So, let's see. Life is still insanely busy, work is dramatic and crazy, and, oh yes....school keeps me buried! I'm really looking forward to my "spring break" in 2 weeks. I have to laugh at that term because I can remember back in the day when those 2 words had a completely different meaning than they do now! My best spring break trip was to Cancun with some good girlfriends of mine. I think that was in 2002...eight years ago already?!! Man, we had a blast and I still look back on some of those memories and laugh until I get a bellyache! But now, the phrase "spring break" is me looking forward to a week without homework, a week to concentrate on all things non-school related (housecleaning, a few little house maintenance projects, and of course, my favorite subject...Emersyn!) This aging thing is both great and depressing at the same time. Let me elaborate.
As you know, Travis and I went to Vegas on Feb 19-22nd. We had a GREAT TIME! It was a much needed getaway and came with perfect timing. Sadly, we are not Minnesota's newest millionaires, but we sure had fun holding on to the belief that we would be. Our flight number was 777---I thought for sure it was a sign. Until I found out how many other people had flight 777. Darnit anyways!
So there we are, our first night in Las Vegas. We are getting ready to go meet up with our friends (more to follow on that)...I'm in front of the mirror, Travis waiting for me. (I can assure you...that situation never happens...ha!) As I'm styling my hair, which I can admit here that I have always kind of had a thing for (on a good day anyways!)...I see it. There, up on the top right side of my nice luscious black locks, it sits. I squint my eyes...could it be? There has to be something wrong with the lighting in here...maybe a glare from the lights of Las Vegas....this just can't be happening. I walk to another mirror in our hugely awesome room...and I see it again. Staring right back at me.
My first strand of gray hair.
GASP!!
I exclaim to Travis..."OMG! I have a gray hair!" (Yes, it sounded just as high-schoolish in person as it did in writing).
Travis: "No you don't."
Me: "YES!!! I do!!" (as I am plucking it out with a tweezer)
Travis: "Nah, it was just a blonde hair".
Me: "Yeah, since I have so many blonde hairs amongst this thick head of black hair. Really. It's gray!" (as I'm flashing it in his face for close inspection)
Travis: "Oh well, what are you going to do, keep it?"
I should have kept it and hung it on the fridge, I suppose.
I don't think of 29 as exactly a spring chicken anymore, but I surely don't associate the age with gray hairs either! Luckily it was just one isolated incident. And it damn well better stay that way for a long long time.
So that in itself was the first unlikely scenario in Vegas. The rest is unlikely for a completely different reason. Let me explain as best as I can.
Back in 2007, shortly after I found out I was pregnant, I was working an overnight shift in the hospital. It was a slow night, and I was bored. One of my coworkers told me about a website called Babycenter, and encouraged me to go to that site and join what was the April 2008 birth club. There are separate groups you join based on due date. So I browsed around, read about other people's morning sickness, new facial hair, back pain, and mood swings. Amongst other things. In the months after that, I would go back and visit from time to time, and finally got the courage to "post" later on in the pregnancy. Shortly before Christmas that year, in fact.
To make a very long story short, there was a new group specifically for first-time moms who had a due date the last week of April 2008. One of the girls who had been posting to the very large April 2008 club (with hundreds of members) made her very own thread for new moms, due the same week. It was pretty cool to find a smaller group of women with that exact same due date and realize we all shared similar concerns, questions, or complaints.
So, I began to "talk" to these girls. Ultimately, there were 13 of us who ended up leaving Babycenter and forming our own Yahoo group to keep our postings. There were just some people in our "other" group that were....well, lightly put...freaks. I'm a little relieved I wasn't one of the girls "left behind" with the freaks...HA! A few months before our due dates, we broke off and formed our private group.
Now, you might be thinking I surely must belong to the "freak" category, because who goes around making friends online? Well, a lot of people do these days. A lot of people find more than that, and find spouses online. So yes, while I understand that the concept is a little bizarre, I do not judge someone based on if they found their spouse online or drunk at a bar, for that matter. This day in age, so much of ones social scene is manipulated by online networking, it is just unreal, really. But back to the story...the 13 of us really found out we shared something special, and that was the fact that we all had these precious babies growing in our tummies for the very first time. With that comes a lot of questions, a lot of anxiety, and a lot of hormonal rages. And we could share that with eachother as a safe outlet. Afterall, we'd never meet eachother "in real life".
Or would we?
Last June, about half of the "group" met up out in California. I wasn't able to go, but since then there have been many other get-togethers of us ladies, who live all over the country...California, Texas, Michigan, Oklahoma, Delaware, Nevada, and Minnesota.
You got it! The initial prompting behind our Vegas trip was via this wonderful group of girls!
A very unlikely situation. Vegas, gray hair, husbands...and us girls! There were 5 of us who made it to Vegas, and one girl who already lives there, so 6 of 13 in all. Not too bad! What is really cool is that we got some sweet hookups and had a free, very awesome, suite at The Palms, all as a result of this very unlikely friendship. (Thanks Kerry!)
We had a great time together, and amazingly enough, the husbands really hit it off as well. They seemed to have pretty similar interests: beer and sports. Oh wait! Isn't that a commonality in all males?
Each couple stayed at different hotels, all over Vegas. So really it felt like our own vacation, to the same destination as other friends. Travis and I spent a lot of time together during the days,, and we met up with the other couples by night.
We partied our butts off like it was Spring Break 2002 again!
Here's Travis and I at the rooftop bar, Ghostbar, on top of The Palms (53 stories in the sky!)
Ashley (from Texas), Colleen (from Vegas), me, and Nichole (fellow midwesterner from Michigan)
Travis and Jeff (midwest husband)
Colleen (Vegas), Me, Violet (San Diego), Nichole (Michigan), and Kerry (San Diego) at the Venetian:
A very, very unlikely scenario indeed. Never in a million years did I think by logging on to Babycenter on that overnight shift back in 2007 lead to this! We have formed some really bizarre yet amazing friendships by means of our children. A few of the kids have met eachother, too! (This was the first "babyless" gathering).
Vegas. Gray hair. Unlikely friendships. Great memories.
And while I missed the bejeezuz out of my sweet girl, she did wonderful with our friends Scott and Heather! She was sooo excited to see us come pick her up at daycare that day. She beamed from ear to ear and quickly jumped into my arms, turned around, and waved "bye bye!" to Kathy. It was so cute!
Now, to add an Emersyn update: She is talking up a storm, growing up sooo fast, and went to her first high-school basketball game this past Saturday night. She loved it! Travis was so proud! Here she is before the game:
Here's wishing you an unlikely amazing week!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Go ahead, make my day!