Madison blogs - The Opposite of Fairweather Friends

Not long ago, one of the biggest storms to hit the Northeast struck and the weather people and anyone with a brain said “stay off the roads.” I was meant to travel to Boston for a girls’ reunion that weekend, and was desperate to get there. At the end of a hard year, I needed my girl time. My friend Zashiana was going to drive but we were nervous after seeing news reports of cars abandoned by the side of the road. Buses were cancelled, the trains were delayed or overbooked. Our girls getaway looked doomed. We were bummed.

My friends wanted this catch-up as much as I did. From Boston, Ann encouraged us to find a way to get there. Zashiana and I checked the weather and traffic reports as if we had OCD. Finally, we did it. We carefully hit the highway to Boston.

We reunited at the Hotel Commonwealth (http://www.hotelcommonwealth.com/) and set about the serious business of a girls’ getaway (it helped that the hotel had a package just for that purpose—one that includes gift boxes of Fresh goodies, money to spend at the restaurant, and a late check-out). We went out to see a band we loved when we were teenagers, we cracked open a bottle of wine, and we ordered plates of kids food from room service. We talked about our boyfriends, husbands, and dogs. Our jobs, our diets, and our fascination with Lady Gaga.

We laughed so hard that we didn’t hear room service arrive. We tried to take Ann’s advice for looking your best in a photo—it’s called “Chicken on a Log”, and you put your chin down and then jut it straight out. You feel like an idiot, and we failed to get one good photo out of the 50 frames we took. We stayed up late, we slept in, and we stuffed our faces with a yummy breakfast. Finally, in the afternoon, Zashiana and I headed the car back towards New York.

It was the perfect way to end one year and start a new one. More than anything, it reminded me to always carve out time for my girls, to block out (not pencil in) time for the friends who will pick me up off the floor if I’m down, and jump up and down like a maniac if I got the best news of my life.

You can’t do that on Facebook or with a text. But you can do it despite two feet of snow.