Chicks rock

Through my life I've been rather fortunate to have made some freakin fantastic friends of the female variety. Moreso from high school and beyond, 'cause let's face it, being the chunky kid is not cool when you're 12. If there's one thing I know to be true, it's that little girls are bitches.

I'm the type of person who loves to meet new people. I've always had a large circle of friends and consider myself very fortunate as a result. When I got married, my gals included great friends from high school, university, and someone I met through work. Friendships come and go, but these gals (and many others) have always been there for me.

Unfortunately, it's not so easy for me to see them these days. One is a super busy teacher who lives downtown. Another lives with her husband and kids in BC, and the third recently moved to Waterloo to start a new job and shack up with her boyfriend.

Enter WB. A delightful well of new people and, thankfully, new friends. Fresh gal pals. People who can relate to me on the infertility front. People who got or are getting married in the not too distant past/future. Hell, people who are none of the above but still incredible women all the same. People who make me laugh til I pee, make me cry my face off, and keep me sane when I think this trying-to-get-pregnant thing is going to take over my life.

Since joining just over two years ago, I've met 28 different gals from all over the place. And just this past weekend, I had 9 of them over at my house for an evening of muchies, girl talk, and Dirty Dancing (the movie, not the activity). Hubs was thrilled.

It's been a while since I've spent an entire evening with just gals, and I'd honestly forgotten just how freakin fun it can be. How everything is a joke, how any word or phrase can be cleverly twisted around to have a sexual connotation, and how laughing at pretty much everything is a darned good way to cure whatever ails you.

It made me remember girls' nights of years gone by with people who've really been there for me, and was an excellent little mental tweak to get me to reach out and see how everyone is, try to plan ways to see them. So I'm glad we're going bowling for wannabefrenchies birthday in two weeks. I'm glad I'll be in BC at the end of April for a conference so I can see Ange again, and I'm glad CJ will be in town, albeit for a short time only, this Thursday so we can catch up on all the new developments in our lives. I'm glad my roommate from first year and her family will be coming to our house for dinner on Saturday. And I'm glad that I have a gazillion email accounts to choose from when sending the quick hello to gals I haven't chatted with in a long time that I WILL get around to very soon.

Now don't get me wrong - girls can be bitches at any age and any stage of life. They can talk about you behind your back, try to move in on your man, do everything possible to one up you in any number of ways. As I get older and my leisure time diminishes I realize just how important it is to spend that time wisely, and to make a conscious decision about who will share that time with you. Banished from my social landscape are the negative nellies who do nothing but bring everyone down. I just don't have time for their bullshit on top of mine, ya know? Okay, so your life is shit - don't drag everyone else along for the ride!

I choose who I want to spend my precious time with, and am I ever glad I literally stumbled upon this incredible group of women who have now become more than faceless personalities on a computer screen...a good number of them have become very close friends. People I now choose to spend my free time with, that rare commodity that it is. Happily.

So call your girlfriends, book a date, and spend some time together. Grab some chick flicks, a few bags of chips and a bottle (or seven) of wine and laugh till you cry. It'll do ya a world of good. Sure worked for me!

Big hello to all my girl friends, old or new. Thanks for just being there, for putting up with me, and for enriching my life.

And that's your daily dash. How's your diva doin'?

Hola chickas!

Hello my lovelies. Yes, I'm back from Cuba. Been back for two days, and only now can I muster the wee strength necessary to slink onto the blog and say hi.

Trip was good, and I promise promise promise to regale you with witty anecdotes and many a snapshot within the next day or so. But for now, I must take my broken (had session with personal trainer tonight), weary (this whole getting up early in the morning thing is brutal), mentally exhausted (work is crazy - it's like all of last week has been crammed into the past few days), and throbbing (oh the joys of those pesky cysts) body to my incredibly comfortable bed.

Humblest of apologies for the long absence and this all-too-brief teaser post, but I gots to get me some rest.

Besides, Hubs said he'd rub my sore back for me. And no self respecting diva can turn down a backrub offer.

Ciao, chicas. Hasta luego.

And that's your very overdue daily dash. How's your diva doin'?

The end is in sight!

That's right, all my important meetings/events are done and went swimmingly well, I finally dug my summer shoes out of the closet to pack them, and we seem to have come through the other side of this insane weather system. For the next few days, at least.

I find myself supremely relieved and infinitely satisfied in the way the past few days have gone. I'm exhausted, yes, both mentally and physically, but the end is most certainly in sight.

Thank gawd.

I knew this day would come, that I'd make it through and things would go well, but now that I've made it to the other side I simply couldn't be happier. Now all I have to do is prevent myself from getting sick - that's my normal trademark move when I come out of an elongated period of high performance stress.

Let's hope the echinacea does the trick.

In other news, I managed to get home a little early today so Hubs and I ran some of our last minute errands. We hit the Dollarama and bought all sorts of stuff to take to Cuba with us for the resort staff. That's one of the great parts about trips to Cuba - the (predominantly) women who work hard to clean our rooms are so appreciative of what we leave behind that it makes every penny we dropped tonight worth it - and then some. Screw altruism - I get a real kick out of doing something, even something minute, that might help in someone in an equally minute way.

Yeah, I'm in it for the feel good feeling.

That's pretty much it for today. Yes, I never caught a GO train this morning because they were so screwed up and it took Hubs and I three hours to get where I needed to be, but no point in dwelling about that now. The sun came out, our errands are done, I've found my shoes, and there are now a mere three sleeps before we blow this pop stand.

The end is most certainly in sight!

And that's your daily dash. How's your diva doin'?