It’s so hard to make time for reconnecting with friends when you have your kids’ tournaments or recitals every weekend. Then there’s the house projects, the school volunteering, the job, the hubby, the extended family, and Effin’ Dog to take care of.

I have recently begun to feel my kids slipping away into independence. They need me less, and frankly, it’s frickin’ awesome. This little bit of free time that I’m discovering has made me realize that in a blink I’ll be much more available for things that don’t involve carpools and I’ll be able to hang out with the girls more. In the last two weeks I have spent time with good friends from college whom I haven’t seen in about 10 years (cuz they are Easterners now) and friends from high school (thank god we all still look pretty good, wrinkles, pooches and all).

Escape from reality...

An overnighter with Kai and The Other Erin was the best we could do with our crazy schedules but we made it work. We spent the night at the luxurious Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, just a short drive for all of us but it felt like we were on another planet. We all arrived in the afternoon and immediately opened a bottle of wine and made ourselves a sassy cheese platter. We sat out in Adirondack chairs and enjoyed the coastal view and talked about everything from childbirth to the new miracle fat removal lasers. There is almost nothing that we don’t know about each other, we were together before we met our husbands and had kids. We only manage to see each other about once a year, but we always pick up right where we left off. I love these friends and hanging out with them made me realize how much they mean to me, there are only a handful of people who have held my hair while I prayed to porcelain gods and would do it again if I needed them to (which will hopefully never happen again).

Since these trips to Nostalgia Land, I feel an overall sense of Warm Fuzziness, like being back in your own bed after a long trip. I got to remember how it felt to be young and what I was like before I was somebody’s mom. And more importantly, we all agreed that as fun as those days were, none of us would go back in time in exchange them for the lives we lead now but it was nice a little break from reality. And while the Ritz doesn’t suck, we would have had just as much fun at a Motel 6 in Bakersfield with a bottle of Tickle Pink.

Take a time out from your responsibilities and find your old self with your old friends. Because when Mom’s happy, everybody’s happy.