Longest Summer Sunday 2K7

Long time since my last post, primariy due to the fact that I haven't hooked up internet in the new apartment just yet. I am, however, settled in for the most part, which is nice. I haven't felt truly settled in my living space in almost a year now, so it's a nice feeling.

A lot has gone on in the past few weeks, though. Darci and Alex finished up their internships with CAMPUSPEAK, and so we've all gone our separate ways. Alex is off to grad school in Illinois and Darci stayed in Denver in hopes of finding a job soon. I'm still at CAMPUSPEAK, of course, and really enjoying it. I stay pretty freakin busy, which is a good thing. We brought in two new interns about two weeks ago: Maggie is the Lectures intern, and she just graduated from Southern Miss. Vance is our P&R intern, and he's a student at Iowa State. Another new addition to the office is Christopher, who will direct the Lectures Division. He's brilliant and has exceptional fashion sense and God bless him, a stellar list of Itunes to contribute to the work environment, so all is well.

About two weeks ago, I ventured home to Virginia for a few days. It was truly a great trip. I spent the first two days in Fredericksburg, catching up with old friends I hadn't seen in a while. I got some time in with Rich, which was fun, and even managed a girls' night with my two best, Kelly and Holly. It was wonderful- I really miss my girls from home. That's the one really empty spot in CO, is not having them nearby. Holly's baby, Cameron, is growing so quickly, as are Kelly's girls, and I hate feeling like I'm missing it all. Anyway, after that portion of the trip it was home to the Butler house in Forest for our annual extravaganza.

My dad pairs up every year with a couple of other friends of our family to throw this "Longest Summer Sunday" party. (It's always held on the longest Sunday of the year, hence the title.) Anyways, it's a major production. Our backyard slopes down to this flat area in the back, where my dad's garage for the remodeling of his cars is, with a big long concrete drive in front of it. Anyway, every year he hires his two favorite bands (Carolina beach bands, Band of Oz and Seacruz), buys an obscene amount of beer, and we get a pizza truck and just chill in the backyard all day, eating, drinking, and dancing with oh, say 300 of our closest friends. He pitches the tent (where the band plays) about a week in advance and we start sitting under it, drinking, like three days before the party even starts. It's very fun, and within an hour of my arrival my dad had thrust a cold beer into my hand, and my mother had supplied me with a giant glass of Sangria, so you can imagine the great time. The morning of the party, it's Bloody Marys for breakfast, beer for a midmorning snack, and then we just chill and dance till the pizza truck gets there. All of Dad's Corvette club friends come over and park their cars in the front yard, to give it the very 60s feel, and the party is off. It's truly a major event in the Butler family- perhaps bigger than Christmas- and always a great time. Nice chance to catch up, get my baby sister a little tipsy, and dance barefoot until the sun goes down.

My Aunt Terry and Uncle Curt came in from Columbus, OH for the event, so we got some good family time in. It is so nice to see family, since it only happens about twice a year these days.

See photos and bear in mind that for this event, we start drinking on Saturday morning. The bands show up to get set up around noon on Sunday. So cut us a little slack if we look a bit on the side of inebriated. Photos include my parents' front yard with the totally random signs, as if anyone could actually miss my house, what with the Corvettes and the massive speakers in the backyard. Can we say noise violation??; my mom with her brother, my Uncle Curt; my dad making an announcement under the band's tent; my mom and dad dancing (or "shagging". as they put it in sweet North Carolina, and at the sweet shag lessons my parents attend weekly; my sister being placed in the overwhelmingly awkward position of having a mic thrust in her face during "It's Raining Men", or some other fairly uncomfortable song; and me with Jake, my high school boyfriend. Such a complete stud- and yet, a really sweet guy- and it was great to see him. We were a little drunkish and quite sweaty- we had just been rockin the dance floor in sweet Virginia humidity. I dig him, and quite frankly, my dad LOVES him, cause Jake is a car man. Holla, Jake, cause I know you read the blog from time to time. ;)

Ah, Forest, VA. What a great place to live. And here's to next summer, the 5th? annual Longest Summer Sunday? And yes, my dad is already counting down.