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Best Buds
By Dotsie Bregel
Ah, an email from Nicey. Can’t wait to open it.
“Okay gals, where are we going this month? I traded my tickets to the
Ironbird’s game with Ed because I can’t stand missing one of our
get-togethers. Are we going to someone’s house, or are we hitting a
public place with our antics?” Poor souls.
There are seven of us “best buds.” Five of us have known one another
since hanging out on the playground, next to the cemetery, in first
grade. We went through twelve years of Catholic school together and all
survived the nuns and priests to talk about it. We picked up the other
two in high school. They couldn’t stand being left out of the fun.
The second Wednesday evening of every month is sacred time. Don’t mess
with making other plans. It’s a punishable sin. Maybe even a mortal one.
We may send you running to the confessional if your excuse doesn’t stand
up.
We’ve cooked gourmet meals, eaten too much salsa and chips, drank too
much wine, and been kind enough to allow the spouses to join us on rare
occasion. That’s if they promised to behave. We’ve laughed too loud at
movies, joked with many a waiter, and shared that we’ve been thrown out
of better places.
Heck, one time after being escorted to our seats at the Oriole’s game,
it was rumored that we were “the Oriole’s wives”. We were all over that
one. We played it up big time. We secretly decided which player belonged
to us and took it from there. We had the whole section guessing.
Our 40th birthday year took us to the Eastern Shore for a weekend. The
whole way down we listened to an old cassette recording of Casey Casum’s
Top 100 Hits of 1974. Mary Faith and I recorded it on one of our New
Year’s Eves spent together many moons ago. It was a hoot. We sang our
way to the shore. We brought enough stuff to last a month. I think we
were hoping we’d get stuck there.
Then there was the time we decided to go for a winter beach vacation to
celebrate our 45th birthdays. After trudging through outlets all day and
waiting for Nancy who needed another 45 minutes at EVERY center (she has
FIVE kids, a husband, and herself to shop for) we headed for a relaxing
dinner at a nice restaurant. I can’t remember what scene we made there.
Oh yes I can. For one, there was a drink sitting on the reception table.
We couldn’t decide if it was fake. So, Nicey had to stick her finger in
it to test. It was real. So someone got some Nicey germs. Who cares?
Then we had to embarrass the young waiter and ask him if he was another
waiter’s son because they looked so much alike. “Oh, and can you take
our picture while you’re at it?”
Anyway, we finally made it back to the condo, talked for never enough
hours, and hit the sack. Around 4:00 AM, we heard a tremendous pounding
noise (like someone’s breaking in kinda noise) at the window in the room
where I was sleeping. Being the load that I am, I was slow waking up. As
I jumped from my bed, bumping into the wall in the closet (I wasn’t
familiar with the room. It was only our second night.) Nancy is
screaming, “There’s someone at the window and he’s coming in after us”.
We tore up the hall awakening everyone in our path. “Come on Claire we
need your help!” Mary Faith, Alcie, Nancy, Nicey, and I were clutching
one another and screaming with craziness. Imagine that. Nicey could
hardly hear because she sleeps with earplugs. Menopause! Ah geez. (And
if you’re counting, there were only six of us. Susan is still reciting
Hail Mary’s since missing that weekend.)
He never got in. The police arrived, asked questions, and sure enough,
he found an ex-convict in the parking lot. To top it off, he was drunk
and had walked away from a work release detail the day before. He was on
the MISSING Person’s report. The ex was trying to meet up with some
women he met at the local bar. We promise it wasn’t us. We were lucky.
But can you blame the guy? Someone told him we were the Oriole’s wives.
Our 50th is not too far off. I can’t wait to see what my “best buds”
come up with for celebrating a half-century. No ex-convicts allowed!
Dotsie Bregel is the Founder
of the National Association of Baby Boomer Women,
www.nabbw.com and
www.boomerwomenspeak.com,
the # 1 site on major search engines for “baby boomer women”. She is
passionate about educating and empowering midlife women. She has been
mentioned in Time magazine and AARP Bulletin among dozens
of newspapers across the nation. She frequently does radio interviews
and appeared on The Early Show (CBS) with Dave Price. You may
contact her at
dots@boomerwomenspeak.com or 1-877-bboomer
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