Once upon a freezing snow day recently, my friends and I were sitting at a coffeee shop marveling at our good fortune. We were out of our houses sans les enfants de l’armée (without the army of kids!) – like, totally by ourselves! We lucky women were sitting toasty in the west wing of coffee shop heaven giddily beaming and acting like we were just like all the other single coffee shop peeps!
A conversation was in session opposite me. My 2 friends were sprawled in club chairs beside each other chuckling over the hilarious fact that they had considered dressing up for our date, but then:
Friend 1: Yeah, I really thought about dressing up because I knew we were coming out with Mandy, but then I settled for having a bath. Don’t judge me!
Friend 2: Do you see that she’s (me) wearing bright lipstick! That alone is dressing up for me.
Friend 1: Yeah, but I couldn’t be bothered. I thought about trying but I settled on the yoga pants.
(All the while I’m sitting opposite them grinning. They’re quite funny those 2!)
Friend 2: But, you know what I like? I like that I can think about it but not feel pressured to dress up, even though we’re out with Mandy.
Friend 1: Me too. I don’t feel pressured at all…obviously. But I did think about it for a second.
Me (in full smirk): I’m really glad too, because I don’t feel any pressure to dress down when I’m out with you 2!
Loud cackles erupted amongst the 3 of us!!
My take is that friends (and stripy salad bowls) go with everything! We get to be our individual complete selves, make fun of each other, laugh about our individual crazy issues, and not feel pressured to be anyone else but ourselves. So even when most of us are dressed down, skipped showers, wear yoga pants, and some of us dress up when we feel the urge, it doesn’t matter. Being together and laughing, and acting giddy because we left our kids home, matters most.
You know the kind of women who, it never crossed their brains NOT TO speak their minds, liberally splash sarcasm everywhere, laugh at each other, and be themselves all the time. Those are the kind of women I feel completely lucky to be friends with.
So I guess in short (and this just struck me), this is a love note to all my girlfriends far and wide. Thank you all for being so genuine and amazing! Because I’m surrounded by you, I didn’t even realize that some people don’t treat themselves to being who they are all the time. Also, like this salad bowl, you ladies always match my fancy outfits!
