This past weekend was a long weekend. Among being the first weekend after starting school and the first game day, it was also Labor Day weekend. So, naturally, you can't have a Labor Day without at least one day at the lake. So, my friend Jenny and I embarked on a lake weekend about an hour and a half away. Her now boyfriend has a nice home close to Grand Lake in OK and a really inviting family. Her boyfriend has two brothers and all of them brought friends, and those friends brought friends, and so on.

Needless to say, there was a lot of new people to meet, fun to be had, and burgers to be eaten. Just when college was starting to feel like a pond again instead of a vast ocean I got thrown into an unfamiliar environment with lots of new faces to meet. It ended up being a blast though. There were late night party barging and all day lake and pool bumming. There were rides on jet skies and a party with fabulous barbecue and live music. Also, my dear friend Jenny turned twenty. We spent all Labor Day and most of the night celebrating her. The cake above was the cake her boyfriend's mother made and let me tell you it was some of the best cake I've had in a very long while. Nothing beats homemade cake.

It was nice to slow down for a minute and really soak in the day. Also, being on Grand Lake reminded me of my sorority sister Rachel who tragically passed away in May in a boating accident on the same lake. It was one of the most tragic, unexpected things I've dealt with in this past year. Her death has brought on so much inward reflection and has really made me feel my own mortality. I was by no means one of her best friends, but she was a presence in my life. She was there on my bid day, there on the first night I went out in college, etc etc. She was one of the first familiar faces I knew in Tri Delt. So being on the lake was a little transcendent for me, quiet and special and a little sad.

 Did you do anything for Labor Day? Let me know!