DRINKIN’(AND DRUNKEN) BEAUTIES - PART ONE!!!

Introduction and ‘You think we’re what?’

This past weekend I survived yet another one of our annual Girls Only weekends. As usual, I learned a lot about the lives of other women and I learned a lot about myself. Granted, there’s a tremendous amount of alcohol consumed which always enhances our many philosophical discussions as well as our many not-so-philosophical discussions and unfortunately I end up forgetting what the hell we talked about by Sunday night. A wicked side effect of alcohol, I’m afraid.

Recently I mentioned to the ladies that I would eventually write a book encompassing all of our past adventures and put them into a one long weekend story but I’m beginning to think this may be impossible. We’ve had too many adventures, mishaps and revelations to make my one-weekend story believable. I’ll get it all creatively combined one day and it’ll have to happen soon because as the years move along, the list of stories is becoming overwhelming.

It didn’t occur to me until now that my blog can include at least a tiny portion of the experience.

I spent the past 3 days with a most eclectic, intelligent, strong-willed, open-minded, loving, charismatic, humorous, witty, stubborn, talented, creative, independent and powerful group of women I’ve ever known. These weekends always leave me in awe not to mention greatly humbled. Our group of twelve covers just about every type of woman in any stage of life. Some of the ladies are single, married, cohabitating, some with children, some without children, some grandmothers, menopausal, pre-menopausal, not even close to menopausal, and some wishing we were menopausal. Some of us have very few tattoos to none at all while some of us are very well inked and others of us are working our way to well inked. I would continue but I think I’ve covered the gist of us.

Keeping in mind the above description, we’ve now been labeled by the last two campgrounds as ‘that group of lesbians’. Whether or not we have lesbians amidst us is of no importance. What is important is the fact that we’ve been labeled as such and it has led us into the discussion of why. Why is it assumed we are all lesbians? Because we are able to camp, grille out, hang out, tease, talk like sailors and have a good time without the assistance of men? Is it because the male campers in the surrounding area fantasize and wish we were lesbians (of course because we’re all beautiful!!!)? On what basis does the label come from? I’m personally not insulted because I don’t care what people think but I’m fascinated by the assumption.

It’s inevitable that our happy little group of females will become infiltrated by some overly-curious male to whom we usually end up asking to leave after we’ve been rude and very blunt about our displeasure with his presence. It’s a Girls Only weekend after all. But for some reason, a waywardly male has to come and say ‘hello’. Is our rejection of such a male the reason for the lesbian label? Honestly guys, do you really think our rejection of you means we’re gay? If this is true, how egocentric can you be?

The reasoning behind these weekends is because we have enough men in our lives and we’d like to have at least three days out of the year of a completely different type of entertainment. No kids, no men, no Tupperware or whatever kind of chick party crap and no talking about our jobs (I honestly have no idea what anyone does for a living.). Just us ladies being who we are, saying what we like, chastising one another without worry of insult, and most of all the camaraderie and wisdom that each one of us provides to each other. And somehow this makes us lesbians. What a most fascinating accusation.

This is the weekend where I come back feeling justified in who I am as a person. This is the weekend where no woman is allowed to feel inadequate, dumb, incapable, fat, ugly, unwanted, or whatever other insecurities we all tend to suffer from. I’ll admit my faults are brought clearly into the open and made plain to me by Sunday morning but I’m never left to feel as though I’m less of a person because of them. I’m always left to appreciate the diversity of talent these women surround me with and I know I can call on them when needed. There’s much comfort in knowing that we all fill some kind of void in one way or another.

I think next time I see a group of men camping/hunting or whatever together, I’ll consider spreading the rumor that they’re a group of homosexuals and I’ll contemplate infiltrating their group but somehow this doesn’t seem like a good idea. I’m very tempted to cause this type of trouble but common sense tells me to leave the idea as it is…an idea only and no action required.

I will be posting more stuff about this weekend later this week. I have to sober up first and sort through some pictures. I may or may not post pictures and I most certainly won’t be revealing who anyone is. Someone in our group may want to run for office one day and I’d hate to ruin her chances. I'm sure, because of this post (and future ones), I will suffer some kind of chastise anyway. We're not known for holding our opinions back from one another. Let her rip ladies, I can take it!

To be continued…