Thank goodness for best friends!

This past weekend, I headed back to Knoxville for a mini-reunion weekend with 3 of my best friends from grad school. It was a perfect weekend and JUST what I needed to get me through these next few months! I have a love-hate relationship with Knoxville .... I have so many great memories there and made the best friends and got the best Audiology education I could have asked for, but I also spent my entire last year there really sick. It was where I was diagnosed with Crohn's, undiagnosed with Crohn's, and spent my sickest time with Crohn's. I had an awesome doctor in Knoxville though, and I definitely credit him with getting my health to where it is today. So many memories of Knox .... both good and bad!


The weekend with the girls was full of many more memories! We visited with our clinical supervisors on Friday afternoon. We also headed over to UT Hospital, where our friend Ali is currently a patient being treated for a case of C. Diff after just being diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. I hated seeing her there, and I absolutely know what she's going through (I had C. Diff 3 times and it sucks ... no other word for it), but she was in really good spirits. She's a strong girl and under great care from her GI and surgeon, and I know she'll make it through this! It was so strange being on the other side of visiting friends in the hospital .... usually I'm the one in there being all pitiful!


My friend Anna may be the best .... on Friday afternoon I needed to run 9 miles (because I certainly knew that after going out on Friday and Saturday nights I wouldn't want to get up and run in the morning) .... because she volunteered to run with me! She may tell you that I asked her to go, but that's not the truth because she totally volunteered. We ran at Sequoyah Hills, a gorgeous neighborhood right on the river. It was hilly, and we huffed and puffed, but we did it. It was nice to spend time with her and catch up on life, and especially to have someone to do that distance with! It makes it so much easier!


We went out for Halloween on Friday night .... didn't go to the bar until about 12:30, so we were all slightly exhausted but had SO much fun!



We were a pretty festive bunch .... Natalie was a twister board, I was the Statue of Liberty (which was a big hit with the foreigners), Mandy was a peacock, and Anna was a matador. We had a great time dancing and we all loved our props! My light-up torch was so fun!

Saturday was gameday .... YEA! I miss not being a full-time student anymore because it's so much harder to make it to college football games! I know I've mentioned before, but I absolutely love college football. I'd rather nothing else than to watch college football ALL day on Saturdays. I get anxious when I don't know who's winning the game or how my college pick-ems are panning out for the week. With that said, I love the South Carolina/Tennessee game every year because I get to cheer for 2 teams! I consistently wear garnet and black to these games, mostly because it's way cuter than orange, but I'll always wear a Power T tattoo just so I can sing Rocky Top. It rained all day on Saturday .... we tailgated in the rain, we walked in the rain, and we sat through the game in the rain. I'm amazed that I'm not sick this week -- knock on wood -- because it was plain nasty out and I was soaked to the bone. I was a little sad that South Carolina lost (and barely even showed up), but I'm still happy that Tennessee is now only 2 wins away from being bowl eligible.

This was before we got super soaked!

Anyways, the weekend in Knoxville was well worth it, but I'm so tired of traveling! November will be pretty calm, with just a trip home for Thanksgiving weekend. We are less than 5 weeks away from Vegas ..... how exciting!