Good Friends

Last night marked the birthday of a friend, and a much needed affirmation of womanhood.  We gathered at her Tuscan inspired home for girls' night.  Happy hour at the house has become a monthly ritual for the men and women these friends hold dear.  This month's however, was a "No Boys Allowed" evening to celebrate Kristy's 40th year.  Her husband is in Italy studying in Assissi, so we banned the rest of the boys from the party for some quality woman to woman conversation.  We. Had. So. Much. Fun!  

Everything is different without the men around - not better, just different.  You can talk about different things when you don't have a male audience.   And for some people, the closeness that's there in that room allows us to be just a little bit more ourselves than we are when all of the significant others are dragged into the mix.  Even the food is different.  

At each of the last few happy hour evenings, there has been very tasty food.  Cheese dip, chips, meat platters, brownies, bruschetta, pasta with marinara - always served buffet style on the long table that stands in the dining room next to the bar.  This time we stepped it up.  Now we still had the meat and cheese platter, but instead of sliced cheddar and deli meat, it was hand pulled smoked turkey and ham, sharp and crumbly white cheddar and blackberries - very Italiano.  There were raspberry tartlets, stuffed grape leaves, and olive tray, black bean and spinach dip, tomato and olive tampanade tarts, a chocolate layer cake with raspberry jam in between the layers and a homemade buttercream icing and my dark chocolate cake with chocolate ganache icing and fresh raspberries.  We of course, all brought a bottle of wine (or two!) with us, but Kristy treated us to Kir cocktails made with Creme de Cassis and champagne or white wine until they ran out.  We girls know how to treat ourselves.  

The food and drinks were delicious, but this is not my favorite part of the evening.  My favorite thing is the conversation.  It's a grown-up version of slumber party chatter and truth or dare swagger.  Instead of who has a crush on whom and daring people to run around the house naked, we've moved on to topics that pertain to our lives now.  Originally we were all connected through our jobs in the school district, which led to our friendship, so we will often start there.  School board, budgets, funny student stories, etc.   But then we move on.  To kids, divorces, engagements, gossip.  Add in some revelations about who hates her husband's taste in pants, who has been trying to learn spanish, the books we're all reading and who has decided that wearing underwear is not for them!   We talk about grown up girl things and dare one another to take the leftover cake to the older gentleman who lives next door.  Sometimes there is one large group conversation.  Sometimes there are four going on at once and we're all talking to someone across the room like teenagers.  We laugh a lot.  And even though it's unspoken and we range in age from our twenties to our fifties, we empower one another and relish in each other's womanhood.

I left the party earlier (around 10:00 pm) than most because Matt picked me up and we drove Saint Peters for the weekend and I was sad to have to say goodbye.  I hope they stayed late into the evening to finish the last of the wine and share more woman secrets.  I'm so honored to have such strong women in my life and look very forward to our next all girls happy hour.