Love and Arkansas
Love is setting multiple alarms so I wouldn't miss an early morning flight home. Actually, love is being willing to wake up this early for anyone, ever.
Love is Brandon braving his fears of tornados and water moccasins to fly halfway across the country with me in order to spend a mere 5 days meeting pretty much every person I've ever known. And doing it all with a smile on his handsome face.
Love is friends who are willing to drive through Dallas traffic to meet for a late lunch so that I could share the deliciousness that is Torchy's queso with my boyfriend while introducing him to great friends and the first of many, many new people he would meet within a few short days.
Love is a favorite meal shared with friends, a meal not only of food, but of laughter and reminiscence.
Love is a friend who is willing to share her home and stay up way too late on a work night simply for the chance to catch up.
Love is a meal of Whole Hog BBQ, another stop on the mission to eat all the Southern food.
Love is revisiting the campus where so many wonderful memories were made and trying to explain Harding to my favorite Oregonian.
Love is fried chicken and staying up late playing games and breakfast with enough food to feed an army.
Love is Midnight Oil granitas and best friends who are willing to create the time and drive hours just to meet the man in my life.
Love is a weekend spent in my little hometown. It is my dad's blueberry pancakes. It is seeing the beautiful place I grew up through the eyes of someone to whom it was all new.
Love is time spent with family - in the car, over Easter dinner, and while drinking tea and laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe.
Love is the people and places that I call home. Especially the people. People who were so excited to meet Brandon and who welcomed him with open arms and open hearts. Love is, for the first time, visiting the home of my past with the one with whom I am building a future.