Fun, Fluent, Fabulous - The JOY of Women

I LOVE to laugh and connect. And I LOVE to hang out with women friends. But as I wrote this morning, I was analyzing friend types.

Do you have low maintenance or high maintenance friends?

In my book, low maintenance doesn’t mean you don’t have problems. We ALL have problems. It simply means you’re honest, upfront, and trustworthy. You don’t continually look for offense or the worst in others. If you have to talk about someone or just need to vent, it’s because you’re looking for solutions and trying to move through to a better spot. And you don’t “sow discord.” I know a few people who are discord FARMERS. They grow so much they could go public with their stock and trade on the open market. But, happily for me, I know FAR more who are purveyors of JOY.

And that’s what I got last night with some dear women friends.

If you interviewed any one of us today, I believe you’d get the same review. We had FUN. We LIKED each other – even though some of us were new to the others. We talked about the frivolous and we soap-boxed about healthy food, our families, our woman-ness. We shared struggles or frustrations but didn’t judge each other. We LAUGHED a LOT. There was no gossip. No one got bashed. This was NOT the “winter of our discontent.” We WANTED to like each other, enjoy each other, and…..we did. And this?

I love.

Here we are, out on the town:

We’re actually more beautiful than this, of COURSE, but I can NEVER remember to take my camera so this look-alike montage of some famous familiar faces will have to do. Here we are – Kim, Kendra, Karla, Kim (the quadruple “K” threat), Linda, Becky, Kendra’s mom, and Me. Ladies, we got it goin’ ON. Some of us are so good lookin’ we needed TWO pictures to catch all of our awesomeness and that’s why I had to use 14 faces.

We went here:

And saw this:

Then stood in the lobby and talked about it for half-an-hour before we could decide we should walk over here:

And eat this:

Well, at least that’s what I ate.

(Thank you stock photos from the internet. You never let me down. I so appreciate YOU bringing a camera. I’ll try to do better. The End.)

So, however you roll, or however many rolls you have, or don’t have, gather some of your gal pals and have fun. It doesn’t matter how many friends are around. What matters is the quality of the friendship and the heart of the friend. And if your friend group is lacking, do what I did: Invite yourself over. Butt in. Insist on being loved. Don’t take “no” for an answer. Act like you belong. Try to get them to feed you. Refuse to run off when they stamp their foot. They’ll weaken from sheer exhaustion, and then, you’re IN! Yahoo!

Copyright 2009

I LOVED This....!

And now I'm headed to see it for the second time with a girlfriend group this afternoon. Saw it last Saturday. Must take Grizzly, too, so that will make three times. Meryl Streep is bound to receive an Academy Award for her portrayal of Julia Child.

But a feature of the film I did not go in expecting was the truth about blogging.

If you're ANYthing like me, and I'm desperately afraid for you that you are or you wouldn't be here, most of your friends and family do NOT get this blogging obsession - the whys and wherefores and whatnots. And the thing is, we all have different reasons but it's born in creating. It's born in sharing, in connecting, in helping, in receiving. It's a mission field, it's a counselor's office, it's a shoulder, it's a rolling-on-the-floor laugh fest, it's a cry of desperation for some and we, you and I, might be the person God is using to say, "I see you. And I care." It's a WILLING listening ear because nobody is putting a gun to anyone's head and forcing them to show up or keep reading. Or to follow. They say, "Here I am. I came here because you need me, or I need you, or both, but whatever it is, we're connecting."

And this movie addresses and looks at, even stares at, the heart of a blogger. It's a relationship we have. Some of us feel an immense responsibility to each other and maybe, to ourselves. Others are casual daters. But whatever it is, I saw it unfold and bloom on the silver screen.

And now, I have to go see it again.

I also love that the flirting and more sensual scenes - not that anything is hugely graphic - only takes place between two couples married to each other and madly in love. Thanks, Hollywood. This is a feel-good movie.

Copyright 2009