the visit of a lifetime!

thursday afternoon, i left work early to go to washington, dc's union station to go pick emmi up. my mom and i picked her up from the train station, which was pretty awesome. i had never been to union station until that evening. it's an amazing place. anyways, we got there and thought we were late, turns out we were there right on time. i was carrying around this huge sign with her name on it, but that wasn't what helped her find me. she saw my blonde hair and walked over and asked "are you megan?" it was just purely awesome! before leaving the dc area, i got to show here university of maryland's campus. on the way home, we stopped at the Double-T diner in fredrick for dinner. it was soo good. plus, we got the super cute waiter i always drool over! (lmao)
after a long trip home and blasting vnv nation in the car, we finally got home! after getting home, we went to wal-mart. it was her first time to a wal-mart!!! she got a bathing suit because we made plans for her to go swimming with me at work on friday. when we got home, emmi and i were hanging out up in my room and she gave me these wonderful gifts. i got this amazing change purse, two mix cds, a cd by a band from finnland ( i can't remember their name and no it's not HIM!!!), a beautiful bracelet from denmark, and this very cute coffee mug that features characters from this series of children's books from finnland. (emmi, if you're reading this, once again thank you so much for the awesome gifts!)she also gave my parents this beatiful candy dish that is from finnland as well.

friday was purely insane. i had work, so emmi slept in. after my staff meeting, turns out swimming got canceled, because of the risk of bad weather. i was bummed out, because i really wanted to go swimming and have emmi check out my work and stuff. after hanging out at the playground for a few hours (from 11 am to 1 pm) i got fed up with the heat and grey clouds and went home. emmi was up when i got to the house, i broke the news to her and we decided to go check out downtown frostburg. we went to mainstreet books and the princess resturaunt. good times! well everyone knows i'm book nerd, so i was happy to show her one of my favorite hangouts. also, it was cool taking her to one of my favorite little local resturaunts. while having lunch, she got a text message from her friend (he plays synths in this little band called the bravery). he was asking if she wanted to be on the guest list for their show at the 930 club that was happening that same evening. at first it looked like that wasn't going to happen. my mom was working that night and my dad's car hasn't been working well enough. anyways, we ended up going to the mall and running into my friend andy (she's talked to andy online before, so they're friends too actually). we told him about the message and he said that he might be up for it. andy went with my sister to get these free facials at bon-ton. i showed emmi one of my favorite stores and she convienced me to get these awesome pin stripped capris. (they're very very cool!!!) after all of this, andy tells us "sure we'll go to dc for this gig" to make a long story short, after much driving and using the metro we get there at the 930 club. the bravery just got done their set, but we got to hang out with the band at the aftershow party. it was a lot of fun. the boys in the band are super sweet! sam (the lead singer) told me that they might be touring with depeche mode this fall!!! anyways, sarah (my sister), andy, emmi and i didn't leave dc until 3 am. we stopped in hagerstown for food at denny's and didn't get home until 7 am. much thanks to emmi (for being so awesome!), andy (for being the greatest driver ever!) and to john (for putting us all on the guest list).

saturday afternoon was when emmi, sarah and i were actually awake and moving. well i think emmi got up at 11 am. i know i got up around 3 pm. it was pretty hot outside so my mom took all of us up to new germany state park for swimming. the water was just great! after swimming, we went up deep creek lake for ice cream and to show emmi some of the tourism stuff. on the way home, we stopped in grantsville at farmer's market for corn and some other stuff for dinner. emmi was very surprised about how farmer's market sells a shit load of candy. she made a good point that half of the store was candy and sweets haha. irony i tell you!!! for dinner, my dad grilled turkey. so we all had a lovely dinner at the house. around 11 pm, andy stopped by to hang out and talk. we all did fondue and hung out. andy was over until about 3 am or so.

today was a lot of fun, but it was also sad. my mom, sarah, emmi and i went to washington, dc for some sight seeing and to take emmi to the train station. in the car, we listened the awesome mix cds emmi gave me! they were truly awesome. lots and lots of good dance and alternative music! the first thing we did in dc was get emmi's train ticket. my mom parked at union square station and we went in and got her ticket. after that, we got on the metro for the white house. my sister's flip flops broke so we had to find a store on pennsylvania avenue that sold some and we did find her new flip flops! my feeling is, is that sarah should have worn shoes today to begin with. anyways, we walked to the white house. it was interesting standing infront of it. not directly infront, but you know what i mean. after getting some water and soda and simple snackys, we went back on the metro and proceeded to the hirshorn modern art museum. we spent about an hour and a half in there. lots of great art! i really like the new display they have up. it's art and music combined. it's very weird but still cool. after the museum, we went back to union station. by then it was 6 pm or so. we went to the first floor of the station and got dinner. emmi convinced me to get indian food with her and it was very yummy! after dinner, we all went back up to the amtrack area of the station and waited for her train to board. while waiting, we got pictures together and stuff. around 7 pm, it was time for her to leave. i couldn't help but feel sad. anyways, i gave her a hug goodbye. i already miss her, but i know we'll keep in touch.

for those who don't know, emmi has been my friend for almost 4 years. we met through the depeche mode message board and fan club. i posted a thread asking people on the board if they're young depeche mode fans. i was looking to make friends who were my age that are depeche mode fans.
both emmi and i are the same age. at the time we met, we were both 16. pretty soon, we'll be 20. i'm turning 20 on the 23rd of july and she'll be 20 on august 1st. anyways, she emailed based on what i posted on the message board and we just started being email buddies. then we started to send each other packages and letters in the mail. i never thought that back in october 2001, that i would ever met her in person, but it happened! emmi is a very awesome, cool, hip, and friendly person. i'm just still happy and very stolked that we got to hang out and stuff. i hope that through out the years to come, we get to do it again! maybe i'll go to helsinki to see her. it's hard to tell what the future holds, but i hope that her and i will still be best of friends.

anyways, this one is for you, emmi! thank you for visiting me and being a great friend! may we be friends for a long, long, long time. i will always remember this past weekend for the rest of my life. <3