And The Saturday Was...

Amazing!

Of course, really...were you expecting anything less?

First off, I had to work on Saturday, so I decided to start the day off with a little treat in the form of a coffee at The Raven Cafe, where I was sweetly surprised by Rich and his visiting friend Kesley (a great way to start the day) I have been looking forward to meeting Kesley, as I have been privy to a few one sided phone conversations, and was not disappointed...I was telling Rich that there was a part of me that was quite a bitty-bit sad that I was going down to The Valley, as it is indeed hard for me to pass up the chance of intelligent conversation with anyone (rats...hopefully we can get together soon) even though I was rushing down to do just that with another group...

How wonderful is it to be greeted by Carol, Norma, and Ruthie...a cosmo in hand, and many kisses and hugs...laughing and clapping of hands....and the food? Oh yes, one can never go hungry with this many fun-loving women around. I wore this little outfit for about 5 minutes before I ran and changed into my monkey lounge pants...because, that's what kind of night it turned out to be...Like a high school slumber party, only with no nail painting and lots of fruity drinks...wait, that's exactly like a high school slumber party!

We had so much fun together. I was marveling over the fact that you get any group of women together, and inevitably, there is side splitting laughter, making you gasp from breath to breath, wipe the tears from your face, squealing and shouting with pure joy...the accidental sharing of secrets (making one put their hand over their mouths quickly...always a dead giveaway that something momentous has just slipped out) and there are always tears...

The tears of joy you wipe from your face with the back of your hand, after laughing so hard you wonder how your stomach will feel in the morning, the healing tears that come with sharing and memories...the tears that leak out in empathy and understanding...the tears that come with reliving personal stories of the past...hard and easy...the gentle rhythm of a group of women is an amazing thing to behold, and I feel so grateful to be a part of it...as always. There's just so much more to these get-togethers than what is on the surface, and it's something that I need in my life to give me gentle nudges and reminders of who I am, and this amazing tribe that I belong to.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you...

Carol was so very generous, as was her sweet daughter, who let me sleep in her bed for the evening, which was fortunate because as you can see, if I hadn't grabbed the bed...it would have been the sink for me (this is Bella) and I was kept company all night by Carol's sweet sleeping doggie Ross (who I did not snap a picture of, but was indeed a gentleman the entire night around this group of ladies)

I'm off for the day...I will post about Sunday tomorrow, as I stupidly forgot my camera, and I am waiting for Rusty to send me the pictures we took of our visit...