Girlfriends

It's been an eternity since I have posted anything. March has been alright, as months go, but it felt like it flew past. Meanwhile, we've celebrated several occasions: St. Patrick's Day beginning with muffins, cheese fondue and cocktails here at our apartment, followed by pub crawling which took us well into the night with the ever-gorgeous and wonderful Lauren and her crew, my dear adorable best friend Andrea's birthday (hi AB!), which, well, I didn't really get to celebrate with her, obviously with the geographical challenge of her residency in Atlanta, but I did celebrate it in spirit by hanging out with Lauren and her collective once again in Spanish Harlem, and then Sunday, the first of my favorite month (as I am an Aries and an avid fan of my own birthday and particularly this coming one, which will send me into a whole new decade and hopefully womanhood) we traveled by the E train to Forest Hills where we helped my brilliant friend Aubree celebrate her 31st birthday. The above photograph depicts the tray of olives which I visited several times as well as Aubree's "chaser" beer which she opened with the intention of using to chase her "birthday shot" of Petron. Her husband Brian made sure to explain nicely that that was an extreme waste of beer. She wound up finishing it at some point. Anyway, Aubree threw herself quite the party, complete with gourmet cheeses (my favorite: goat cheese gouda, mmm) and breads and crackers, a cold cut tray, a tray of deliciously red tomato slices topped with fresh mozz, balsamic and basil, fresh vegetables and followed by an ice cream cake. Her friend Camille brought quiches, and her other friend whose name escapes me brought a chocolate peanut butter dessert. It was a really fun day at Aubree's. We watched their recently completed wedding video (they got married last summer). However, through the course of the day I developed a quickly paralyzing head cold which I managed to satiate until we got home in the evening, at which point I went immediately to bed around 8 and spent the entire night waking on the hour to drain as many pints of water as I could muster without floating down the hallway. Needless to say, there wasn't even a remote chance that I'd attempt to go to work today, so this Monday, the first Monday of my last month of being a 20-something, I have spent curled in a miserable ball on the couch watching so much Food Network that I could probably host a show of my own now. And now I'm drinking sweetened Chamomile tea and trying to figure out how to possibly finish my latest homework assignment and maybe even make dinner for Craig, who promised me he'd take care of me tonight when he gets home. So maybe I will skip making dinner and we will order in.*Having spent the past month with a few of my girlfriends, I've come to realize what an extremely blessed person I am for knowing so many gifted, gorgeous, wonderful and warm women. The revival of my friendship with Lauren since we lived far away from each other for so many years has been such good fortune for me. I miss Andrea and her friendship all the time, but I know we will always be close (and I didn't even know her over a year when we left Atlanta!) Aubree is an unbelievably heartfelt, sincere and beautiful woman (she came by earlier this month and we indulged in wine, spinach dip, cucumber sandwiches and delightful catch up conversation). Last week I attended my first book club meeting with my friend Emilie's book club. I took the train from Flushing to Park Slope, Brooklyn and that trip only took an hour! and I met up with Emilie beforehand to walk around Prospect Park (with her pup in tow) and then we went to a couple of chic boutiques before the meeting. All of the people in my new book club are amazing - there are even two men! And we ate olives, gourmet cheeses, hummus and drank wine and discussed On Beauty by Zadie Smith. The next person to host will be Fern (we're reading American Pastoral by Philip Roth), who also lives in Park Slope, followed by Pam who lives in Jersey. I would love to host after that but I may need to figure out something more clever than our postage stamp-sized apartment, like maybe a picnic at Central Park or even the intimate little wine bar around the corner. Anyway, having friends is important for so many reasons beyond just having someone to care about. It's therapeutic and secure. It's inspiration for so many good things still yet to come. It's a great way to enter my thirties, knowing I know so many brainy and insightful people.*As if it weren't apparent, this head cold has made me sentimental. I'm glad to be posting again. I've been away too long.