K + S here today to share our thoughts on one of the best perks of this Air Force lifestyle: New Friendships. Whether you’re just starting out on this journey or are a seasoned WAF, I think we can all agree that making new friends can be REALLY HARD. Gone are the elementary school days of cementing a best friend for the year by trading her your favorite folder for her stickers. Or always having your college or high school besties around for brunch. Now we must *GASP* go outside our friend bubble + get to know all new women! Sure, you may have some spouses that you just gravitate to at each base but sometimes it’s not that easy. Comfort zones get tested, social anxiety starts to heighten + questions like “Did I already ask her where she PCS’d from?” come into mind.
However, there’s always fun things to do at every base that take just a little extra thought + planning to help bring a new group of gals together. In our instance, we were dealing with a halfway point of deployment + a serious case of a needed staycation. If you’ve checked out K’s Q + A on Shaw, you’ll know Sumter isn’t the hotspot for weekend entertainment. Columbia, though, is a great little college town that provided us a chance to turn a simple weekend away into a fun night for all.
K’s current role at shaw is to help inspire or organize fun events throughout the year + get everyone to be social with one another. It’s easy to hermit in your living room a + binge watch netflix with your pup – guilty 🙋. So queue Valentine’s Day weekend + 4 months into the deployment, we needed an excuse to get dolled up + love on ourselves. Before we arrived here our squadron always planned a couple getaways each year called “Pink Flag”. Our husbands get called to 4-6 week TDYs throughout the year for training called Red and Green Flag. So…we decided to have our own mini TDY. This time though we really wanted an excuse to go all out + one of the fellow spouses, Emilee, suggested we name this weekend “Sparkle Flag”. Here’s a run down of what the weekend consisted of. Hopefully it will inspire you all to keep hosting fun events and treat yo’selves. Because WE DESERVE THIS.
THE PLAN
K enlisted the help of S + a few others to assist in planning out the weekend. It’s easiest with two-three people so ideas flow well + decisions still get made. We decided on where to stay, where to eat + what the attire should be (duh, sparkly) + what should be in the gift bags. We also threw in a last minute “spouse naming” where we gifted a lovely call sign to a fellow spouse who’d be leaving us soon, a super fun fighter pilot spouse tradition.
THE DECORATIONS
When you have an excuse to decorate for a party, you do it. We cleared out the Target dollar section + grabbed the cutest stick on streamer backdrop for photos, a “#GALS bubble balloon banner + got some of those fun pop out streamers that stay in the can. One of the girls helping me – shout out to Lynna – is so amazingly crafty she designed + made adorably screen-printed sleep shirts + koozies to stash in each gift bag along with snacks + other fun goodies.
THE ACCOMMODATIONS
We decided to stay at the trendy, adorable + affordable Aloft Columbia since it’s friendly to younger folk + right smack downtown. It really was a great location since we ended up walking everywhere.
THE FOOD
We wanted to keep different tastes + needs in mind with cuisine. Drinks + lunch to start the weekend were at Publico, a fun, fusion restaurant with an outdoor area. We also really got into the Olympics’ broadcast of curling for that day… Dinner was at great tapas-style restaurant called, Gervais & Vine, that literally has something for everyone. We reserved their back room with amazing ambience + lighting, cute benches + overstuffed pillows for a fun atmosphere that easily accommodated the 20 of us. Afterwards we found a really great dance bar above Pearlz + whipped our hair like we were in college. On Sunday, brunch ended up being the survivor crew of 10 ladies at a super cute place specializing in southern comfort food, Oak Table.
THE ATTIRE
All. The. Sparkles. We all pulled out our best attempt at looking like Kesha + made sure we blinded everyone we walked past with our shine.
In the end, we were able to use this weekend as a farewell to a fabulous spouse, a chance to meet some newcomers + to reconnect with those of us that have been here a bit longer. I hope ya’ll have fun planning your gatherings + continue to give this community inspiration to celebrate each other.
