Friends.....

22 Years later, 4 friends met in Atlantic City, NJ for a girls spa weekend celebrating turning 40! I dare say, we all are much more fabulous than we were when we met as college freshmen at Dickinson College in 1986.
You only see 4 of us, Lizzy, Diane, Me (Paula) and Ginny.
When this whole potential girls weekend concept was born in early 2008 (thank-YOU Fancy Nancy), we were a group of 8. Then, when dates were tossed around and eventually finalized, we lost two to family vacations that overlapped or came too close to the date, we lost one to a wedding, and we lost one in the 11th hour to an unfortunate death in the family. The 4 remaining all contemplated cancelling too...and boy... am I glad we didn't!
It was a little surreal for me, I hadn't seen Liz and Diane in person since another friend's wedding in 2001. I do see Ginny at least once a year.....we try to at least. And it's different....it's not like we're so intertwined anymore, our lives are very different....we live in different areas of the country...our kids are different ages, we lead very different lives.
But we have a connection...there is something there that connects all of us to each other...it's remembering the dozens of memorable experiences we shared. Maybe it's because we were friends at an impressionable time in our lives, a fun time you never forget, the last hurrah before we all got real jobs, got married and had our families. Who knows?
What's funny is that it took all 4 of us to piece some memories together....all of us admittedly have lost brain cells over the last 22 years. Diane claims her brain is a sieve....and I'm pretty sure that mine is too. We all remember different things, but as a group, we put it all together.
A wonderful time was had, photos of our children were shared...updates on our husbands, our jobs ( ha, or my lack of one), our health, our parents, our recent vacations, etc....was how we spent our time conversing.
We stayed at The Borgata, met for a late dinner Friday night in Wolfgang Puck's restaurant, went for a drink after dinner at Bobby Flay's place...all in The Borgata. Saturday morning, we didn't open our eyes and get out of bed until 9am....honestly, I can't remember the last time I slept that late. We drove to the Boardwalk, went through the Tropicana and their new wing, The Quarter, we walked up and down, in the water on the beach...went back to the Borgata in early afternoon, sat outside for an hour and then went to Spa Toccare...um, WOW! We each did our individual spa thing, but then we reconvened in the whirlpool, steam room and sauna area...what an unbelievably relaxing afternoon (minus my lost jewelry drama which had a happy ending...thank-YOU VIRGINIA!).
We then got dressed and took a cab to the Pier at Caesars and ate at Buddakan, an Asian fusion restaurant that was AMAZING! We then went back to the Borgata and gambled a little....I was lucky enough to hit a royal flush at a 3 card poker table and made back the $$ it cost me to be there and then some (which I put towards a birthday handbag....shocking ladies, no?).
We had breakfast and went our ways on Sunday...back to our lives...I came home and Anthony and I took the boys swimming at Anthony's cousin's house down the block...we had a great day too!


To Lizzy, Di, Gin...thanks for the WONDERFUL weekend and the memories! You ladies are truly FABULOUS at ANY AGE!
Thanks for sharing all of your photos and stories about your families! See you at the next one!
To Fancy - Without you, NONE of it would have been possible...thank-YOU and we MISSED YOU!
To Susie, Mojo and Meg...I sincerely hope that you can all be there when we plan the next one...we had a toast to all of you ;-)
To all 8 of us....Happy 40th Birthday!!!!! (5/24, 6/14, 7/2, 7/15, 7/17, 7/20, 8/4 and 10/4)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First day of not being employed

It's so strange...this morning, I had no laptop to sign in to, no Sametime to IM my work friends on...no policies to analyze. It's a yucky yet freeing feeling.

I know this much about myself...I'm good for nothing when I have time on my hands. I don't really procrastinate, but I find myself with inopportunity.

For instance...this morning...woke up @ 6 because the dog we're sitting is up at like 5 and makes a TON of noise! I walk her, play with her, make coffee, make lunch for Matty and pack both kids knapsacks for camp.

I get both kids up, dress them, shower, get them to camp...and the granite people are here. That takes about 2 hours....counter tops only. No drilling holes for the sink, it hasn't arrived yet :-(

At this point it's 11:30...have some errands to run, but I don't have enough time b/c my cleaning lady arrives @12:30 and I like to be here to greet her, update her on what's she's going to be doing since she can't do anything in the kitchen.

She arrives @ 12:35...OK, now I can go out...uh no, the phone rings, the guy from the granite people (not the installers who were here in the morning, but the template guy) needs to come and take his measurements for the back splash, since it couldn't be templated until the counter tops got installed. He's about an hour away, be here by 1:45. Today? Um, yes ma'am, if you want the back splash installed next week. OK

I really have nothing mandatory to do, I'm used to not leaving the house on the days I worked from home, with the exception of seeing my trainer. Plastic Surgeon hasn't cleared me to work out for another 2 weeks, so I can't do that. So, while I'd like to have a manicure and pedicure, it's not in the cards today.

When Matty gets home from camp, he needs to change quickly, we need to pick up Ben and then drive to Newark and pick up Anthony at the PATH station where he commutes to the city from and we're driving to Montclair, NJ to see a NJ Jackals game. That's minor league baseball. It's a Fundraiser for Fragile X Syndrome run by another mom in NJ with a child with Fragile X.

Coincidentally, a friend, who was my roommate junior year @ Dickinson College (which we spent living in Bologna, Italy) lives in Montclair with her husband and 2 boys, so they are joining us.

We re-connected in 2006 after losing touch sometime after graduation from college in 1990 and before I got married in 1994...it's a bit foggy to me why and how we lost touch. In late 2006, I sent a story to Dickinson Magazine about Fragile X and how my 2 kids were affected and she e-mailed me and we've been in touch. We spent a day at the beach last summer, and now we're going up to where they live. I'm really excited to see her, she's so great! He husband is very sweet too as are her boys.

So, tomorrow I have to try to run some errands in anticipation of my 40th Birthday celebration # 2 (#1 in LA back in May) weekend in Atlantic City (at the Borgata) with girlfriends of mine from Dickinson that I lived with the 3 years I lived on campus. We started out as a group of 8, with adjoining rooms for 2 nights. We're down to 4, so we're in one room. It's ridiculously expensive to sleep at the Borgata, but they have a great spa we're going to Saturday, and we're having dinner etc...so it should be fun, even though life happened to 50% of us, and we're only 4 now...it's still going to be very fun!

So, I might not have a job, but there is still a LOT of kitchen things happening....and the kids are really busy, and let's not forget the dog sitting ;-)

Happy New Year 2008

It's just seems to refreshing to me when the calendar changes year...it's like a fresh start, a clean slate, a new beginning, a do-over if you will.

This year though, has significance for me though, vs. the last 9....I'm going to be 40 in July.

Wow...that's hard to look at...when my mom turned 40, she seemed "old" to me...granted I was 15 and beyond obnoxious, but gosh, that's me, I'm the 40 year old mom now!

YIKES!


More to come....maybe even a bitch post....I am truly in the bichiest of moods, and no, I don't have PMS!