Every year at this time I take a girls get-a-way weekend with my friends to power shop at the outlets in PA. My sister, a great friend and her sister meet for three days of fun and laughs and girl time. This year I realized why women have these long time, close knit, been through everything friends and men sometimes do not. Now some men may differ that they have a college roommate that they are still close to, but close? Really? This is close:
- This year, Sherry and her sisters had matching t-shirts made for us with our names on them and a “Charlie’s Angel like” image of 4 women shopping with bags and purses. (I have always likened myself to Kate Jackson) It was so much fun and we got so many compliments on the t-shirts! We did not wear them to dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant for fear that we would spill the Tuscan Mussels sauce on them and ruin them! I may have it hermetically sealed until next year! Can you see four men wearing matching hunting t-shirts with their names and images of a deer hanging from a tree upside down? Would they use their real names or some type or call-sign?
- Food: need I say more. You take four Italian women and what do you get? Great food snacks with some junk food mixed in. We have cheese, pepperoni and crackers, fruit, water and a Milano cookie for good measure. We never really discuss who brings what except Cyn is a shoe-in for the Brach’s Candy Corn! We shop in the housewares stores and discuss recipes and cooking tools. We all bought a deep dish pan for $9.95…name brand! Deals like that are better than……oh well, you get the drift. (Chocolate, get your mind clear will ya!) Men, I’d like to hear from you…..what do you bring? Suffice it to say, I have heard the following: corn nuts, beef jerky, Oreos, and Bud. Correct me on the record so I can rest easier tonight. Although, as an Italian mother, I would pack food for my son.
- Finally, we purchase the same things. We were in the Vera Bradley outlet for no lie, 90 minutes. One would find something and the other would say, “I love that, would you mind if I got that too?” We all left with the same weekender bag (ladies: what a steal at $50.00); new wallets and totes. I even got a new yoga mat. Did it matter that we were shopping in the shadows of two huge nuclear reactors? No. Did it matter that the rain was so bad that the National Weather Service was calling for flash floods? Not even close. “It’s the climb” my friends said! Guys, do your gun bags match? Do you shop at Orvis together for matching fly fishing gear and lures?
At the end of this spectacular shop-and-eat-a-palooza, we stop at a local diner, downwind of same serious Amish horse/cow farms and sit down for the best breakfast you can get for $8.00. We relive the killer deals at Tommy, Reading China and Glass and Vera Bradley. Those Maidenform bras we got for $3 feel even better today. We prepare for our last stop of the weekend at the “craft lady”.
For 19 years we have been stopping at this woman’s home made craft shop and until the past maybe 10 years, we did not know her name. Now Charlotte has become part of this intertwined girls club. She has seen us through pregnancies, miscarriages, breast cancer, knee surgeries, divorce, hysterectomies and just plain life. When we pulled up to her shop yesterday, I saw a woman at her truck, moving a bit slow, looking a bit thinner and a smile hidden under her hat. We called out her name and it was Charlotte. I knew then something was wrong. She told us about the loss of her husband in January. He was ill and passed on just a few months after we saw him last. He was kind and gentle and helped us with directions, lifting our new found treasures into the car and he even gave me the recipes I still use for making the Thanksgiving turkey (lay the bird on top of celery and carrots). Over the years, Charlotte shared stories of her life too. Stories of family illness, weddings, births and now a death. My heart breaks for you Charlotte and I am so sorry for your loss. You are profoundly tied to this foursome of crazy Italian women who love you and thank you for being part of our lives.
I am not sure if men have this type of thing with other men; guys that maybe they golf with, or fish with. If you do not, gentlemen, you should. Italian or not, go find someone and hug them, I mean really hug them literally or in deeds and actions. You will be a better person for it. I know I am.
Hello and welcome.
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