The "Girls"

What an interesting week I have had. It's been one filled with lunches and suppers with my girlfriends. I pause when I use the word girlfriends, to wonder if my husband would ever say he has had lunch with his boyfriends?? Of course, that would be never. He would either say friends or buddies. Girlfriends is an old fashioned word that became another word  used to demean women, especially in the work place. I usually say "women friends" but again I have never heard my husband refer to his friends as "man friends". He simply says friends and leaves it to the listener to find out if they are male or female. I haven't asked him, but I doubt he cares what gender people think his friends are. So why do I find it necessary to distinguish? I never go out with male friends on my own. It would be a safe bet to assume anytime I refer to "going out with friends" on my own they are going to be female unless it is a party and I would say that.
So I will begin again, by saying I had a great week spending time with friends. I had coffee with Wendy and Geri where we talked about politics, our houses, travelling and our kids. I had lunch with Barb who shared some of her experience walking the el Camino trail, after which, we traded writing stories as we are both fledgling writers. Our lunch spread out for three hours of good book talk, people talk and  about our own efforts to write.
I met with Marilyn, Carol and Maxine where I heard about the amazing vacation Marilyn and Carol had in Italy and Spain. Maxine shared some of her recent trip to the Balkans. I had a grand time enjoying these trips vicariously. Marilyn has been travelling the globe for two years without a home base, a dream of hers she has realized after retiring. She is getting ready to settle in one place now so we talked to her about this new adventure.  We moved on to talk about the politics in education and what are the latest trends in hairstyles.
Lunch with my beautiful youngest daughter at noon on Saturday found us talking about Weight Watchers and her new potential boss and a course she thinks she will be taking. We ended our time talking about Christmas gifts and having a laugh over dropped panties and a near collision with another car.
Saturday night rounded out the week with a supper date with my sister in law--she is the only one I have on my husband's side. We shared work stories, family stories and why people do what they do stories. She may be on the precipice of making a significant change to her life circumstances. I was pleased for her and excited she may have this opportunity.

With the exception of my daughter these friends are all over 50.  Woohoo!!!