Hop, Skip and Go Naked

We didn't actually do any of those things, but that was the name of the drink that we had last night.

No, it wasn't another cousins' day, but it was a cousins' day spin-off, getting together with the women of "the Pinata group," the families we have known since college, before we were all married, before we all had kids.

As I mentioned yesterday, I think, this was the first time the women got together without the men. We had planned to do this before Michele died and were only waiting for Jeri to be home so that we could use her house. It was sad that Michele wasn't there to be with us, since she had been looking forward to it as much as the rest of us were.

There were five of us and we met at Jeri's house (our Jeri's godmother, and for whom she was named). Jeri has the best house for this gathering because, sadly, her husband died in May of last year. She now lives most of her year in their mobile home on property they bought in Arizona, but they have this lovely home outside of Sacramento too, with plenty of places for people to sleep, and no husband to relocate so the women can spend some "girl time" alone.

(Jeri's shirt said it very nicely: "Friends are forever, never apart...Maybe by distance, but not by heart.")

Char, driving up from the San Francisco Bay Area, picked me up and then we stopped in Sacramento to get Pat. Audrey was coming from a different area and was driving by herself. While we waited for her to come we started playing a game of 65...by the end of this morning I had made new converts to the game. I think we only played 3 games, and I won two of them (honest! I didn't cheat!)

Jeri made a drink called "Hop, Skip and Go Naked," which she learned from my daughter. It's vodka, beer, and lemonade. Tasty little bugger that goes down entirely too smoothly! While we were having our hors d'oeuvres and drinks, we called Jan, who wasn't able to attend, so that she could talk with each person, since she's Char's friend and has met me, and possibly Pat, but hasn't seen us in about 40 years.

Pat - Audrey - Jeri

We ordered a pizza, then watched Audrey's photos of her recent trip to Hawaii, then had dessert, talked some more and finally turned in around midnight. Over the course of the day we had covered everything from grandbabies to politics and everything in between. There were some lump-in-the-throat moments when we talked about people, like Michele and Jeri's husband Bill, who are no longer with us.

Char mentioned how her mother is constantly reminding her of how lucky she is to have this wonderful group of friends who have been not only a part of her life, but a close part of her life for 50 years. I think we all are aware of how fortunate we are and how few people manage to have this kind of close circle of friends.

After breakfast and one final game of 65 (I won), we packed up, hugged each other and headed home.

(my winnings!)

Given the opportunity to do this on a regular basis, I think this has the real potential to turn into as special an event as cousins day has become in my life!

Pat, Audrey, Jeri, Char and my hand