Friends, Food, and Frivolity

I just got back from a weekend at the beach with my two good friends Kelly and Amanda. We first met at UCP (United Cerebral Palsy Association) where we all worked. At that time, Kelly was a single mom from Arkansas, and Amanda and I were married with no kids. Now, 7 years later, Kelly is married and we have 6 children between the three of us. We decided the key to our friendship is that for several years we spent 40 hours a week in the same room, in addition to the fact that for whatever reason there was a lot of drama going on in our lives at the time--bad boyfriends, infertility, miscarriages, fights with co-workers and family, money troubles, etc. We went through it all, together in a musty room while working on support plans and training schedules.

Bryan went on a mancation several weeks ago and when he got home I asked (as I always do) what did you talk about? I'm not sure why I keep asking because the answer is never interesting, the answer being: cars, sports, and movies. I suppose for me a weekend away is a chance to catch up on adult conversation, get advice, and share stories.

Bryan asked when I got home, what did you guys do?

Do you see the difference in the questions?

To which I replied, Oh goodness, we talked, talked, talked, talked. Then we talked some more.

Here is the difference between men and women. Bryan and his friends talked about cars, sports, and movies.

And we talked about:
books
high school
college
old friends
new friends
work
kids
Oprah
religion (Amanda is Catholic, Kelly is Southern Baptist, I'm Mormon)
losing weight
gaining weight
clothes
coupons
food
music
husbands
mothers
fathers
getting grounded
sneaking out
dancing
Facebook
weather
buying houses
selling houses
shopping

That was only in the first hour. So we talked. We ate. We read a lot.

Also we played Settlers of Catan.
I lost horribly.

Kelly made us chicken fried steak for dinner.
She's from Arkansas, remember?

Here is Kelly calling her mama to laugh with her because neither Amanda or I have had chicken fried steak before.
Her mama is from Arkansas too.

Here are Sister Schubert's rolls, which apparently you can only
get in Texas or at the Walmart in Vancouver.
They are amazing, truly.

It was perfect.