Weekend With Friends

It was so exciting, waiting for them to arrive, I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve. I had lit candles, uncorked some wine, put away the random piles of paper which inevitably clog around my desk … Everything was ready.

I love these girls. They are ROCKS in my life. Forever there. And yet … they’re not like rocks at all, in that they are constantly changing, evolving … and our relationships have never been static. Obviously, a lot has changed since we were in grade school together, but the friendships have grown into adult bonds which enrich my life completely. I am very fortunate in that I have many friends, from all the different phases of my life: college, the Chicago years, grad school friends, work friends … but there is just something about those childhood friends. The high-school friends. I feel I could not get along without them!

The 2 of them arrived bearing enough food for a week (I said, “Uh … we do have grocery stores here, guys!”), sleeping bags, a blow-up mattress, trial size shampoo and conditioner, Beth had clothes hanging in the back of her car, and they had also brought me my very own pumpkin, straight from Rhode Island.

I love my pumpkin.

We were all quite giddy. Giddy to be together, but also giddy because they were on unfamiliar turf, and I was in the unfamiliar position of hosting THEM. Usually it is the other way around.

I poured some wine, in my new wine glasses, and we toasted.

We basically blabbed our heads off all weekend.

Maybe 2 hours into our visit, there was a brief pause, where we were talked out for the moment. And Beth said, immediately, “What if we’ve already run out of things to say to each other?”

I took them up to my roof, to show off the spectacular view of Manhattan. We carried our wine up there (of course) –

It was a beautiful night. Could not have been better. The city had put on its finest array, showing off for my two friends. It glittered, it unfurled across the horizon, it took our collective breaths away. There was a light wind. We sat, we drank, we talked about everything. We talked about the view, but we also talked about our lives. All of THAT information is confidential!

But life was good. Life was SO good.

And, of course, we laughed like maniacs.

A small moth drowned in Betsy’s glass of wine. Beth picked it out with her fingers, and then we encouraged Betsy to continue drinking.

And so she did.

As we all would have done.

We talked late into the night. We had no plans for the next day. Which was part of the greatness of the visit. We felt no obligation to race about DOING things. That was not the reason for the visit!

Then came lights out.

Darkness.

Silence.

Beth broke the silence, saying, “This is ridiculous. I am smiling in the dark.”

We just ROARED. We all were just so HAPPY … and the image of Beth lying down on the blow-up mattress, grinning ear to ear in the darkness…

Too funny.

The next morning, I made pot after pot of coffee. The rain came down lightly, sometimes the sun shone … a lovely day. We did not get out of our pajamas until … I’m thinking 1 pm? We sat around, we drank coffee, and we TALKED. It was great.

Usually, when I come home to visit Rhode Island, and I get together with those guys … it’s only a couple of hours. We meet up on Beth’s deck, we drink wine, we have food, we hang out for 3 or 4 hours.

So it was luxurious to have an entire weekend.

Finally, we went into the city. We went tattoo-shopping in the East Village. Beth suddenly decided she wanted one, and she was afraid, so I took her to St. Marks Place (Tattoo Row), and we shopped around. Tattooing did not end up occurring.

I bought enormous pink sunglasses, as a goof. When I say enormous, I mean enormous. I looked like a caricature drawing of Gloria Steinem. I wore them walking down the sidewalk, and noticed people trying desperately not to judge me. And we were in the East Village, where everybody looks like a freak!!

We went to Dempsey’s Pub, where my sister bartends. I strolled in breezily, with the glasses on. Siobhan, behind the bar, saw me come in, obviously did not recognize me, and obviously immediately thought: “Who is this lunatic freak coming in my bar” and she said to me, “What’s up?” in the funniest tone possible. She was trying to be polite, trying not to openly gawk at the ridiculous glasses, but she also was keeping her distance from the obviously crazy woman (who she did not even recognize as her sister.)

“Uh … Siobhan? It’s me.”

We went down to Battery Park City at sunset time.

We sat on benches, staring out at the Statue of Liberty. I’m not really good at describing the beauty of nature, but … the sky, the sunset, these low dark-grey clouds, moving across the horizon, with a pale blue wash of a night sky stretching above … with this teeny almost-not-there sliver of a moon … We just sat and watched night fall, completely entranced with it.

Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn’t.

It was so beautiful. Just so beautiful.

Betsy asked if Ground Zero were near … so we walked up to go to Ground Zero.

We stood. We looked. It was night.

Floodlights.

It still is … a stunner. How large the hole is. How enormous the space is.

The cross. Towering above all.

People selling cotton candy. I wanted to run over and knock over their kiosk.

Betsy had not been there before. Beth and I both had. It was important for Betsy to see it. To make it “concrete”. Again, for all of us, the journey is: how do we understand this event? How do we get our brains around it?

It was very special, to be there, at that space, with my 2 dear friends.

Dinner at Puck Fair, where my friend Wade was bartending. A good time. Excellent food. Much laughter. I wore the glasses in the bar. Like a jackass. Beth couldn’t even look at me.

Sunday morning: again with the coffee and lying about in pajamas.

We ended up descending into SUCH a girlie pursuit: pulling out a couple of the books I have on astrology, and reading out loud to each other pertinent astrological information.

Pisces, Taurus, and Sagittarian.

I read Beth her Taurus information, and there was one bit, one “trait” I read (which I will not reveal here … right, Beth??) and Beth literally was ROLLING around on the floor laughing.

We actually learned a lot about each other, thru this astrological nonsense.

Things to work on, challenges we face … all taken with a grain of salt, of course, but interesting nonetheless.

I did a command performance of my “74 Facts” piece for them, since they will not be able to come next week.

Then … they packed themselves up … and I stood on the sidewalk, and waved … as they drove off.

I felt … so full. So happy. So … BLESSED. That’s really the word. Blessed.

Blessed to have them in my life in this way. After all these years.