The Importance of Girlie Fun

When is the last time you had girlie fun? Do you even know what that is - or what it is to you? I grew up with a sister two years and ten months younger than me. And while we are very different in some respects, we are intimately close in others that count far more. She was and still is the more chic, girlie girl than me, I was the tomboy climbed on top of the tallest branch of the tree with my long fingernails painted red. But she was the one that from the age of 3, color coordinated her outfits, pony tails, shoes, and purses. In high school she would spend one hour every night picking out the next day's school outfit, only to change it three times the next morning. Still, we had so much fun together. We could just make a party out of getting ready to go have a night on the town.

My most memorable girlie fun night happened 17 years ago (God I'm getting old, especially because I remember it like it was yesterday). I was 19 and she was 17, we had just arrived in Buenos Aires earlier that day without our parents, we were supposed to meet them a week later in our native Mendoza. That night, our cousin flew in from Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Carolina was (and is) 16 days younger than me. She had lived with us in Florida for a year the previous year. We spent all night drinking champagne and getting ready like only girls can, walking around with hair in towels, taking turns at the bathroom mirror, sharing hair dryers, picking out and modeling the best evening outfit for a hot night club in the city of B.A. Since it was July, freezing, and raining, and this was B.A., leather was it. Black leather pants, leather jackets, long straight hair and great makeup that we'd all worked onto each others' faces. All the while, dancing around to Madonna's Immaculate Collection, replaying over and over our theme song, "Holiday." It was the most perfect girlie fun night ever.

But now being older and a mom, girlie fun has taken a different meaning. Going out with your best girl friends to have some wine and sushi on a weekend night to an outside restaurant that with luck, will place some cool jazz, dressing up in our sexy clothes for no one but ourselves is my idea of a girlie night.

Equally, staying in on a Saturday night with your best girl gal in pj's with some wine watching The Bridges of Madison County, after a night of chatting, exchanging ideas, painting each other's toes, and having a bitch session about whatever is not going well in your life is equally appealing. One afternoon I had a great time putting blond streaks on my friend, Vanessa's hair, which ended up needing professional touch up. But the value in that was that she trusted me to do that when I'd never done it before. But after a couple of glasses of wine we thought it was okay for a first try. The fun is what counted.

So do yourself a favor, for just one night, quit reading to your kids, quit giving your best to those you love and give your best to yourself and your girl friends, whom are also flowers in your garden that need tending to, so that when your garden is old and beautiful, you will still have those beautiful flowers holding steadfast on those strong roots for you to cherish. Much love goes out to my best friends who support my craziness despite my rigid ideas.