Friendship is a wonderful thing, but it doesn't always come easily or naturally.
I'm what you'd consider an extroverted introvert. Meaning, if you really know me, you know I'll talk your legs off. If you don't know me, you'll think I'm super quiet & shy. Both are correct. But when you're an introvert, making good friends may not be super easy. I find that I can make friends pretty easily. But, the super-solid, trust-them-with-your-life friends are hard to find. It has taken me well into my 40's to truly figure out who those people were.
Over the years, I've been a good friend, I've been a crappy friend, I've been there for people, I've had to set boundaries with people. Navigating friendships can be tricky, and being vulnerable with people requires trust.
This weekend, I was able to spend roughly 24 hours with 3 of my most precious friends on the planet. These 3 women are my lifeline, my joke-tellers, my tough love givers, my therapists, my mirrors, my fart-humor laughers, my memory, my friends since high school, my drop everything & come running when I need them, my trust-them-with-my-life friends. They are invaluable to me.
We're all in a completely crazy, chaotic, busy season of life. Time is scarce, but we try really hard to make time to spend together. The past few years, we've averaged 2 "girls weekends" a year -- usually one in February (because that's Amy's birthday month), and usually one in the summer (because that's when Tammy's & my birthdays are). Poor Gretchen, her birthday is in October, and that's usually a time when none of us can get away. We need to work on that.
For Amy's birthday gift, we decided to do a "Make Your Own Ending" type of adventure! We had 3 envelopes: Choose Dinner, Choose Your Adventure, and Choose Dessert. If you know us, you know these weekends mainly center around food. I mean, priorities, man. PRIORITIES. lol! Amy chose our dinner option. Her adventure was to go to a foot massage place (we were all hoping she'd choose that one!), and for dessert, an ice cream place. So, our evening was set, and off to dinner we went!
It was an hour wait at the restaurant, so we put our name in and decided to walk around the downtown area while we waited. All of the little shops were closed, but that didn't stop us from looking in windows. We all grew up in this town, and we were reminiscing while walking. The downtown area has been revamped, and it's pretty cute now! We found some cool murals painted on the sides of buildings. Being in the Instagram era that we are, we decided to take pictures in front of said murals. We found a really neat (wait, does anyone still say "neat"?) Coca Cola mural, and in our minds, we looked really cool. But the pictures proved otherwise. Personally, I can't keep a straight face. Like, ever. So when we were trying to look all serious, I'm laughing. Or I look constipated. There's really no in between. We're all looking in different directions. The wind was blowing our hair into our freshly glossed lips. I mean, it was sort of like herding cats & comical at this point. So, we walked a little farther & found an old candy store... where we proceeded to drool over & buy a 4-pack of truffles. And ate them immediately. We managed to get in our steps, all while laughing -- that right there is more than any workout I'd ever get at the gym... and let's face it, this was way more fun!
It was finally time for us to eat. FOOD!!! The restaurant was really cute, and the food was good. But the conversations that took place around that table? They were amazing and great and necessary. I mean, beyond words necessary. This was a time when we were all vulnerable. I think every single emotion took place at that table. We realized what heavy loads we'd all been carrying, all while keeping it to ourselves. Why do we always think we need to be "WonderWoman" and deal with things alone? Why do we feel like we'd be bothering each other if we shared our weariness? Our struggles? Our fears? Because we've all gotten busy & wrapped up in our issues and we've isolated ourselves, that's why. But here's the beauty in all of this... even though we've all kept things to ourselves, we know that once we get together, we can let it all out... as if no time has passed from our last visit together. We can be vulnerable because we KNOW that what is discussed during these weekends STAYS within our group.
Our plan was to go and get those foot massages after dinner... but the conversations at dinner were far more important. We can get foot massages anytime. We can't always have these important conversations with each other. I can't vouch for the other girls, but I left dinner feeling like a giant weight had been lifted.
The rest of the evening consisted of laughing (so. much. laughing.), shoving our faces full of cookies & ice cream, talking, talking, and more talking... until we all dozed off. Let it be mentioned that in order for us to sleep now, the thermostat is set on "cool", and we had 2 fans going. #hotflashes
We of course, made reservations for brunch the next morning. Obviously. Our breakfast was one that put us in a sugar-induced food coma. Monkey Bread, Chicken & Waffles, and Eggs Benedict. Oh, and coffee. More conversations were had, and more laughing ensued. We should all have 6-pack abs by now from all the laughing! I'm a little disappointed I didn't wake up with them this morning. I can feel them though. They're somewhere under the fluff.
We knew our time was drawing near & that we all had to part ways... that's always the down side to these weekends. It's never enough time together, and it's always sad when we have to say goodbye. We always do our standard "Girls Weekend" selfie -- always in the same order -- always struggling with our selfie skills. At least we're consistent.
As I'm looking at my phone's camera roll, I'm finding myself laughing. Laughing at how many takes it took to get a "sort of decent" shot, that we never know where to look... but mostly, that we're all laughing and smiling and not worrying about the heavy loads we've been carrying. That right there, is why we need our friends.
