Catching up

Saturday night I had the opportunity to hang out with some folks I hadn't seen in awhile. It was a great time, just catching up with old friends and having some good food and drink, served up by the best hosts ever, The Utechs http://www.theutechs.com. Although I did realize that Frosty and I were the only single guys there, my mind was eased by the fact that I was the youngest of the group, not counting the children of the guests :)
I know I have previously made the promise to hang out more with my old friends from HMB, but lately I find myself struggling to keep in touch with people. I got an email from Bobo last week and ended up having dinner with him on Friday, which was great. It was good to see him again and hopefully we can manage to stay in touch. He is in the process of planning his wedding (actually Kim is in the process of planning it) that will take place this summer in St. Louis. The timing is perfect, since their wedding is June 24th and my classes in Madrid start on the 27th, so I should be able to attend the wedding before I head off to Spain.
I think my stuggle to keep up with people is partly due to the fact that my group of friends from work also includes my girlfriend. Since they are our only mutual friends that we both knew before we were dating, it is comfortable for both of us to stay with that group. I also find them planning my free time for me many times. And although they are mostly a good group and fun to hang out with, I would like to use some of my free time to hang out with my other friends, too. So hopefully I can manage to strike a balance between the old and new friends and get to see more of the HMBers in the future.
Speaking of the future, plans for my 28th birthday celebration are in the works. If you are interested in being on the email invite list, send me an email. Most of you who might be reading this probably will already be getting the invite, but just in case, whatever, yadda yadda. I am looking at an Iowa City based fiesta on my actual b-day, Jan 13th, as well as some late night festivities on Saturday the 11th. More details to follow.
And as a last thought, if you are one of the aforementioned friends who I haven't seen in a while, drop me an email or a call and we'll hang out. I miss you guys and sometimes just need a kick in the ass to get things rolling.