Girlfriends

In the chaos of life, I feel the need to center myself through my engagement with others.  Like many other mothers and partners, I love my daily interactions with my children and my husband.  However, I also need more.  For me, that comes from my time with my two girlfriends.  I have other close friends in my life, but there are two specific friends that I am talking about here.  These women have been my friends since second grade, and we have been through everything together.  The trials of elementary school, the horrible awkwardness and embarrassment of middle school, and the drama of high school.  We have evolved from knobby-kneed seven year olds to mothers and wives, and through it all we have remained intertwined in each other's lives.  We have spent countless nights laughing and crying together over many random issues.  We stood together at each of our weddings.  We were there as each of us brought our beautiful babies into this world (strangely enough, we each have two children:  daughters within ten months of each other and sons within ten months of each other - totally unplanned).  We watched as life circumstances changed and held each other up as we struggled to navigate through life as working mothers and wives.  Through it all, we have been each other's greatest supporters and also our best critics.  We are there for each other through thick and thin.  Just as I get nourishment and balance through food and exercise, I also get it from these women.  They nourish me in a way that nothing else does.  We have always talked about how lucky we are to have each other and a friendship that has spanned 28 years, and I can only hope that you have something as wonderful in your life.

Each year, regardless of where we are physically, we come together to celebrate our birthdays.  Some years, we plan an overnight trip, other years we just spend the day together.  Regardless of the actual plans, the one constant is that we get together each year.  We are lucky, at this point in our lives, to all live within 30 minutes of each other, so we are able to get together frequently throughout the year.  However, this birthday celebration is the event we look forward to the most each year.  Our birthdays don't fall on the same day, so we just choose a random date in the summer to celebrate.  Instead of spending money on gifts for each other throughout the year, we save our money to splurge on the day.  This year, we chose to spend the day in Burlington, VT, which is across the lake from where I live.  We took the walking ferry to VT and enjoyed a fabulous lunch at American Flatbread, which I have decided is my new favorite restaurant. 

If you are ever in Burlington, VT, make sure you eat at American Flatbread.  I promise you won't regret it. 

After lunch, we walked around Church Street, which it the artsy shopping area of town and had a fabulous time laughing and enjoying each other's company without the interruptions of small children.  The day passed too quickly, and before we knew it, we were on the ferry on our way back to NY.  But, I returned home at the end of the day recharged and rejuvenated.  It's amazing what a day spent with girlfriends will do for you.