Laugh Til Your Belly Aches and Wear A Tight Dress

I’m sitting at a table with two other women.  We’re dressed up, as dressed up as we want to be on a night out from children, husbands, our daily lives.  We have just a little more makeup on than usual, our hair is just a little straighter or higher or curlier.  You can tell we’ve pulled out the good dress, shoes, bag.  My dress is definitely a little tighter than it should be and I wiggle in it self consciously but also happily because I’m out and I’m free.  I’m free to talk loudly, laugh louder still.

Let me just say that I’m not a girl’s night out sort of gal.  I don’t usually go for that sort of thing.  I’m content to sit on the couch on Saturday nights with my husband, watch a movie with the kids or better yet, put the kids to bed and watch a good RomCom or Action flick snuggled on the couch by his side.  I’ll admit to a cup of hot tea and a slice of toast on the side if I really want to treat myself.  I’m boring and I know this about myself.

But there’s something to be said for getting together with female friends, the close ones that know you and let you be yourself without judgement or explanation.  There’s something to be said for letting your hair down, or putting it up, as the case may be.  Sometimes we need to mouth off, let off steam, get rid of the baggage that’s been weighing us down, keeping us from being our better selves.  Sometimes we need to laugh until our stomach hurts.  Sometimes we need to know that someone else feels the same way we do and isn’t afraid to say so.

We hide so much of ourselves everyday.  We hide good and bad parts of ourselves because we’re afraid of what people will say.  We are hiding the parts that teach, nurture, love, that are brilliant and marvelous and flawed and sometimes ugly.  Unfortunately, most of the time we are hiding the best parts of ourselves.  That’s why it’s good to have a few friends who will just nod or hug or laugh so loud it will make us forget why it mattered in the first place.

I love dressing up, putting on high heels, a little extra eyeshadow, even a too tight dress, but what I love best about getting together with good friends is knowing I can share anything and at the end of the night when I get home I’m a better me.  I am refreshed.  I am a better mother, wife, woman for having been in their company.  This is for the women that make me be myself even when that’s the hardest thing to be.