Their Eyes Beholding Many Colors

I had a lovely start to year 25, filled with family, friends, and good food.  What more do you need?  I went to Kaldi's the morning of, then ventured down to the Art Museum for the afternoon.  The park was all aflutter with runners, walkers, and bikers taking advantage of the good spring weather, and the sound of thespians practicing their lines for the upcoming Shakespeare Festival was wafting through the air.

I stopped by a few of my favorites, including Monet's Waterlilies and Gerhard Richter's November, December, and January.  I also found a new one called Mondrian Dancing by Susan Rothenberg which was quite entrancing.

That night Mom, Dad, and I had my new favorite beer and guacamole, before heading down to Dewey's for some delicious dairy-free pizza!  Yummmm!

The next night, Andrew came home for the weekend and Taylor came home for the summer.  Just in time for some dairy-free ice cream cake!

The next morning we all got coffee at, where else, Kaldi's!  It was a lovely time of catching up over coffee and pastries, then I ran home to shower and pack a few things before heading down to Springfield.  My friend Shelby met me at the mall for a little afternoon shopping and then we went downtown for a cocktail.  On the way, we ran in to an old fraternity buddy who said he was going to this brewery beer festival thing a few blocks away.  We joined him and saw several old Drury people, a few of which I hadn't seen since graduating!  Later that night, I met up with Hannah and Sydney, along with a few other Zetas who had graduated earlier in the day, and decided to be fancy by going to this place called Red Room.  It is down this cool spiral staircase, in the basement of a steakhouse/bar.  You don't need a password or anything to go down, but it has that exciting, exclusive feel.  Martinis were had all around.

After that we traveled over to a bar called Finnegans, where every Drury alum ever was hanging out. Not quite every alum, but it is traditionally the place to be the night of graduation.  I ran into more people I haven't seen in forever, and had quite the time catching up with all of them.  And upon my return home the next day, after a nap, of course, Dad made grilled pears for dessert!  What a splendid little extended birthday weekend!

(photos by e.hunt)