an afternoon with my friends

you know how much i adore "friends," and so of course you can imagine how sad i was when the news of matthew perry's death broke.  quite a few of my own friends reached out to me that day, which i thought was really sweet.  i know that a lot of people think mourning a celebrity death is silly - after all, it's not like i'd ever met him or was his actual friend - but when you have someone virtually in your house on a literal daily basis for years, they're almost like a family member.  does that even make sense?

anyway, when the friends pop-up was announced, i was super excited to go but none of my kids (let alone the hub, lol) were interested in going.  and so of course, i turned to my friends and we picked a date and made the drive down to long beach to immerse ourselves in all things ross/rachel/monica/chandler/phoebe/joey related.

we checked in and were shown into a waiting area where there were selected scenes from the show playing on the screen and quotes from the show on huge posters.

the experience began in a little room that was off-limits for photography, although there wasn't really anything special in there.  we watched a quick video of basic safety rules and guidelines, and then we were led through a replica of monica's apartment door that opened up to this:

there was lots of fun stuff to look at, like scripts and familiar props and pieces of the wardrobe worn on the show.

if you wanted to read all 18 pages of rachel's letter to ross (front AND back!), they were all here.

there were lots of magna doodle boards from joey and chandler's apartment with all the silly notes on them.

the whole thing really was just heaven for any "friends" fan.

and there were tons of photo ops with staffers ready and willing to capture the moment for you.

of course, ya girl had to squeeze in a bunch of selfies too.

and of course, there was a gift shop at the end.

so was it worth it?  well, if you love the show, it's a no-brainer.  casual fan?  hit or miss, depending on the level of your fandom.  as for me - well, you can imagine that i loved every minute.  i would've been happy with more, even.  heh.

rest well, matthew perry.  thank you for bringing chandler bing to life, and i hope that you're at peace.