Despite everything, me and the Women Who Run With the Moose are still doing our girls night once a week. Hey, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right? We used to call it “Girls Night Out.” Now we refer to it as our “Girls Night Outside.” We get together on
assorted decks, patios, screened in porches and the like. Truth be told, our social distancing has become a little lax, but there’s still sanitizer on the potluck table, and we mask up when we’re serving ourselves. You can find ways to have fun and still be careful, right?
Like last Thursday, we got together over to Shirley’s place. She has this nice, big deck, and part of it’s screened in, which is great because it’s getting dark earlier now, and those mosquitoes can be real pesky. We decided to go with a “Throwback Thursday” theme because, well, it was Thursday and we’re running out of ideas for our theme nights.
For drinks, Shirley served up Tom Collins and Sombreros (remember those?). On the menu, get this: pigs in a blanket, meatballs in cream of mushroom soup, celery with cream cheese, and an iceberg lettuce salad served with Thousand Island dressing. Classic! There were deviled eggs and Ambrosia salad, too. Retro to some, but honey, that’s just how we roll. For dessert, Betty baked this amazing pineapple upside down cake. Why don’t people make this anymore? She knocked it out of the park with that one.
In keeping with the theme, we reminisced like only old friends can. We talked about going to the Women Who Runs With the Wolves study group down to the library. How those gals didn’t know the first thing about getting in touch with their wild women within (or about having fun, for that matter). So we decided to form our own group, Women Who Runs with the Moose, and well, the rest is history.
We retold the story about that time when we were at Kohls trying on Spanky’s and Rita managed to wedge herself into one that was so small she couldn’t walk in it. She had to sort of hop out of the dressing room. It took all five of us to peal it off her. We thought we were going to have to bring in the jaws of life! Wait! It don’t stop there. We got to laughing so hard, Shirley peed the Spanky she was trying on and had to buy it. And it wasn’t even the right size!
We remembered the night we saw the Chippendales at Mark showplace and that whole episode when Rita had a crush on the UPS guy. How Shirley never did get in the groove with our Zumba class and looked more like she was doing Irish step dancing. How sexy Elvis was.
We made a rule, though: we could only talk about fun things. No need to get into illnesses, deaths, or rocky patches in our lives. (You feel those things hovering in the background, right? They’re just not invited to the party, is all) Don’t know about you, but I’d rather be laughing with friends in a screened in porch on a beautiful late summer night in Maine.
We left our Throwback Thursday party feeling lighter and more connected. I mean, my sides hurt from laughing. I paid for it later that night, though. I just can’t eat rich like that anymore, and I had the senior size heartburn to prove it.
Summer’s winding down, folks. The first leaves are starting to turn. But before it’s gone, take time to connect with friends. Bring your mask and have sanitizer at the ready, and eat, drink, and be merry. But maybe you should skip the pigs in a blanket.
That’s it for now. Catch you on the flip side!
Hear Ida Tell It: Girls Night Out(side)