DAY TWO: When we last left the Gothic Girls they'd finally fallen asleep around 3am.

I, being an early riser, woke up around 7am, looked at the clock, thought OH HELL NO and snuggled back into the sheets. I think we all ended up realizing we were all awake around 10, and slowly shambled downstairs where there was coffee (made by Heidi, the goddess) and Diet Coke and sweet tea. But there was not really any food. Some of us ate the granola bars provided by Linda in these little goodie bags she'd made... some of us starved. Because it was raining. And we wouldn't all fit into Jackson's car.

I checked the National Weather Service, which assured us that it would not rain between 1230 and 3pm. We had time to walk into the downtown historic area and find foooooood.

We waited. And waited. Finally around 1pm Maggie and I had had enough and decided to brave the sprinkling sky or we'd kill something. Everyone tromped after us, and the amazing, informative, hilarious conversations continued out in the streets of Savannah. We (eventually) made it to a lovely little cafe, where there was copious sharing of bread and tasting each other's food. I was very glad that I wasn't the only person unafraid of cooties in the face of Different Food. :D

Of course, five minutes into our 20 minute walk home, the sky opened up.

I was with Maggie and Jackson at the head of the line... and we just pushed forward. Even though we could only see about five feet in front of us. Within moments all our clothes were totally soaked. Jackson had an umbrella, but it didn't really help much. Then we realized we were alone. Either the rest of the group was lost, we were, or they'd wussed out and were hiding inside somewhere.

I couldn't see - the rain stung my eyes, and we had to take off our shoes to wade through rivers higher than my ankles. It's kind of a miracle we found our house (after much laughter, lots of honking cars, and deciding how to hijack Carrie Ryan's car if she drove past us).

Fortunately, the house came with about two dozen towels. Maybe more. And a washer-dryer.

So our ninth member, Carrie Ryan, arrived just in time to see us all soaked to the bone - as the rest of the group showed up just as wet as Maggie, Jackson and I'd been. At least we were clean?

After drying off and starting laundry, we split up - half to the grocery store, half to laze around the house. And the rest of the evening was spent talking, laughing (sometimes to the point of tears), playing on the internet, gossiping, and eating the amazing Indian dinner Jackie cooked.

There was a shocking lack of alcohol that first night, so when Dawn started painting tattoos onto us and for some reason that led to making a video homage to Edward and Bella's wedding night... we only had our slap-happy selves to blame. There were rose petals, candles, and maybe some inappropriate lines about sparkling. And no, you will never, EVER get to see this video. It lives on in memory only. Because we all want careers.

When Brenna, Maggie and I were up in our attic around 2 for bed... I realized my throat was killing me from all the talking and laughter. And once again, it was 330am before I drifted off into anything resembling sleep.

Next up: DAY THREE, in which we fix each others' novels. Seriously. DAY ONE found HERE.

Picture 1 is Jackson and Dawn, in wigs and face paint.
Picture 2 is Brenna and Jackie, aka The Dress Girls.