Scrapbook Getaway, Retreat, ‘Mommy Time’…

Every year, a friend of mine celebrates her birthday by meeting up with a group of friends to scrapbook for the weekend. One of the friends has a family hook-up to a beach house for the mere cost of $250 for Friday to Sunday. This is a house that would normally rent for $1500 or so per weekend. Very sweet deal. I’ve never been invited but have been hearing about this trip for the last few years, as kind of an ‘outer circle’ friend. But this year I got invited to go! As it happens, this birthday friend and I have become a lot closer lately. Our friendship was really sealed when we went on a European scrapbook cruise together last year. If you can survive overseas travel with a buddy and not want to kill them at any point, you are good friends! Truly, it was a wonderful experience and we still talk about how glad we are that the other person was there. We came from the same perspective of complete and total amazement that….OH….MY….GOD! We are in Europe! I’m totally digressing from my main point, but here is a funny story. The cruise was over and we were spending 2 days in Rome before we went home. After a quick hotel check-in, we got a cab to the area of the Coliseum and decided to have lunch at a sidewalk cafe across the street while waiting for our tour to start. My mom was with us too. My friend and I are both trying to casually order this cool ‘Italian sidewalk cafe lunch’ with our fancy Pellegrino water and we keep catching each other’s eye. It’s calm, quiet, casual all around our table. You know, the Italians are SO cool and even the tourists were chillin’. Finally we couldn’t stand it anymore and I burst out with, “Are you thinkin what I’m thinkin?”, and she says, “Yeah….” So we both look over at this monumental structure across the street, that we have read about and seen photos of and dreamed of visiting for years, and I say (pardon my French), “We’re eating lunch next to the fuckin’ Coliseum!”. And then we just lose it! I can’t explain it, I guess, but if you’ve ever anticipated a trip your whole life and then you finally get there, it’s just SO exciting! Btw, my mother (who hates profanity of any kind) just rolled her eyes at us…but I knew she understood.

So back to my point ~ and I did have one ~ that this friend and I shared such an awesome experience and now we feel bonded for life. And I finally got invited to the beach retreat. Which is this weekend! So I’ll be up super late doing laundry, packing, making some meals for the fam, and writing a blog entry. I probably couldn’t sleep if I tried. I hope to get a lot of scrappin and relaxin done. And I hope you also occasionally allow yourself a scrapbook getaway, a retreat from real life, some Mommy Time…because you deserve it. See ya’ Monday!