Girlish Giggles
It took months of planning, rescheduling, and coordinating, but we finally pulled it off. Six of us met in Chattanooga for a girls’ weekend. Two of us were celebrating 50th birthdays (I get my turn next year), and we used it as an excuse to leave our husbands and children at home.
Five of us attended the same high school, and then later we met Debbie, the sixth friend, at college. I don’t get to see any of them very often. Pam is a flight attendant based in Atlanta and flies all over the world. Teresa, her sister, has her own company and travels throughout the southeast. Tootsie sells real estate and Annette works for a pharmaceutical company, and both of them might as well live in their cars because they are on the road constantly. Debbie is a nurse and just recently moved back to Atlanta from Auburn.
It had been 15 years since I last saw Debbie, way too long. In my eyes she hadn’t changed a bit. She had the same megawatt smile and the same girlish giggle. Within seconds of reuniting, we were all best friends again.
The only problem was that with six women talking, it was a little hard to keep up with all the different conversations. Every time my husband called, he asked, “Are you sure there are just six of you in the room? It sounds like there are at least 20!”
We decided to meet in Chattanooga because it was between the Kentucky girls and the Atlanta girls, and it had great places to eat and shop, which is what we like to do the most (in that order). We had adjoining rooms at our hotel and it was like being back in college. We swapped clothes and shoes, borrowed hair spray and makeup, gave each other facials, and talked and talked and talked.
Somewhere along the way I developed a sinus infection, and by the time I got home I had to go to bed for two days to recover. It was worth it, though, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Besides the sinus infection I came home with a strong conviction that we should celebrate every year we have together, not just the ones with birthdays that end in 0. Next year’s road trip is already in the planning stages, since the six of us voted to make it an annual event.
The only thing I regret about our girls’ weekend is that we waited so long to do it. Good friends are like perfect diamonds… hard to find and extremely valuable.
