C: Strolling with My BFFs

Well, it was going on 6:00 p.m. and I was still at my desk.  I am so far behind…it was nice to sit there with no phones ringing; and though I was tired, I was moving paper at a rate I cannot accomplish during the regular office hours.

My cell phone rang.  It was V wanting me to meet our friend P and her for a stroll-from-store-to-store-evening that a quaint little shopping area of our city hosts once a month.

Sounded like fun but, no, I’d better not.  I was making progress and hated to lose momentum.  I declined.  She protested…I was unmoved.  We hung up, and I turned back to the computer.

Cell phone rings again.  This time it was P.  “C’mon, you’ve got to come.  They are going to have free wine at these shops, and everyone turns a blind eye to that no-open-container law.  You can carry your plastic wine cup store-t0-store sampling fancy foods and enjoying the sidewalk stroll.”

I declined, again, virtuous person that I am. Back to the computer.

Thoughts would not quit coming: Wine?  Did she say Wine?  Did she say free wine? 

I sat a minute weighing the options.  Before I knew it I was pulling up outside the neatest little shop, my friend P standing in the middle of a parking spot she’d saved for me, waving her arms.  My decision to join them was the right thing to do!

A fourth friend M showed up, too, and we did just what V and P had promised: spent the evening strolling from quaint store to quaint store, carrying our free wine, sampling gourmet olives, cheese dips and (my personal favorite) gourmet pineapple preserves over cream cheese….amazing. 

We ended up at one of the area pizzarias having even more wine and salads. And we had a great time.

As always, news was told (do we have to call it gossip?), problems were shared, advice dispensed and there was a general diffusing of life’s pressures.  The only thing missing was R, our fifth “TNT.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Keep your friends close.  I’m sure that the guys have some equivalent (let me take that back, I’m not so sure) but one of the blessings of being a woman is having girlfriends…I don’t know how I’d have made it without them the past couple of years.

I’ll sleep better tonight for having done some unwinding with my friends.  And the work?  Well, it’ll be there in the morning.  C