Winston-Salem, NC / Elon, NC

I lived in Winston-Salem, NC for nearly 3 years after graduating from Elon, but I still had to rely on my GPS to get to Dan and Ellyn's house on the evening I arrived.  How sad is that?  I guess it really has been 13 years since I lived there and things do change in that many years.  I had several people to see while I was in Winston-Salem and was lucky enough to stay with my good friends the Quesnels the first two nights I was in town.  Dan and Ellyn (and their kids, Emily and Nate) are so much fun to be around that I was thrilled when they said they would be in town on the dates I was passing through.  There are 3 things you should know about the Quesnels:

1. Dan once took me to the ER and waited with me for hours after I accidentally stabbed myself in the leg with a steak knife.  This automatically makes him one of my favorite people in the world.
2. Ellyn sends hand written thank you notes.  To top that, when her children were younger (and couldn't write themselves) she would include a photo of the child wearing the clothes or playing with the toy I sent just to show how much she appreciated the gesture!  How fabulous is that?
3. Emily and Nate are 2 of the brightest, sweetest, cutest, fun-loving kids ever.  Emily is very creative and an amazing seamstress (she made me a change purse while I was visiting) and Nate is a huge Star Wars fan who gives the best hugs in the world!

Our visit was filled with activity, including baseball practice for Emily.  She is the only girl on the team and her coach told me "the team would be in good shape if some of the boys were as good as Emily!"  The night I was there the team decided to use a pitching machine during practice.  Emily was doing great, practicing her swing and actually hitting the ball...  Dan rolls in from the sidelines to help reposition her stance closer to homeplate and whomp the next pitch out of the machine hit her right in mouth.  OUCH!  Like a trooper, Emily wiped away the blood and got right back on the field to continue playing.  I was so proud of her.  Dan, of course, got nothing but sh!t for the rest of the night for causing his only daughter to get hit in the face with a baseball.  Emily wore her fat lip like a badge of honor:

Emily pointing out her fat lip at dinner

After baseball and dinner we went back home to watch the 1st of the Presidential debates with Mark, another friend who was in town teaching a class at Wake Forrest for the night.  He showed up with a box of wine and declared, "I heard you were in town.  Here's a box of wine.  Nothing but the best for my girl!"  You have to love old friends.  We enjoyed our box of wine (for real) and decided to take a sip every time a reference was made about the flag during the debate.  Needless to say, we were feeling good by 10:30 pm.

I was so thrilled to grab lunch with another dear friend, Lisa Stowe, while in Winston-Salem.  Lisa was my very first co-worker at Wachovia when I graduated from college.  She was instrumental in showing me the ropes of the working world and we've remained friends since I moved to Atlanta in 1999.  I had heard through mutual friends that she'd made the choice to adopt a healthy lifestyle about a year ago and lost a significant amount of weight.  I nearly burst into tears when I saw her.  She had lost over 100 pounds in the past year and she looked phenomenal.  We went to one of our old haunts, the West End Cafe and lingered over good conversation for longer than her boss would have probably like!  :) 

My third and fourth nights in Winston-Salem were spent with the Adams.  My college roommate, Rachel and her husband Phil who have 2 precious children: Lawson and Claire.  Unfortunately, Claire caught a bug the week I arrived and wasn't quite herself during my stay.  Even though she had a fever and had been in-and-out of the doctor's office numerous times (including at least one visit where she was stuck with needles) she was all smiles and very playful. 

Claire giving me her "I'm sick, Aunt Robin" face



My visit was timed to coincide with Lawson's 5th birthday and birthday party which was so great to share with him.  He is such a smart little boy and I think he may have a future in Washington - I've never seen a child negotiate so well.  He was kind enough to let me share his bedroom both nights I was there and we shared an early morning snuggle and chat on his birthday.  He was quick to point out that earlier in the week when his Mom had taken away his Halloween paraphernalia as punishment for something she forgot one item and he was thrilled to have it hiding out in his room.  Little did he know that the baby monitor was on and Rachel and Phil heard the entire conversation.  Hmmm... a tough life lesson to learn on your 5th birthday!

Lawson with some of his pre-party birthday loot

Rachel lighting Lawson's birthday cake candles



Rachel and I were able to escape for an adult-only dinner on Friday night to a great little restaurant downtown.  It was so nice to catch-up over a delicious meal.  It's amazing how hard it is to find time to do that over the phone with all the distractions life puts in the way.

I had to head out of Winston-Salem about an hour into Lawson's birthday party to get to Elon in time for dinner with John, Lisa and Kylie Keegan.  I wanted to get there before dark so John could give me a tour of campus.  I haven't been on campus since my 10 year reunion and it has changed so much that it blew my mind.  Elon has always been the idyllic picture-perfect setting for a college experience, but what Leo Lambert has accomplished in the past 15 years as President is truly astounding.  The campus has at least doubled in size, but maintains it's small/community feel.  There are entire sections of campus dedicated to specific areas of study and the co-ed dorm that John and I lived in our freshmen year was recently knocked down so it could be replaced by a state-of-the-art facility that will include residential, dining and academic space.  It brought a tear to my eye to see a pile of dirt in the place where I met so many of my closest friends.  I guess we'll have to rely on our memories and photos of that time in our lives going forward.

To cap off the campus tour, John ordered take-out from a Thai restaurant that the 2 of us brought back to the house for dinner.  The mere idea that Elon would have a Thai restaurant is hilarious.  When we were students a chicken Philly from Sandy's Sub (which would leave a stench on you for days) and pizza from The Back Door was the extent of our options when eating off campus.  The best part - the Thai food was EXCELLENT.  Who knew?  It was wonderful to see John and Lisa and meet their precious daughter, Kylie.  It's hard to believe she surpassed her first birthday without me having met her.  That was another "ah ha" moment to remind me of how thankful I should be for this sabbatical.  Connecting with good friends face-to-face is a luxury that had gotten lost in my busy schedule over the years.  It was really nice to get back to the simple things like a good laugh over Thai food with old friends.

Not quite ready for Thai - Kylie enjoying some spaghetti

I was sad to only have 1 night with the Keegans, but I had to hit the road for Richmond to see Wendy and Suzanne.  More on that in the next post.