All posts tagged: girl’s girl

Snippets of My Week – Three Things

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aka,  Three Things You Should Do Too Because I Just Did Them and Would Do Again 1.  Go to the #goopMRKT pop up on 140 Maiden Lane in San Francisco before it closes on Sunday, May 22. Admire how Team Goop & designer Steven designed the interior of the historic Frank Llyod Wright building. The entire set up is what I’d hoped the Goop experience would be: tightly curated items,  stylized merchandising, and a feel good forcefield strong enough to eradicate any second thoughts about plunking down mucho dinero on personalized cookbooks, organic blush, plant scented body oil, and vegetable dye based lip stuff.     The force is so strong that you go back the next day with your friend to purchase a few pieces of athleisure attire, rationalizing your money is better spent here than at Lululemon, where you don’t go anymore anyway. You’re a practical gal, shopping for your gear at Athleta & GapFit with your Gap Visa rewards points – which you’ve earned a lot more of after hitting #goopMRKT two days in …

Mixed 

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Welcome to my 555 series! Please read the introduction to this project {here}.  Week 4 Post 5 I was high-strung for a full day after my therapist told me, “you’re not a laid back person, and it’s OKAY!!!”  I break into hysterical laughter over my friends’ most inane inside jokes but roll my eyes at jokes told by inane people. I miss my family so much but get anxious whenever I have to plan a trip home.  I like spending most of my time alone, but am always thinking of who I’d like to hang out with next. I’m a member of the Mixed Emotions Club.    

Being a Damsel is Distressing

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Wk 1 Post 5 Like those whiny damsels in disaster, for whom lines like: “Let’s leave her behind, man, she’s slowing us down,” were written, I blurted out, “I can’t!” “Always say ‘I Can’ even if you can’t,” the most rigid of my instructors replied to me while I flailed on the mat. “Teachers don’t let their students think they can’t,” she said with conviction. “Even if it doesn’t look right & it feels like you can’t do it,” she went on, while circling the room, “why not just tell yourself that you already can & keep working on it?”   Jolted by her words about yoga (& life), I thought, “True- I’m too old for this damsel in distress sh*t anyway.”  Welcome to my 5, 5, 5 series. The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks about anything. Habits don’t create themselves, after all. The frequency & length remains from post to post, but the topics will be varied. Read my introduction here.

Captain America To The Rescue 

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Wk 1 Post 4 I was sobbing, just sobbing, on the couch all afternoon. Captain America called me after my hopeless sad gal text and said, “You’re going to freshen up, get dressed, and go outside for a walk while I stay on the phone with you,” which she did, for two hours as I navigated the sidewalks downtown teary eyed but soon laughing with her in my ear. Many years before this, after camping with literally a million people to hear public mass with Pope John Paul ii, I struggled in the following day’s heat to trek towards our return shuttle with my backpack. Captain America grabbed it from me and carried it in addition to all of her gear while leading our group in her encouraging tone, “C’mon, let’s go, you can do it.”  We all need superheroes. Welcome to my 5, 5, 5 series.  The objective of this exercise is to write five lines five times a week for five weeks about anything. Habits don’t create themselves, after all. The frequency & …

Gira Polli Kind of Date

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Confiding in a comrade who can tap into your mind with honesty, acceptance and humor is one of life’s true gifts. The rain came down so hard that afternoon I nearly reconsidered the trek from the city across the bridge. Dramanut and I were long overdue for a face to face, so I reminded myself though life is long, opportunities may be fleeting. Lunch in Marin was a small price to pay for a day with this date. We settled in at the cozy restaurant smelling of herbs and sauteed vegetables after the hugs and cheerful, “How are you’s?” and “So good to see you’s”. She’s the kind of girl who sets an alarm on her phone so there is no need to do a time check between hello and goodbye. Talks with girlfriends who are everyday counterparts to your therapist require a restaurant that is quiet but not too quiet, because even when nobody knows you, one must be mindful of the secrets she spills, whether silly or scintillating.  A casual comment here, followed by a curious question there, a keen observation afterwards, a gasp, a giggle, then a …

