Every year at the end of July I take a weekend trip with a group of friends. We started doing this after teaching together at the same school and then, one by one, we drifted off to different pastures. I went to a different school and so did a few others. Some of our group left teaching to start families, but we all realized how much we loved one another and wanted to say in touch. We all taught at Grant Middle School and thus named ourselves the Grant Girls. As in, “Honey, I’m leaving for the weekend to be with the Grant Girls.” In the past, we used any excuse to get together and I’ve seen these women get married, divorced, have babies, continue their education, and generally be phenomenal women. Many of these women are married to fellow educators and one of them has a husband who is a school superintendent. Whatever things came along, these women have been by me and the support I feel from them is unparalleled.
Piper made us a CD of the yoga/meditation music as a gift.
First, we tried scrapbooking together and then we had Pampered Chef parties and Tastefully Simple parties where we could bring our husbands and children. Later, we played Bunco together but we got so lazy in trying to count the number 6 on the die that we painted it with red nail polish. We’re a fun group, but we are amazingly uninterested in the things we do together and get so caught up in talking and catching up with our lives that we moved on from all of those things.
The Grant Girls with our mascot, The Chocolate Fountain.
Once, there was about 8 months between the times we were getting together and we all missed each other. That’s when we came up with the Spa Weekend. One weekend a year we caravan up to Peoria, IL and go to a spa where we take several bottles of wine as we spend hours getting services done. Usually, I get a massage and a facial or a mani-pedi and while I’m waiting for my next spa service we wait in a lounge they have for us. The best part of this is that at any given time that I’m waiting I may be waiting with a different couple of my friends and we have some uninterrupted time to catch up in a smaller group. There are 7 of us and, as we all get along well, any combination of women in the lounge turns out to be a good one.
This is our spa director who came to get us for our services and brought us lunch and, most importantly, a wine bottle opener.
Piper, one of my friends, has a lovely home where we all stay through the weekend. We tease her mercilessly for having a perfect house. It looks like it’s straight out of the Pottery Barn catalog. Mostly, we are entirely jealous. If I could, I would hire her to come and decorate my house because she finds beautiful pieces and repurposed furniture that she uses well in her home. Piper also puts together the itinerary for our weekends. One year, we ran a 5k for Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Research. This year, along with our spa time, she hired a private yoga and Pilates teacher for us at her local community center. We’ve all decided that it doesn’t matter what we do so long as we carve out this time to re-connect. It prevents us from drifting too far from our friendship and it forces us to do something that we don’t always make time for on our own.
Piper’s amazing sense of style.
When we stay at Piper’s house she sends her husband and three kids off for the weekend. This year, her youngest daughter Julia helped make us feel welcome and put a homemade sheep on our beds along with a chocolate.
It is truly one of the best things we do for ourselves and our friendship. It’s one of the best things I do for myself.
Piper sets a lovely table.
We allow for down time to catch up and talk. If I value anything, it’s the hearty conversations these women have.
I don’t know about you or what you value enough to make time for, but this is a necessary part of my life even if it only happens once a year. But, what about you? What do you do for yourself and your friendships?
**************************************************
New blog update: The Cuban has his own food page here and has written his first post! If you want to make the most tender, juicy grilled chicken ever, read this.
Also, I’m at Babble Voices today writing about dropping Mallory off at college for the first time.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
So much fun, Kelly! I’m jealous of Piper’s house, too, and I just moved into a new house.
I lost touch with my very best friend for a few years. She went so far off the tracks that I couldn’t reach her, she wouldn’t let me. It was a dark time in her life, and I missed her SO much. We reconnected about a year and a half ago, fell into each other’s arms sobbing. And then we got on with life, with a promise that a separation like that just does not happen again. So recently, we started getting together with another friend of ours, we all also worked together many years ago, and they still do. We vowed to make time for girls’ nights, just the three of us, and we have been doing it. You just reminded me we need to do that again this week because we haven’t in a month or so. And I think we need to plan a weekend together, no kids, no husbands. Can you believe I have never done that, ever?
This is fabulous, and it is the kick in the pants that I need to follow through with my plan to get together with my college roommates again. We saw each other every summer for a while, but having babies put a kink in it. It shouldn’t have. Time for a girls’ weekend (or at least a plan for one)! So glad you had a lovely time on yours.