A few weeks ago I took a little weekend trip to Toronto with a group of girlfriends. These are ladies that I knew in high school, but got really close to in University. Some of us were roommates for the entire four years of our undergrads and beyond. We have all made an effort to get together via a trip or to attend each other's weddings over the years. Like everyone, we are all super busy, so it was pretty amazing that we were all able to do this three night/two day trip. We chose Toronto because it was easiest for the six of us to fly there from the four different places we live.
On the Thursday night after work, Cohen and my parents took me to the airport while Jon put Will to bed. We took this pic through the security glass. He loves going to the airport. I had actually been super sick for the days leading up to the trip. I seriously considering bailing on the trip because I was so scared of ending up super sick on the airplane. But I knew I would have such huge FOMO, I had to go. On the way to the airport, my parents gave me two pieces of advice: stay medicated and have a few drinks. By the time our flight left, I felt better, but my voice was completely one hundred percent gone.
(lots of giggly Ubers)
I flew with one of the girls who lives 20 minutes from me. We met our friend who lives in Bermuda at the airport and shared a cab to the hotel, where we met two other friends. I think we got to the hotel at maybe 10 pm, and talked for four hours straight to catch up. I honestly could not talk, but the ladies would all lean in for me to whisper a story once in a while.
(tea and Prosecco)
On Friday we shopped at the Eaton centre, hung at the hotel pool, and ended our night at this super loud and fun Japanese restaurant with sake bombs and octopus balls. So good.
On Saturday we went to a high tea at the Ritz-Carlton, returned to the Eaton Centre for more shopping and checked out the market. The high tea was really cute and fun. We loved checking out the other guests who wore huge fancy hats and dresses with Alice in Wonderland style.
At the high tea, we asked our super nice waiter where he would recommend for supper. He suggested a secret restaurant that has a secret entrance you can only enter if you say secret words. He had us at "secret." So we went to this "regular" restaurant and told the hostess we wanted to see the champagne room. Then we were seated and we ordered champagne and oysters. Then we were summoned into a champagne room were the host pulled on a bottle and made a wall slide open. We walked through a dark hallway and down a few stairs, and we were suddenly in a completely different restaurant. It was really packed and impossible to get a table, but we hung out, ordered fancy $20 drinks and took pictures in the only place you are allowed to: the red bathtub. It all felt fun and very millennial. Eventually we got hungry and tired so we left via the red velvet rope in the kitchen.
(the red bathtub in the unisex bathroom)
(elevator selfies, always)
(I never buy shoes, but I bought shoes)
That last night, we got back to the hotel after our secret restaurant experience, ordered pizza, and chatted for a few more hours. We all left early on Sunday to return to our normal lives. The whole weekend is such a nice blur. I am so grateful to have these friends who have known me for so long and know my stories because we have the same stories. When I was growing up, moving every two years, I couldn't have predicted I would have these kind of longterm forever friends.
Also, because we are all 35 this year, we all have similar histories with technology and social media. Five of us lived in an apartment where we shared one landline. We had zero computers and no wifi. We had to walk to campus to a computer lab to do our schoolwork, and guys had to call our landline to ask us out. The only pictures we have from our late teenaged years and early twenties are physical pictures that came from the odd disposable or little digital camera. Lots of the stories we have are just in our memories and we loved telling them to each other again. I could write forever about how valuable I feel my female friendships are. These are the ladies who have gotten me through some really challenging times in my life, and these are also the ladies who are my biggest supporters when I have done something positive in my life.
