The Offspring Alarm Clock and the Need for Girls’ Weekends

10/03/2011

I was just recently given the chance to take 3 girlfriends along to a spa in either Niagara on the Lake or the Okanagan.  When I was contacted by Telus, the initial email had “Pink Network” in the subject line.  They had me at pink!

Of course, by PINK they are referencing October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month and their support through the Go Pink Campaign.  As someone with Breast Cancer in my family, I immediately agreed to do whatever I could to spread the word about their campaign.   Telus is going to be donating $25 to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for every pink BlackBerry Curve 9360 sold during the month of October.  So, you get to walk around with an adorable pink Blackberry and Telus makes a donation in your honour.  It is a great way to give to the CBCF!

Now, back to the contest…. how do I win (and if you are a girlfriend reading this – how do you get to come with me?) Well, all you have to do is retweet my posts about this with the @pinknetwork hashtag.  Easy peasy!

All of this looming girls weekend stuff got me excited and then got me reminiscing of my past girls weekends.  I was in a sorority (Delta Zeta) when I attended business school in Dallas, so I have tons of amazing memories staying up all night in the sorority house with my sisters.  These were classic girls’ weekends; hotels, parties, sorority houses, dorm rooms and more.  Now that I am nearing thirty and have a family, these types of girls’ weekends have become a bit of a distant memory.  That was up until mid-August when I was invited to a sleepover.  Yes – you heard right.  My friend was turning 31 and decided to have a girls’ sleepover (sans husbands and babies) at her families cabin.  I didn’t have the first idea of what to pack.  I quickly thought back to my University days – pajamas, liquor and a pillow… that didn’t seem quite right for my age and group of adult girlfriends.  That is pretty much exactly what I ended up brining.  Wine, PJ’s, my bathing suit and some snacks.  The only difference is that we all also brought our glasses (me for night driving!) our running shoes (for an early morning walk) homemade muffins and fruit salad for the morning, our entire evening face cleaning/moisturizing support team and some sleep socks (okay, that was just me!)  Our packing had certainly grown up with us!

The weekend started out slowly.  Us saying goodbye to the children and husbands (who looked a bit scared, frankly – the husbands, not the children) We hoped into my car and we headed off with the radio at a reasonable volume and the trunk loaded down with all of our gear.  It didn’t take long before the giggles began and the fun started.  We arrived at the Cabin, changed into our yoga wear and cracked open a bottle, and then another, and then come chips, and then another bottle (or 4)  Needless to say; it was suddenly 2:30am and we thought we better head to bed.  I am pretty sure more than a few evening face washing routines were missed.  The next morning the cabin was still dead quiet at 9am.  Most of these ladies are used to be woken by the offspring alarm clock.  I think that was the highlight of the weekend for a few of the girls!  Unlike the University days, we didn’t head out for a greasy breakfast to ease our tummies – we had our breakfast and went for a gorgeous long walk around the lake.  There weren’t any hung over people sleeping on couches and no huge mess to clean up.  A significant improvement over the old days!

When it was time to head home, we all felt more relaxed, connected (to each other and to ourselves!) and as better moms and wives.  We all need a little break now and again!

When was your last girls weekend – can you even remember?  Maybe you need to change that!