Tuscaloosa, AL-Geaux Tigers...a FABulous reunion

(Pictured above: Susan, Abby, Hartley, Jamie, Lauren, Allison M, and Allison S.)

This past weekend was one of the best I have had in a long time. I got the opportunity to spend some real quality time with my some of my oldest friends. We left all of our men folk at home and partied the weekend away. In order to set the scene, let me give you the back story.

My girlfriends, all fourteen of us, have been buddies since high school. Some of us have known each other since middle and elementary school. Needless to say, we go way back. We have all stayed in touch. We take an annual beach trip together. We get together any time we can. Somehow over the years since high school our group has developed a name...The Fab Fourteen. We mostly refer to ourselves as the Fab.

This is a picture of the Fab at our wedding. They sure did make beautiful bridesmaids.

Years ago when we were all freshman in college and had just gone through sorority rush we took our annual beach trip. This particular year the trip happened to fall on the Auburn vs. Florida football weekend. Most of us ended up in different sororities and at different universities. Two girls pledged Alpha Delta Pi and Alpha Chi Omega at the University of Alabama. Seven of us attended Auburn University and pledged Alpha Omicron Pi, Zeta Tau Alpha, Alpha Chi Omega, Sigma Kappa, Alpha Delta Pi, Phi Mu, and Kappa Delta. One Fab member became an Alpha Chi Omega at the University of North Carolina. Another friend was a Kappa Delta at Rhodes. Two girls pledged Chi Omega at the University of Southern Mississippi and at Birmingham Southern College. Finally, we had an Alpha Delta Pi friend at Samford University. All of this Greek speak is to say we were all over the place and in different chapters around the south.

Because we had all just experienced rush and landed in different places we decided we should create our own "sorority" of which we were all sisters together. During a late night discussion in the beach condo, we decided since our favorite thing to do when we all spend the night together is eat, our mascot should be the pigs. Thus our motto followed: "Together let us eat." Then came our colors, well obviously pink and black were chosen. The following day we all went to a bar to watch the AU vs. Florida game. As we were watching we decided our letters would be Beta Eta Zeta. Then came our cheer for that game..."The Beta Eta Zeta Gata' Hata's."

This is a pic from our annual beach trip two years ago. Notice the pig shaped cookie cake. It was our friend Amy's birthday.

We of course followed up on all of this with an initiation, standards, ritual, officer selection, etc. What is so funny about all of this is that we have kept it going. Even though half of us are now married, some of us are in professional or graduate school, and some are living up north. We jokingly hold chapter meetings over Thanksgiving and Christmas because that is when we are most often all home visiting our parents. We call our Thanksgiving meeting Thanksgiving Workshop. This is where we elect our officers for next year. This election always proves to be hysterical. In fact, Judd has even videotaped this process for us once before. Did I mention any man that would do this is a total keeper??? We also have an annual FAB Christmas party where we catch up, discuss chapter business, and exchange secret pal gifts. What started as sillyness during a beach weekend turned into something that we oddly hold dear.

This picture has all fourteen of us in it: Top Row: Abby, Hartley, Laura, Allison M., Lauren, Susan, Allison S.; Bottom Row: Stephanie, Leslie, Jennifer (the Bride), Jamie, Terri, Amy, and Brittany

Having said all of that, we had a mini Fab reunion in Tuscaloosa, AL, the home of the University of Alabama, last weekend. Our friend, Susan, is in law school there. We decided to all stay there with her in her apartment for the UA vs. LSU game weekend. All of us Auburn fans, not owning anything crimson (UA's color) for fear that our flesh might actually burn off if we wore it, decided to wear purple for LSU. We figured this way we could still say "Go Tigers" and mean it. Of course, we meant our Auburn Tigers. We had a fantastic time. The weekend also happened to be Susan's birthday. She of course blew out her "26" candles atop a pig cookie cake. It was the perfect FAB weekend. Some of our friends even traveled from Boston, Nashville, and Atlanta to join us. I think the fact that they traveled that far shows right there the love and devotion we all have for each other. See below for some shots from our FABulous weekend!

Jamie, Hartley, Abby, Allison M., and Allison S. tailgating in the quad

None of us had tickets (Well, except for Susan who sold hers in order to be with us.) We watched the game at a bar in T-town called Innisfree. Notice Susan is the only one wearing red. Ha. I am surprised she let us Auburn fans stay with her.

Later that night after an interesting car ride home we all sang Happy Birthday to Susan as she blew out her candles.

"Together Let Us Eat."

These photos pretty much sum up our weekend. We had a great time. I love these girls and would do anything for them. I can't wait for Thanksgiving workshop.