Reflections on the trip

So, I haven’t been able to sleep a full night.  This is highly unusual.  It’s because I’m doing a fair bit of soul searching.  Having just returned from my vacation with the Babes, I’m traumatized.  Why, why, why?

The Babes are turning into old friends in more ways that one!!!  Time marches on.  This year two of them bought everyone a towel that announces the 20th anniversary.  Being the newest member of this august group, I marvel at that achievement.  Being the newest member is a kwirk of fate.  I have known many of the Babes for years and years.  The coveted inclusion into the group is not easy to achieve and it was years before an invitation was extended.  That being said, I are one now!!

Individually these women have achieved great things chief among them staying married to the same man their entire adult life.  This is no easy fete.  For anyone.  But many of them can boast about this.  And they have raised a family.  This is triumphal.  Many held jobs with great responsibilities.  Wonder women, really.

And perhaps the most impressive thing is that they have learned to play golf!!!  Perhaps the cruelest game ever devised by man…and they are very good players and don’t mind playing for 4-5 days in a row.  Is that fabulous or what?

So what’s the problem?  Is there a problem?

Am I the problem?  Perhaps I am.  My politics are 180 degrees from theirs.  I think global warming is real because a majority of all serious scientists worldwide believe it to be true.  And I confirm that the world got warmer this week in Aptos with the steam emminating from our condo!!

My opinion of Sarah Palin is that she is an airhead.  They like her.  Okay.  We can find some common ground.  She is a likable airhead!!  The list goes on.  But does any of that matter.  I say no.  They are just opinions presented forcefully at times and formed based on our life adventures.  Or misadventures in my case!!

Am I too too?  Too dominating?  Too neutral?  Too opinionated?  Too wishy washy?  Too tall, too short?  Too happy?  Too angry?  Too up?  Too down?  The list does on.  The possibilities are endless.

Ah, ha.  Too many chiefs and not enough Indians.  Now that could be a problem because many of us are type A and like to be in charge.  There is some real possibility that this could cause a problem or two….you think?

Then there is the age issue.  As you age, the area of your cerebral cortex “atrophies” and you say things you would have never uttered a decade back.  So there is that.  Another very good possibility.  And as we age our memory goes bonkers.  Wandering through the house wondering where we put this or that or the other.  Leaving things where they shouldn’t be.  Losing things beside our minds.  It is a scream.  Where are my glasses?  Oh, on my head!!   Where is my pencil?  Or, behind my ear!!

But this is where I have to turn the page and think about all those good times.  They far outweigh the “other” times.  To this there can be no doubt.  And one of the original Babes had the brilliant idea to chronicle the comings and goings every year and documented her remarks with pictures.  It is quite remarkable.

So, for all our trauma and drama, I say, let the games continue.  There’s more golf to be played, more food to be eaten, more wine to be drunk…yes, even more cigarettes to be smoked before they put us into the ground…or scatter us at sea.

That’s my vote and I’m sticking to it.  But I might recommend that we adopt the Larry Hazen method of assignment for who plays with whom.  Who cooks with whom.  Even who rides to the golf course with whom.  It is a sure way to eliminate hurt feels.  And hurt feelings are no fun for those with those hurt feelings nor are they fun for those that caused the hurt feelings.  And the rest of group is thus in a situation of reconciling their feelings about those hurt feelings…and the beat goes on.

So, I publicly am apologizing for any and all faux pas I have made.  I’ll try like the dickens not to do any more faux pas (a french phrase).  But really, what was Meg Whitman thinking?




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