The Friends Hat

This hat makes friends; I guarantee, it's the most personable, mysterious, inviting, inanimate object you will ever meet. After taking the PSATs, Annie, Jess, and I piled into a friend's car and drove to the thrift store in town at which Annie volunteers. It was there that Jess found this oh so magical hat. After purchasing, she got three compliments walking through a grocery store. Three compliments in about thirty minutes of owning it: that's pretty impressive!
(She's a proud owner!)
And the ultimate test: it looks good against brick walls! (But then again...what doesn't?)

By then, Annie and I still hadn't eaten, so we went to the restaurant around the corner to get lunch and hot chocolates. Mine had overflowed onto the saucer, and I told Annie and Jess how I have an Iranian friend who drinks tea by first pouring it into the saucer to cool it down and then moves onto the actual cup. Annie had to snap a picture when I explained to them what I meant. After waiting outside for what felt like eternity to our starving stomachs, our food finally came. By that time, about five different people had exclaimed how crazy we were for sitting outside. But really, it was one of those lovely, crisp fall days and besides it seemed like inside the half the population of our town was crowded into the luncheonette for an afternoon snack. In any case, the food was worth the wait! I got salmon on fresh salad & pita and bought Jess a chocolate milkshake. For that she generously said the hat could be communal and then let me wear it when we met a friend for coffee. (The Starbucks barista fell in love with it. So let's recalculate here...four compliments in an hour of that hat's new life...that's still not so shabby!)

The hat must have been telling a very funny joke. After sipping down a completely delicious pumpkin spice latte, Chris and I walked over to our local playshop, a small theater in which professionals and non-professionals alike put on plays and musicals. My dad designs absolutely fabulous sets for them, and Chris and I both performed As You Like It there this summer.

The playshop is a really great old building and would be such an amazing place to live in with about four of your closest friends for a month in the winter. Besides being surrounded by woods, there's a waterfall nearby which basically means that when walking out of rehearsal you can't quite tell if it has started to pour or if it's just the perpetual sound of the running water. (And on top of that, there's a quite personable little chicken who frequently pops in to say hello!)

Did I mention that Chris should be a model when he grows up?

All in all, taking the PSATs was not nearly as bad as I anticipated!