New Friends and Sorority Girls

An interesting thing happens when the nest empties out.  The grocery bill drops, the wine bill rises, the utilities drop, tuition rises, and your friends slowly change.  Throughout the years, all of our friendships revolved around school and sports.  I have spent many cold evenings on the baseball field and long days in the gym with some wonderful friends.  Late night parties in hotels all over the country, memories I wouldn't give back for anything.  But when the kids fly the coop, you start to lose touch.  Not on purpose, but it happened with many of those people I love.  Sometimes I feel sorry about that, but things change.  It's no different than making new friends in high school or new friends in college.  Preschool friends and high school friends are likely different.

Recently, this empty nester made a new friend.  It turns out she is friends with one of my volleyball parents that I loved like a sister and haven't seen in a long time.  And, friends with a neighbor that I see at Bunco every month, but not too much beyond that.  Although I knew upon meeting her that we would be well matched friends.  She has a really great bar and knows how to use it.  That is a plus, really, I work at a kitchen store, I love this stuff.  So my new friend and I have covered every topic from girls drama (our girls are not dramatic, thank the lord), sewing and crafting, the Bachelor (yea, don't judge), and criminals.  The criminal may appear in another blog.  I also made her some cookies for her daughter in college, a KD.  I love making cookies like these.  I can hear the giggles and girl talk, the late night pizza deliveries and the study sessions.  I remember those friendships, and I remember moving on in the next phase of life.  This is the beauty of Social Networking.  I have reconnected with many of those old friends, and I love that my kids too are making friends for a lifetime.  So here's to empty nests, sorority girls, college and lifelong friendships.  And the Bachelor.  I have new friends to watch it with!  And no one is happier about that than me, except maybe Mr. Preppy!  So, what are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

Sorority Rush!

It's that time of year!  It used to be the days of buying Crayola's and glue sticks, but we have moved on to Greek everything!  The first wave was last year after my daughter and all her friends pledged at their various schools.  This year, they are on the other side and have "little sisters" and duties of an upperclassman.  Regardless, it is a fun way to spend your college years, and here are some cookies celebrating many sisterhoods!

Guess we shouldn't forget the guys...

Cookies....

So volleyball has finished, and work has begun!  Tis the season, and things really ramp up at work, so life takes a different twist!  I have been baking pretty regularly, and have a few cookies to share.
First some Alabama Alpha Phi cookies for a neighbor.

Then I helped out with the Chi O bakes sale fundraiser.  I did some Chi O cookies and I wanted to make the blue swirl cookies to be like the Make A Wish star, but they aren't pretty enough to share...of the dozens I made I shot a picture of a bad one!  The cookies were pretty simple, I made a lot, hopefully they raised some good money for a great cause!  I have been buying up the Greek letters for the sororities and frats, and some of them I dislike in a mean way.  That omega (farther down) is a real beast to unmold, and the design is thin and fragile after baking.  I opted for some fat letters from an old set, since these particular cookies were in a bake sale, I knew fragile would not be good!

And then I did a few birthday surprises. An 18th for my friend's daughter who was almost a Halloween baby! And hopefully Meghan's cookies were okay because Priority Mail took almost 10 days to get to her!  I experimented with a new meringue powder, and the dark green was kind of blotchy.  I was not terrible pleased.  But the taste was actually better than the other meringue powder I use!

And finally a few cookies for Thanksgiving.  I will be baking up more of these in the last week and change before turkey day!  And then it is all about jingle bells and elves!  I can hardly believe the season is upon us!

So, what are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

Sorority Cookies

Ah, the Greek Life. When I went off to college in 1982, I decided to rush. Some lady called my mom and said I would need to go to this afternoon tea party and meet the nice sorority alumnae in our area, I did, they all wrote me a rec and I got my first choice, Chi Omega. Those were the days. I think the fact that I was oblivious helped out a lot. I had no expectations, I had no airs about me or inflated ideas of my family's wealth or standing. I wasn't raised that way. I wanted to be in a sorority because I was 16 hours from home and knew NO ONE at the University of Colorado. After one week of skits, warm iced tea (there's a good oxymoron), countless interviews and lots of singing, I was a pledge with a couple of hundred sisters. I learned the Greek Alphabet, the mythology stories about Persephone and the pomegranate seed, the rituals, the handshake and tolerance of all those girls! At the start of my Junior year of college, I had transferred to the University of Iowa. I tried out Chi O there, and the truth is, I was not a fit. No big deal, at that point I was focused on graduating on time (what was I thinking).

So fast forward to present. My son left the biggest fraternity, the U.S. military, for University and my daughter to a nice, small liberal arts school. As the year got underway, I started hearing the rush stories. Friends of my kids at large state schools in sorority rush with nearly 2,000 girls. Valedictorians and Salutatorians not getting bids, girls getting dirty rushed and not getting into any house, and girls crying and stressing over which house is for them, only to get cut. What is this? My son went through rush, probably the oldest one at 21, and found a great house, great guys and it made his transition much easier. His nickname is Gramps, and he is the happiest he's been in a long time! He is a Lambda Chi just like his dad. And my daughter, well, she stressed over the whole deal as well, she knew that being a Chi O would be cool since her mom was one, but in her heart of hearts she wanted to be a Phi Mu. So Phi Mu it was. As soon as I got the message, another mom and I went to the Greek store and I discovered the colors were rose and white, that it is the second oldest fraternity in the U.S. and the lion is their little mascot. So, after spending a fair amount of cash on note pads, cups, key rings, pens etc., there was only one thing left to do. BAKE!

How fun this was, and I can hardly wait for my friends to call me for Greek Cookies. So many sorority events, I am happy to be the Phi Mu baker for the next 4 years! So what are you waiting for? Call me!