We’ve known each other for 20 years. Wow, that makes them sound old!

There are a group of 5 of us that get together a few times every year. Now they all live in California…well, all except me. I moved to Utah to ski. They stayed in California so they could spend all their money on mortgage payments.

Only 4 of us could make this trip. The one that didn’t make the trip loves her dad more than us. We have nicer boobs than her dad, but whatever. She’s an attorney so I’m not fucking with her choices. She’ll sue me.

Back to the weekend. It was a fabulous! I love these girls. This weekend filled with:

• drinking
• eating (completely unplanned but we ate at Porcupine Pub for 3 of the 4 meals)
• a hike
• drinking
• shopping
• very little sleep (mostly my doing since I’m known for waking up early and making sure everyone else has that opportunity)
• drinking
• lots of talk time in pajamas (I said pajamas, not nighties, as pictured below)
• middle of the day beer drinking at a dive bar (picture also below)
• lots of fucking love

The beginning of slumber party on the first night!

Hang over hike up Bells Canyon.

Bar shot looks just like us in college…bad lighting, not showered, drinking mid-afternoon.

Before dinner on the second night.

Having these ladies in my life (all 5 of them) for so long makes me appreciate unconditional love and friendship. I don’t know what I’d do without them. We don’t talk often but when we do it’s like we hung out yesterday.

Do you have friends like this?

In order to go out on a work night, I had to make arrangements for my lovely daughter. (News flash: going forward I will refer to my daughter as Elle.)  I don’t get a sitter very often. Notice I didn’t say a babysitter since she’s not a baby. Elle is 10. Since I’m divorced and she spends time with her dad, I generally plan my outings around that.

So where does my sitter pool come from. There is a neighbor girl I adore and use occasionally but don’t prefer that option for evening events especially on a school night.  

I opted for plan B and went to a rarely tapped group. I “manage” a group of people at work. I put the term manage in quotes since they are unbelievably talented and there is very little to manage. In particular there are two young ladies in the group that have watched Elle in the past and she loves both of them.

Anyhow, the sitter (one of the two ladies mentioned above) came over. She was right on time. As usual I was running late and raced out the door barking orders, “Elle do your homework, behave, I love you and be good.”

When I returned home later I got the recap of the evening with Elle. First dinner, then homework, then fingernail painting, then bedtime. But obviously there was some chit chat going on too. One conversation in particular cracked me up. It went something like this:

Elle: You work with my mom, right?
Sitter: Yes. Your mom is my boss.
Elle: That means that she could fire you, huh?

Elle has this idea that I walk around and fire people. With the unsettled economy and job market, I’d hate for Elle to scare my star employees with that powerful fact. Now I’ll never know if she agreed to be Elle’s sitter because she likes my kid or because she’s scared I’ll fire her otherwise.

I adore Lisa. She’s hot, fun, smart, successful and has an opened mind.

We were able to meet up for dinner on Sunday night.  Lisa specifically asked me to behave during her visit. She had to have a clear mind for an early morning meeting on Monday. It is sad that my dear friend must remind me when to mellow out and not get wrapped up in the fun? Well we did go to college together after all.  

So being on my best behavior I picked her up from the airport with a mellow diet coke and vanilla vodka cocktail. Then we headed to my favorite hang out…Porcupine Pub. We managed to have  a couple glasses of mellow wine there. She enjoys red, I enjoy white. Then we headed to my house for more wine. But don’t worry, it was mellow wine.  

It was at my house that I asked Lisa if she was getting sick. She was sniffling. She said no. Then I asked if she was allergic to my cat. She said maybe but probably not.

Then she broke my heart! She said, “It’s probably the Cabernet Sauvignon. I can usually only have one glass of Cab.” This is when the night got mellow. Tears do that to me.

Either I need to discover another drink for Lisa or I need get a new friend. Allergic to wine! I’ve known Lisa for 20 years, so dumping her at this point seems silly. I’ll keep her. And I’ll keep a stash of Pinot Noir on hand just for her.

Except this month…I won.

If I look around my house, I have practically furnished it with accent pieces, filled the cabinets with platters and stocked up with lotions from this simple game.

But the gifts aren’t why I do it. I love these ladies. We eat dinner, drink wine, chat and scream with excitement all while we roll three little dice. Based on the multitasking involved it might explain why men aren’t in our group. That and they weren’t invited.