On Saturday night, I went out with a couple of friends, without EN, without the girls. I can’t remember the last time I did this. It’s obvious that this doesn’t happen often because Sugar and Spice had something to say about it and bitched that they weren’t invited along. Even my mother bitched that I should have invited her along too. Step off my little cling-ons!
The relationship that I have with the ladies I went out with is interesting. I have known both of them for years, but I really don’t know them all that well on a personal level. I have been acquainted with Pinky since 2005 when Sugar started attending the daycare she teaches at. I met Heather in probably mid-2006 when we enrolled Spice at the same daycare. Heather also answers to “Payton’s mom.” So without really knowing these women, I have been bonded to them through my children for many years.
Normally, before I go out with “new people” for the first time, I’m really nervous. I stress about what I should say and I worry that I’ll say something stupid. I also worry that we’ll run out of things to talk about and the time will be filled with awkward silences. Oddly, this time I didn’t fret at all. The only reason I can come up with for not fretting is that the three of us have been in each other’s lives for years. I at least was genuinely curious about them and wanted to learn lots more about them. I assumed they would want to know more about me as well. If being nosey failed, I figured we could always fall back on our favorite email topic: BOOKS. The three of us, without a doubt, are huge book nerds. We’ve emailed different “good reads” many, many times. It’s great that we all have pretty similar tastes, but interesting that Pinky reads on a Kindle, Heather reads on a Nook and I read on an iPad!
Another twist is that they are both blog readers. Neither of them know me that well, but they know the blog. They know what I’m pissed about, what makes me laugh… an unfair advantage as I don’t know as much about them. And there’s also the super-duper-top-secret stuff that we talked about. I can’t be a blabbermouth and spread their stories on the Internet… because they’ll know I told!
We met at Applebees for drinks and dinner and really had a nice time. We talked a lot and laughed even more. It was great to spend time with these women without a kid (or twelve!) running around us. It was nice to have dinner out and not have to cut up anyone’s meat, though I would have if asked. I see now why Pinky looks so damn good. I order “fried and large,” she orders, “grilled and small.” I will confess now that I ordered fried and large because I really wanted the biggest bucket of popcorn at the movie, but KNEW that would kill the great dieting progress I made last week. We have to suffer to be beautiful.
After our dinner, we headed off to see “Water for Elephants.” Heather had recommended the book to us and we both gobbled it up. Actually, the first time Heather and I met up for a play date, she had that book in her purse and I knew she was dying to take it out and read it. Now that I’ve read it, I probably would have been just as twitchy as she was.
I’ll post about my love for books another time, but I have to say, “Water for Elephants” was amazing. I loved every bit of it and actually only allowed myself to read a few pages at a time. I wanted to stretch it out. When I was done, I took a few days off because I wanted the characters to live in my head just a little bit longer.
I’m pleased to report that the movie is as good as the book. That almost never happens, usually the movies are a disappointment or are so different than the book that you don’t recognize what you are seeing. I’m almost tempted to re-read the book, only so I can picture the main characters looking as they were cast in the movie.
Nice dinner and an excellent show. But even better than that, I got to spend time with two women that have been on the edge of my life for years. I look forward to holding them a little bit closer. You can never have too many girlfriends.
xoxo
Ice Princess
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