Summer in a Small Town

This time last year I was diving head first into the working world in Greeley. I didn't want to stick around this dinky town anymore, I wanted a new life - new friends and a new adventure.
I lived alone for three months, worked 6 days a week and came home every night to a frozen pizza and a beer to the only company I had - my cat Dipstick. I watched lame tv and woke up in the middle of the night sprawled across the couch to an obnoxious man on the tv trying to sell me some workout equipment at 2 am. Paradise? No. Independence? ...I guess. Miserable? Yes.

Summer in this town is the definition of friendships. Here it means tanning in the back yard with your friends, sneaking out to watch the stars, hanging out at the dead end and 48 & J...endless nights of laughter and joy. Summertime it didn't matter what group of people you hung out with, you had friends that were there when you had crazy ideas for fun.

Last summer I sat at home, with my cat, almost every night and watched everyone's Facebook statuses update about how incredible their summer was going and I would be lying if I didn't admit I cried myself to sleep a lot that summer.

Many people have come up to me and said things like "it is good you are home, it is a good place to regroup..." or "just enjoy this summer here since you left so soon last summer..." and they all make perfect sense, I couldn't agree more with them...but last summer I was lonely because I had no one...this summer I am lonely because I HAD an amazing man and lost him...

I still go out, and this summer already I have spent many nights with friends...most on main street, just like every summer, sittin' on tailgates and laughing about the good times we had. Sometimes we will sneak a beer into a Big Gulp cup and pass it around so everyone can have a sip, and feel so classy drinkin it from a green straw. Looking at it from the outside in, if you didn't grow up here - we look pretty weird. Ry used to make fun of me all the time when I told him what we did for fun...but summer in a small town usually means some of the best days of my life.

I'm praying that even though this summer has been thrust upon me with compelete tragedy...maybe the love of my friends and family will give me the glue I need to pick up the pieces of my heart and slowly put it back together again.

I miss you Ryan...