Girls' Day Out!

I love girls' day out. I don't think we realize how much we tailor our conversations to men until we're just together by ourselves. Take this last Saturday, for example.

My friend Sue has a birthday this week. Being so close after Christmas, I thought we might DO something rather than wrap something. We've done this before, going to a book lecture and luncheon (Jeanne Ray's Eat Cake at the Dallas Museum of Art) or a cooking class. Fun things that someone has to make the effort to plan. This time, it was me. For my birthday in August, my friend Cindy took me to the Genghis Khan exhibit in Irving. Different and fun and--get this!--educational!

For this celebration, I asked Sue if she'd like to go again to the DMA, this time to the showing of Jean-Paul Gaultier's fashions. Sounded like a good idea to her. What if we invited our "daughters" I asked.

I put daughters in quotes because between us we only have one by-blood daughter. The other three are daughters-in-law and I don't want to confuse anyone who happens to have kept up with the blog and knows, or thought they knew, I only had sons. I haven't been hiding any females. All the daughters know each other through Easter times at Sue's house. They all live in the same area. What a wonderful excuse to get out and about on a Saturday morning!

We met up at the Museum, toured the exhibit (eye opening would be an apt description and I really appreciated knowing how many hours some of the ensembles took to complete), then settled into lunch. As one of the girls is beautifully pregnant, talk centered on birth stories. Nurseries. Husbands. Current labor and delivery as compared to the old days when they were born.

We laughed and talked and laughed some more. As I think on it, I now know why our waiter may have at times been scarce: he heard what we were talking about and any man with any sense didn't want near the table! I don't know if they would have been bored or horrified.

We were neither and our girls' day out was over too soon.

24 Days of Ornaments: Dec the 22nd

In 1994 two friends and I decided to make and sell Christmas ornaments of landmarks around town. We highlighted the depot, a hospital (now demolished), a historical home, the public library, the Methodist Church, and this one, the Presbyterian. I think we had the wood screen-printed with the basic design and then we added the embellishments.

The experiment and the experience did not last past three years. Maybe just two. But it was fun to do, and I have number three of twenty-five of the collection.

24 Days of Ornaments: Dec the 6th

What is so funny about this ornament is that it's not pink! Why the red didn't come through, I've no idea. Perhaps there was too much light coming onto the scanner although I covered it up with a blanket to block the sun. But that's neither here nor there.

This little snowman was one of two styrofoam ball creations crocheted for my sons when they were little by a wonderful woman named Faye. This is the survivor. The other, one in purple cap and scarf, went by the wayside some years ago. Now seeing this ornament reminds me of a wonderful older couple who were lots of fun to be with and who had quite a regard for my children.

It also reminds me to dig into the cedar chest and get out that other piece of Christmas which Faye crocheted for us, a green and red Santa commode lid cover. And, no, Santa is not covering his eyes!

Agreeing to disagree

For no particular reason, I've been contemplating the concept of friendship lately. It's just one of those things that zinged through my thought processes and hung.

I think some of my best friendships have been those predicated on disagreement. Not fighting disagreement, but respectful disagreement. Agreeing to disagree, if you will. This nearly always happens in the beginning of a relationship, the "feeling out" period, when both parties are deciding if the other is someone they want to know better, to socialize with, to call with a problem. Sometimes two people are so incompatible that there's no question that this just isn't going to happen. You stay on your side of town (church, boardroom), and I'll stay on mine.

Then there's the people where it's not incompatibility, but a touch of contentiousness. A little argument for argument's sake, an agreeing that there are two sides to everything (and yours is wrong, but I'm tired of trying to convince you otherwise), but you go on as friends. These are the people who have your back, whom you call in a crisis. Like siblings who fight tooth and nail--until one of them is threatened from the outside and then the defenses come up.

I don't know what it says about me and my best friends, but I want them to know: I've got their back. Yes, their entire back, not just part of it. I know, I know, it's a big back...