Ladies Circle

A week or so ago I decided that I wanted to get a group of women together on a regular basis to have some girl time. I live on the perfect street for this because many of the women are already close and they want to hang out with each other. Knowing that women often don't do the things they want to do because of all the things they have to do, I figured that if I hosted something maybe the ladies would stop by. I knocked on doors over the weekend and handed out invitations. Everyone was warm and enthusiastic about the idea.

Last Tuesday was our first get together. Four ladies came and it was lovely. The invitation said to bring whatever crafty thing you wanted to work on, that I had plenty of table space and lighting and we could scrapbook or crochet or whatever. Not everyone is crafty but those of us who are love a reason to sit down and work on our favorite project. I personally love crochet and cross stitch but I have attended scrapbooking crops with my crochet bag just to hang out with friends. I wanted this group to be open and welcoming to any of the ladies whether they were crafters or not. For the first night we ended up sitting at my kitchen table eating the snacks I had prepared and getting to know each other.

I'm not sure how I'm gonna handle names in this blog as I use pseudonyms for everyone except my dog and myself. I think I will confuse myself if I make up names for these ladies as I am still learning their names, not to mention the fact that I don't know them well enough to make up a new name for them! Let's try descriptions for now.

One lady is a Puerto Rican attorney with three kids. She is the type of person who questions everything, she has a very inquisitive mind and is very smart. Maybe The Closer fits her. She isn't crafty so I told her she could read to us. Before you know it we will be wearing hoop skirts and stitching by kerosene lantern.

Guest number two is a lovely British transplant who has lived in the states for over 50 years. She is small and delicate and soft spoken and yet she shocked us all by announcing that she wants to be on Dancing with the Stars! How about Ginger for Ginger Rogers, the most famous dancer I can think of...

Guests three and four are a mother and daughter originally from Indiana. The mother lives in the basement of her daughter's house with her husband of 59 years who is suffering from alzheimers. We will call her The Preacher's Wife. The daughter lives upstairs with her husband and four children, for now I'll call her the Preacher's Kid or PK.

The ladies were all completely lovely and everyone was enthusiastic about having this kind of a get together. I never specified whether I wanted to do it every Tuesday, but I think I do. This week only the Preacher's Wife came, as I said I never specified so I imagine Ginger wasn't sure whether or not I was doing it again. PK send word (and cookies) through her mom that she couldn't make it. I didn't hear from The Closer or any of the other ladies from further down the street, but I'm gonna make sure everyone knows this weekend that it will be a weekly thing.

PW and I had a lovely visit. We sat in my office/craft room and I cross stitched while she told me about her life. I asked about her children and her siblings and just let her entertain me. I don't know why I wasn't in the mood to chatter like I normally do, but I was much happier listening than talking last night. This was more noticeable later when PW left and I called the girl who lives directly across from me. She is my closest friend so far on the street. She is adorable. She is a stay at home mom of three and is orginally from this area which is unusual in the DC suburbs. Let's call her Patsy. I love that name. I called Patsy when PW left, to offer her some of the brownies I had made for everyone. She has not been able to come either week because her husband is in crunch time at his work and comes home late. Last week I took her a plate of snacks and told her all about it, this week we talked on the phone for an hour. Well, she talked, I listened. About halfway through she said "I'm babbling, usually you chew my ear off and this time I'm doing all the talking." As I said, for some reason I was just in a listening mood. It was a lovely way to spend a rainy evening, cross stitching on a project I haven't touched in months and gabbing on the phone with a girlfriend, something that no one seems to have time for anymore!