Saturday, September 5, 2009

Girlfriends


I love my husband with all my heart. He is my soul mate, my best friend and closest confidante. He makes me laugh and he keeps me grounded. If I were to be stranded on a desert island, I'd choose him to be stranded with me; we're great together in a crisis. However; there are some things my husband just does not "get" about me. This is because he simply does not think like a woman; nor would I want him to. For that reason, I have my girlfriends.

My girlfriends aren't just any girlfriends, they're the best girlfriends in the world! Because I recently moved away from them, I no longer bump into them in the grocery store or run to one of their houses on the spur of the moment for a quiet cup of tea and sympathy. Once a month, though, I drive 100 miles to have dinner with them all.

We've been getting together for our monthly dinners for a number of years now. We're an eclectic group from various background
s with various points of view and various religious and political persuasions. But, we have four major things in common: 1) We love life! 2) We love to laugh! 3) We love to eat! 4) We're all artists.

Our meeting place varies every m
onth; sometimes it's a cozy restaurant we all like, other times it's potluck in one of our homes. This past Thursday was potluck and the weather was perfect for a picnic.

As we sat down to eat my phone rang. It was the one lone member who was not able to make it that night as she had prior plans with her husband. She knew that we had an important item for discussion on our agenda and she wanted to express her opinions before the discussion. We were about the business of deciding on a name for ourselves. Because we exhibit our artwork together our collective identity expressed in a name is very important. For the past couple years we've been calling ourselves the Women's Art Club, but felt that the name sounded stuffy and didn't begin to capture our vivacious and energetic spirit. For a month name suggestions had been flying back and forth via email and we were hoping to come to a common consensus that evening.

The opinion expressed in the phone call was that we should shy away from names that were overly cutesy if we wanted to be taken seriously. Of course this set us into fits of giggling as we started to come up with the most outrageous names possible. Oh, giggling, heck, w
e were falling off our chairs with tears streaming from our eyes. After all, effective brainstorming can only be done by thinking in extremes, right? We felt sorry for our one friend who couldn't be there to join in our mirth and to make her feel included we texted her to tell her that our new name was to be "Girls Art Guild" or GAG and we sent her a photo of one of the gals sticking a finger down her throat as this was to be our secret sign to be used when we ran into each other out in public. I think our friend could have killed us as she received these messages sitting in fifth row seats of a solo guitar concert.

But it's not all hilarity when we get together. We really do count on each other for advice and support. One gal had questions regarding a copyright issue and we were able to help her with answers. Another gal brought in two gorgeous paintings she had just finished for our feed back. We celebrate each other, we commiserate with each other and we feel safe with each
other. It's a special bond unlike any other.

At the end of the evening I drove the 100 miles back home. Any of these gals would have gladly put me up for the night, but I couldn't wait to get back home to my best friend and closest confidante to share with him some of the fun of the evening. As I drove home I smiled to myself knowing what his reaction would be; he'd only chuckle a little and say, "That's nice dear." After all, he doesn't think like a woman.

Oh, and we still don't have a name for our group. Any suggestions will be gladly received or tell me about your own girlfriends.

And one note about the photos, there are two photos of the group as I took turns being photographer with another member so we could all somehow be in the picture.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kris, I think we all agree. What a nice looking group we are! And, now that we are on the web, we really need a new name. How about Hungry Artist's Group? No, no that won't work..........J.

Anonymous said...

I have to admit that my face ached from laughing by the end of the evening. Of course I couldn't wait to relay the hysterical conversations of the evening to my spouse. I laughed just as much trying to get the story out as when it happened. It was received with a feigned grin and a "That's nice dear". Yes Kris, thank heaven for all our girlfriends!!! ....S

Anonymous said...

I am late reading this but that night was one of the best in my life! Because of some tragedy that fell later that week, I am now able to reflect on that evening and realize that the great memories of being with your friends are really what life is all about. So we rock on!

Anonymous said...

You are to be envied - what a precious life gift.