Snippets of My Week #7

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 Perfect Girl Date card that I keep in my stash. Photo c/o The Social Type While doing my Snippets I realized they are all about time with girlfriends.  This is perfect since rumor has it that International Women’s Friendship Month is well under way.  These are some of the new adult friends I referred to in last week’s post.  In no particular order, this is how I’ve enjoyed the week with them. YESTERDAY This is my view looking up from the bench I sat at with Tête-à-Tête having the most honest three hour conversation about relationships (friendship, marriage, dating, courtship, mothers and daughters) in a long time.  To say that I may have gotten a bit of whip lash from knocking my head back so much from laughing is an understatement.  There was a steady rotation of familiar passers by sitting on the neighboring bench or hanging back under the tree near us.  I do not think this was incidental.  I do believe some of the men who returned while their families were eating, shopping, and strolling …

Birthday Babe

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Having a ‘milestone’ birthday was not what had been preoccupying my mind.  It was deciding how to celebrate that nagged at me.    For at least one year I had been listening to people ask, What’s your celebration going to be for the big four-oh?  Are you traveling?  Where will you go?    Are you having a party?  You must have a party!  Have a girls’ weekend!  Plan a group trip out of town!  Yes, let’s do that!   It’s one thing to embrace an idea and it is another to commit to an event. There are schedules, spouses, children, preferences, group dynamics, and budgets to consider.   In my mind, nobody but the celebrant is ever truly responsible for organizing her party and as enthusiastic as people were to get on board with anything I could have wanted:  Camping Extravaganza, Beach Retreat, Coastal Getaway, European Sojourn, Asian Adventure, Epic Picnic, Dive Bar Disco you name it –  I do not have the mental nor emotional bandwidth to execute an important plan like that the way …

You Just Need to Ask

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Photo source: Carin Olsson My inbox greeted me this morning with an email from my old friend, Hamburgirl, that charming, spontaneous, loving lady who became my friend many moons ago and has stayed close to my heart though we haven’t shared continents in over at least a decade and a half. “bp!! How are you??”  the note began very casually.  She shortly recapped the past two weeks saying she had been home alone with her children while her husband was away for work.  The younger child had been ill the whole time and   ” …  very generously shared her sickness with me :(“ She continued, “On that note, my cousin will be in Paris next week and given my last two challenging weeks as a single sick mama, I am now considering a quick escape from life and a couple days in Paris.  I am thinking of going for two-three days.  I know you’re in another time zone, but thought I’d still ask ’cause nothing happens without asking!  Perhaps you are free and can …

In Case You’d Forgotten

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Original Graphic Print by Hillary Bird Because you are my friend.  Because I love and care about you, I want to tell you during this confusing and frustrating time: We are in this together. You are that person.  That person who does what she’s supposed to do and what she believes is expected of her, what is best and what is right, because those are things you value.  The curse of being a sympathetic member of society is giving a sh*t about things beyond one’s own life.   Putting your all into everything leaves a girl with nothing much left.  It tends to get inconvenient.  The beauty with true girlfriends is that we can listen without judgement.  You are afraid that telling me too many of your household woes and venting your annoyances about the hubs is going to put you in a bad light.  You are worried that I will start seeing him differently.  You are also afraid that this would be considered airing out your dirty laundry in front of me and that it’s not …

The Sleepover Tradition

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This weekend is going to be fun.  I am packing an overnight bag and heading to Ciao Bella’s home at dusk for a sleepover.  Her adorable husband and toddler daughter will be exiled to one part of the house for 18 hours while Ciao Bella, the ever energetic Catalina, and I sip pink champagne,  chow down on her amazing homemade macaroons (really, CB needs to start a business, they’re that good) and catch up the way we typically try to on the phone while their respective two year olds are napping or out playing.  There are dinners, there are shopping dates, and of course brunches and lunches, but the ‘thing’ that is really our “thing” is our super girly, funny to the bones sleepover.  Since the three of us became friends a decade ago, we love to have slumber parties now and then.   It’s become part of our friendship culture We’ll be sharing our latest skin care discoveries, squeezing in a trip to Michael’s, and discussing our percolating creative endeavors.  Pulling an all-nighter sans …