I remember when I first met Lori. Her little girls caught my attention. Twins. The towheads were in their Land's End quilted jackets, grey flannel skirts, navy knee socks, Mary Janes and LLBean tote bags with their names on them, M and C. M had glasses. C did not. They both had little white bows in their hair. They were adorable. Absolutely adorable. But I don't remember what Lori wore! I don't remember much about her, actually! They were a new family to the school. There was also a younger sister E, and a younger brother B. B was just a baby not yet a year. This family had just relocated from Dallas and were happier than heck to be in Connecticut. Eventually I saw beyond the girls to their beautiful and funny mother. And we became friends. We talked about academics and politics. Sometimes we see eye to eye and other times our views differ slightly. We seem never to run out of things to say. Last year she made the decision to pull the twins out of our school and place them in another one; a better fit for her family. We chatted initially on phone, then via email, then via Facebook. After months of talking about getting together we finally set a date. Besides, I wanted to see her belly, I mean her lovely face, as she is expecting Baby Number 5... another girl! (Poor, B... but Lori, he'll be fine, really.) I forgot to ask if she'd picked out a name? Hey Lori... please do not call this beautiful blue-eyed towhead Chanel! Chanel is not a name that would coordinate well with the madras and pink over at Pequot! I know you're laughing... you've never thought of that name... not in a million, not seriously at least... Really? Right? Say it ain't so!
And after a year there was so much to catch up on. And we barely stopped talking. (I wonder, did I stop talking?) I came up for air only to sip my iced coffee... we covered so many topics from school to education to summer reading lists to unruly children to diets to clothing and people and places and restaurants and events and charities and parties to cars to the government to cord blood banking to stem cells and genetic testing and gene isolation and pregnancy...to dictionaries and thesauruses to Google to dictionary.com to Wikipedia to books and movies to a potential book idea that I have... and only when I checked my phone to see if anyone had called did I realize how much time had passed. And just like that I had to say goodbye to set my sitter free.
So we made plans to meet up again. For lunch next time (after I am over the first phase of South Beach and can have a glass of wine) or with the children on the beach.
I was so happy to see the belly, I mean Lori!
Because I have my kids all summer, because I was a complete DoDo and have all the kids in different camps during different weeks (how could I have been SO stupid?!) I will make a point of getting a sitter each week so I can catch up with long lost friends... or not so long and not so lost friends!
Or maybe I will have them all over for cocktails, perhaps this Raspberry Mojito that looks sublime!
And after a year there was so much to catch up on. And we barely stopped talking. (I wonder, did I stop talking?) I came up for air only to sip my iced coffee... we covered so many topics from school to education to summer reading lists to unruly children to diets to clothing and people and places and restaurants and events and charities and parties to cars to the government to cord blood banking to stem cells and genetic testing and gene isolation and pregnancy...to dictionaries and thesauruses to Google to dictionary.com to Wikipedia to books and movies to a potential book idea that I have... and only when I checked my phone to see if anyone had called did I realize how much time had passed. And just like that I had to say goodbye to set my sitter free.
So we made plans to meet up again. For lunch next time (after I am over the first phase of South Beach and can have a glass of wine) or with the children on the beach.
I was so happy to see the belly, I mean Lori!
Because I have my kids all summer, because I was a complete DoDo and have all the kids in different camps during different weeks (how could I have been SO stupid?!) I will make a point of getting a sitter each week so I can catch up with long lost friends... or not so long and not so lost friends!
Or maybe I will have them all over for cocktails, perhaps this Raspberry Mojito that looks sublime!