Monday Memory: Girls' Weekend

Used to be, years ago, the boys would go on a weekend rafting trip each September. Before Dr. H. was a professor, he was a raft guide. OK, long, long before he was a professor, when we were first married, he used to guide down the Nolichucky River in upper East Tennessee. It wasn't a particularly lucrative career, but who thinks about such things when you are in your early 20s?

But I digress. Our friend Steve used to orchestrate a guys' rafting weekend each September. And obviously if the boys are going rafting, the girls are going shopping, and eating, and in the case this year, baby showering. I am actually 6 months pregnant with Duncan in this photo, which was taken on my front porch. My friends surprised me with presents, which is always nice.

These are most of my best college girlfriends (except Giedra, who married in but seems as if she's always been around). We've all been together since then at weddings, showers and birthdays, but this was the last fall that we had an official girls'/guys' weekend extravaganza.

I miss those weekends. There are now nine children among the six of us in the photo, and children do have a tendency to make weekend visits more difficult. As far as I know (unless Dr. H. has dropped off the invitation list), the guys have ceased their September rafting trip. We're spread out through several states now—Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois— and free weekends are hard to come by. We still get together with various college friends, and our friends get together with each other, but I'd love another full-fledged girls' weekend.

(And this time, Julie, you're coming, too!)