Girl Time

I just returned from a long weekend in Washington, D.C. with some of my dearest high school friends. I have never left for a girls' weekend before and, to be completely honest, I didn't know what to expect. The phrases "mutual tolerance" and "we've moved in different directions" kept rolling through my head. Even though we get together at Christmas and maybe once during the summer for an evening, we hadn't spent more than 4 hours together since our senior trip in 1993.

And it's hard to get away. It requires serious effort and juggling of schedules. I was arranging rides and babysitters, leaving detailed lists for Kelly, who graciously worked from home last Friday while trying to keep Daisy from maintaining a constant monologue ("Now I want to color with the yellow, no, the red, crayon.") while he was on his laptop and keeping the baby from getting into everything. He came away from the weekend with a newfound appreciation for what happens around here when I tell him, "I didn't have one single minute to myself all day."

An hour before I was supposed to leave, I nearly canceled. As I drove to Milwaukee to catch my plane, I thought about who I was in high school and nearly turned around to drive home. Then I called my friend Kathryn. Everyone needs a friend like Kathryn. She reminded me that these are the girls who knew me in high school and like me in spite of it. No one, she said, knows you as well as your high school friends. And she told me to forget everything and have a great time.

She was right, and that's what I did. Actually, just being in an airport by myself was like a mini-vacation. As Kelly was learning how hard it is to stay home, I was learning how fun it is to travel alone. Sorry, Kel. I ambled through security, I meandered to my gate, and I boarded the plane peacefully. It was lovely.

Part of me wishes that I could say that my friends and I picked up where we left off, but life has intervened and there have been struggles. But what we did was BETTER than picking right back up. In spite of my better judgment, we stayed up until between 2 and 3 in the morning every night talking and talking and talking. When we weren't talking, we were eating. The closest we came to a monument was when I took a wrong turn on the George Washington Parkway and ended up at the National Mall on accident. We helped Emily Brooks (see her blog here) with flowers for our friend Melissa's wedding, we walked around Alexandria, we did pre-wedding events, and we talked through it all. We talked about the present, the future, and a lot about the past 15 years. We talked about motherhood a lot, a very timely subject. We also talked gospel, a commonality we have all maintained.

I feel renewed, refreshed, and more sure of who I am. Not only that, but I feel really good about who I am and what I value. I came home feeling lucky to have such amazing friends, and even luckier to have Kelly and my girls.