Dishing dames

Sitting here at my desk watching delicate snowflakes fall I ponder the words, “’Tis the season.”

What exactly does that mean? ‘Tis the season for joy and celebration? ‘Tis the season for stress and an overwhelming feeling of time running out? ‘Tis the season for sadness and longing? ‘Tis the season for expectations? ‘Tis the season for love?

It seems the holidays bring out every emotion imaginable, magnified to the highest power.

This weekend was the first “Brunch Sunday” with the girls, where we have decided to all get together once a month for delectable foods and alcoholic beverages (and keep them coming!) – Mimosas and Bloody Marys being the drinks of choice. We ended by moving right into a glass of wine before we all rolled out of there.

No, not really rolled – but we did close the place down, as we couldn’t get enough of the cozy, homey feel of Perigee, which I just can’t say enough good things about, as it’s owned by one of my bestest girlfriends in the world!

Festive lights and evergreens are laced throughout, making for a magical feeling in the air; as for the food… it was nothing short of scrumdiddlyumptious, from Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon and quiche to hot Mexicano dishes my two girlfriends partook in with vigor.

The meal ended with mouth-watering s’mores bread pudding and a delicious crumble topped with the best homemade ice-cream; we all shared. Am I making you hungry? I’m making myself hungry.

It was the perfect beginning to my week.

With discussions of psycho-vampire stalkers on roofs and blowing up cell phones, not to mention work phones, kinky sex toys, new and old ex-boyfriends, our kids’ new attitudes, one of my girlfriends being ready for something new and delightful “just around the corner” (love that movie!), which brought us to my dreamt up matchmaking service and our sappy renditions of the song “Memories” by Babs.

It was an afternoon full of fun, and truthfully, I didn’t want to go home, but all good things have endings, so we all said, “Ta-ta” and were off to our individual lives.

I thought it was the perfect beginning, but as it turns out, my week, not so perfect, and let me just say there’s nothing worse than thinking you know someone, but you really don’t. I’m sure many of you have encountered these disappointments, but sadly when these things happen I start to lose faith in mankind. It sounds silly, but it’s truth.

It’s disappointing when we sometimes can’t help but to place simple expectations of courtesy on people or hope they will act as we would, but alas it seems we get let down.

My mom always would say, “Don’t expect, just be happy and surprised if they do.”

Yet she had her own expectations like all; I guess it’s easy to say, but when it comes down to feelings, you just can’t turn those off no matter how hard you try, right?

I believe if a person says something and you feel one way, your feelings are always valid and real and should never be discounted.

I know during times of the month and in our menopause years feelings can topple off the Richter scale and I take that into consideration, but only me. “Blame it on the hormones” is so easy for the men to do, and maybe – just maybe – sometimes they need to take responsibility for our moods, too, don’t ya think? Enough said.

I happily ended my day from hell dipping my feet in the bubbles with my savior girlfriend; now our toes look like sugarplums!

Life is full of so many amazing delights: candy canes and pretty lights, hugs and sweet children’s faces, just as it’s full of disappointments and stress and the urge to yank our hair out or go full-on combat with the lady who cut us in line or grabbed the last Furby (hehe).

And so, when we say, “’Tis the season,” perhaps we mean just that – our emotions are so much in a whirlwind we can’t know or understand why. So we say it out loud, “’Tis the season!”

May yours be bright.

Ciao Bella

Posted by Janel M. Harrison on November 29, 2012. Filed under Columns,Girl-2-Girl,Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry