A "No Panties" Kind of Week....Girls' Trip

I really debated the title of this blog.  Some may contend that, perhaps, the don't-use-that-title argument should have won.  Maybe, maybe not.  If it offends you, I sincerely apologize, but I also know that if you are offended, you just do not get "traveling with the girls."  The phrase "no panties" was coined by my mother several years ago when she said at the end of a trip to Sarasota with my sister and me (her 80th birthday present), "why, I don't think I have had panties on all week" (please say that out loud in a charming southern accent, and all offended feelings will be healed). It does not mean that she was going "commando" a la Cosmo Cramer, it means that swimsuit and pajamas were all that were worn for the week.  Talk about perfection.

 

Ernest Hemingway is quoted as having said, "Never go on trips with anyone you do not love."  Amen and amen, Ernest.  I recently traveled with people I love.  Not only are they people I love, they are people with whom I love to travel.  So, here's our trip "by the numbers."

 

10 - the number of days we were together

1 - the number of times we ate dinner out, and that was at Chik-fil-a in McDonough, Georgia on our way home when we were too exhausted to consider anything fancier.

0 - the number of cross words spoken

0 - the number of times M got "pissed off" 

8 - the number of days we just sat on the beach and enjoyed being

3 (I think) - the number of Key Lime pie servings in a coconut shell

6 (maybe) - trips to Publix - once to buy food for the week and 5 to buy lunch on the way to the beach

1 - the number of rocket launches we witnessed (now, that was amazing!!)

7 - the number of tries it took to figure out how to turn the water on

lost count - the number of wrong turns taken trying to find the post office

4 - the number of trips to TJ Maxx

5 - tanks of gas for the trip down and back

3 - umbrellas lined up  - the picture is of our "compound"

dozens - the number of side scurrying crabs that came out in the evening

1 ton - the amount of sand I vacuumed from Mr. Lincoln's car

2 tons - the amount of sand left in Mr. Lincoln's car after I vacuumed

3 - the number of suitcases we took

8? - the number of extra little bags of varying sizes filled with various items that we took

1516 - the number of miles we drove

2 - the number of trips to Pickin' and Grinin' thrift store...2nd trip to buy that beverage cart for Martha

4 - the number of white serving dishes I bought at the thrift store

272 - the number of white dishes I now have

5 - the number of books I read on my phone - love that Kindle on my phone

?? - the number of journal pages Martha wrote

9 - the number of nights Melissa cooked herself a healthy dinner and offered to share

9 - the number of nights Martha and I declined Melissa's healthy dinner

Don't want to talk about it - the number of Diet Cokes I drank

2 pounds - the amount of dark chocolate with almond Hershey's Bliss we (I) ate

Approximately 180 man hours -  spent looking at Pinterest

 

Cannot be counted - the laughs, the prayers for each other's families, the memories of this and previous trips, the times we will think how fortunate we are to have each other, the times we remember how right Ernest Hemingway was.

 

So, for today, I wish you a "no panties" kind of week with people you love in a peaceful setting, and I wish you

 

blessings

 

  



Once Upon a Time....I Had a Social Life

Even before I knew what a social life was, I had one.  I went square dancing with my parents and their friends, drive-in movies in my pj's with Becky Leech, sleepovers, elementary school carnivals, and, because I had an older brother, high school football games with my folks. 

I had quite the social life in high school; Friday nights were for ball games, sometimes with a date, but more often with a group.  Saturday nights were youth group activities, or games of Pit or Spoons and Toll House Cookies at the Murphy's.  There was prom and Sadie Hawkins Dances, and Homecoming and the Lionettes Christmas Dance.   I loved it all. 

Later in college, much to my mother's dismay, oftentimes my social life consisted of watching Hawaii Five-0 with my dad.  College dating consisted of 2 or 3 dates with whatever guy was looking for a wife and figured I might do.  Usually it only took 2 or 3 dates for him to figure out that, perhaps, I wouldn't do.  There was the time that I dated a guy known at my house as "Harry the Bastard," but really he was a pretty nice guy, just not terribly interested in me.  Then along came Mr. Lincoln who offered to take me dancing, oh, wait, "you have a cast from your thigh to your ankle, maybe dancing isn't such a great idea."  Well, duh.  But movies, and dinners and dates to church turned, more rapidly than might be advisable, into conversations of marriage and forever. 

Early in our marriage, we had a social life.  Dinner out with friends, church, movies, the horse races, UK football and basketball games, all manner of wonderful, exciting social activities.  As our family grew, so did our social life.  We had friends who were the parents of our children's friends, football games, dinners in our homes, trips to Lexington, Gatlinburg and Captiva, evenings spent with dinner out and dancing, concerts, tacky parties, and 30 Something events, Halloween Masquerade parties, Christmas at Belle Meade Mansion.  It was all fun stuff. 

Last night as I sat on my sofa with a freshly bathed Simeon in my lap giggling and giggling as he zipped and unzipped a compartment on my purse, the thought occurred to me, "now this is a social life I can really enjoy!"  There is no movie more entertaining than the live action that we enjoyed yesterday of Max walking around on his knees jabbering in his little boy language.  There is nothing that even remotely compares to the big grins those boys toss our way...Simeon's with his large "Chiclet" teeth, and Max with that most familiar genetic space between his two front teeth.  There is no movie, no dinner, no dancing, no ball game, no party, no anything that compares to the contentment and joy of a Saturday afternoon and evening spent watching Mr. Lincoln and Max touch fingertips in the vein of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam, or to look out the living room window and see Simeon walking up the driveway with one hand in Fizzie's and the other holding a "big stick."  "You want me to read the Gingerbread Man again...okay, how ever many times you want."

So, I embrace this new social order, if you will.  It is the best, and whenever I feel like the world is passing me by and I'm missing all the great movies and I haven't danced a step in quite some time and the leftover half of my lunch hamburger is what I have for dinner, I will be most grateful that most of my movies are happening live, and my dancing is now with a little guy in my arms as we move to the beat of "Five Little Monkeys," and my leftover hamburger is nectar from the gods because I am sharing it with Simeon or Max.  Ah, I love this grandparent social life.  It is the best.  Robert Browning was on to something when he said, "Grow old along with me! The best is yet to be..."

So for today,  I wish you the social life for which you long, I wish you joy in the moment, and I wish you,

blessings