bookends

M and I are off on an adventure. J will soon drop us at the airport and we'll fly south where M will spend a week at her grandparents in her own mini version of Older Americans Idolize Me and I will get to spend two days with two of my closest friends in the world. We are only together once a year, with N living in Syria trips home are infrequent. So we covet these yearly sabbaticals, these 48 hours of freedom and release and connection.

We will put on our sweats and go to our favorite taco stands and head back to E's house and eat and laugh and cry and love. We will hold each other and tease each other and come clean on some things. We will sleep late and swap books and talk about our children. We will remind each other of our youth and push each other forward. We'll go for long walks and gawk at good looking men just like we have done for the last 20 years. We will ooh and aah and say what we mean.

These are my sisters.

And they don't know about my blog. The last time we were together this was new and I hadn't yet met most if not all of you. How one puts that into words is daunting and we'll see if I spill the goods or not, if I can find the words to explain how extraordinary this place is and why I love it so. But either way, I won't be back for a few days.

Delicious weekend, all.