking wine on my back patio while Claire cried inconsolably for 2.5 hours. My friends are super excited about having babies of their own one day.

Sunday was brunch, a trip to the airport to say goodbye to one friend, a few hours swimming and sunning at Barton Springs, and then another trip to the airport to say goodbye to two more. Landon and Claire joined us on the second airport drive so that JP could leave the house for the first time in 2 days and Landon was so sad that my friends were leaving. He really liked having three pretty ladies in the house to flirt with, and he REALLY liked sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of the nursery so that two of my friends could sleep on his twin beds. The first thing he asked me this morning is when "mommy's friends" were coming back to see him. Soon, I hope -- it's so wonderful to have a group of friends who understand you so well and who you don't need to see too often to stay close. And it's even more wonderful when all of them will come to you!