This weekend I packed a small bag.  I wasn't supposed to pack a bag at all.  Two of my lifetime friends were supposed to come stay the weekend with me.  Girls weekend.  Due to unforeseen, unwelcome circumstances we had to change our plans.  Someday I will be able to look back and laugh at it, but not today.  So, we flexed and met in Ardmore, Oklahoma (half-way for each of us) at the La Quinta Inn near the highway.  I've written about weekends with Tiffany and Sara before.  Our weekends together usually look exactly the same year after year.  Child after child.  Move after move.  Joy after joy.  Sorrow after sorrow.  As life changes, the only change we find in our friendships is that there is more love, more history, more trust.  The consistency is a gracious blessing.  Like going back to a favorite watering hole where you can breathe deeply, knowing that you are loved for who you are, flaws and all.  It takes a lot of years to grow friendships like that.  The antique shops change, the coffee shops change, what we have for lunch and dinner changes, but the laughs, the tears, the sleeping arrangements, the pajama time stays the same.

I love to look through these little shops with my friends and as we point out different things that bring back memories.  I'm not much of a buyer though.  Every once and a while I will run across something I have to bring home, but all I brought home this time were new memories, and these pictures I took with my phone.  I just enjoy looking at interesting things.  They aren't ancient Roman ruins, but they are ancient Ardmore ruins.  Who is to say one is more interesting than the other?  Maybe most people, and for some probably valid reasons. But, I enjoy both.  This post isn't very wordy...but sometimes I wear myself out being wordy.  Here are some of my favorite little treasures in waiting.   I'm sure most of them are still available for purchase.

Ardmore had a few really great shops.   This was one of them.

Tiny perfume bottles are pretty all stacked together

Oklahoma Love.

Tiffany Sara and Me.  Selfie in antique hats.  I apparently like to play dress up.  Maybe see previous blogs of my mom dressing me like Betsy Ross and a Celtic maiden as a child.  I also had a George Washington outfit with blue knickers, a white blouse with puffy neck scarf thingy, red sweater vest and penny loafers.  Man she loved me in a pair of penny loafers, and I hated them.  You couldn't get good traction on an asphalt playground playing foursquare wearing penny loafers.

Loveliness used to be a lot simpler I think.

I  think I  might start a plate collection, and  get rid of my own store bought plates..

I bet she had a great laugh, but didn't trust everyone with it.  I bet when she got that striped shirt she wondered which of her skirts it would go with, and when she put them on together someone said "that looks nice Sis."  I bet when the camera was pointed at her she was a little unsure if she should smile or not. She went with not.  I bet someone loved her and was glad to get this picture of her.  I bet they prayed for her.  I might be wrong.  But, I bet I'm not.

Lovely words.

Pretty little bust.

Pope bust.

Can you imagine how big Nick felt on that horse?  My first time on a horse was at my Uncle Bob Shannon's house.  I still remember it.

If the door is open, it isn't really a cage.

People have given a lot For Home and Country.

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...  Chill bumps.  Thanks to Coach Degan for making us memorize the Gettysburg Address.   I would not pass the test on it today, but remember that much.  I kind of wish I would have brought him home.

Little. Greasy. Fried onion burgers.

The counter inside Hamburger Inn.  I bet this is one of their favorite watering holes.

I suggest you Visit Ardmore. Literally, it is a great little town.  Metaphorically, it is one of my favorite places ever.