Bringing SexyBack With the College Friends

This past weekend I flew to San Francisco to celebrate a bachelorette weekend with my college friends/housemates. The seven of us all shared a house for two years in college (well, technically that's a brothel in the town of Durham, if three or more unrelated women live together, so let's just say we spent time there, but didn't really live there) and try to get together once a twice a year as a group.

Thursday morning, Hubby and the boys dropped me at the airport, and I flew in to San Jose, stopping at my stepsister's house to have lunch with her and my stepmother. Stepsis looked great. She's due with her first baby any day, and is a long-distance runner, so has the perfectly fit with beach ball sticking out in front look. Stepmom was fine, too, even though she seemed to gloss over that she has neglected to return any of my calls since the middle of January. She's either depressed or attempting to get on with her life since my dad's death three years ago September, but either way, if she thinks she can get me out of her life that easily, she's got another think coming!

After lunch, I drove my rented minivan up to San Fran to my friend Amy's lovely home, where four of us made cupcakes. Or rather, Amy made cupcakes, and the rest of us decorated them with "witty" pictures and statements. My first read "Sugar Tits", with an image in frosting and sprinkles of said breasteses. There was also a cupcake decorated with a frosting picture of a sex toy that the other three had bought at the local adult store earlier, a penis cupcake, etc. You get the idea. The red velvet cupcakes were very tasty, even with adult images. That evening, we picked up two more housemates, including the guest of honor, who is getting married in September, at the airport in "the cherry" as I dubbed the red Dodge Caravan, and shared more laughs, cupcakes, and drinks that night.

Friday, our seventh housemate arrived, and we headed to lunch, followed by a walk on the beach with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. We window shopped, we drank wine and discussed serious topics (the state of women at our college, as opposed to what it was 15 years ago, politics, jeans), we went back to Amy's and made a delicious dinner. (Well, again, I had nothing to do with the dinner making, which is why it was delicious.) We watched the DVD copy of two films Jen made in her college film class, in which most of us made our film debuts. They were hilarious. (though in a very artistic and well filmed manner, of course, Jen!) We finished off the night with a game of "Totally 80s!" Trivial Pursuit, which my team won, as I am the 80s trivia master. Well, my teammates did help, but I think I'm the only one who remembers the spin-off series, "AfterMASH". Really, even Jamie Farr has blocked that one out.

Saturday, we walked on the Golden Gate Bridge, then went hiking in the Muir Woods. It was hot and we were all svitzing and complaining as we hiked the first two miles up hill, but we still laughed and talked and enjoyed the shadier half of the hike as we went back down through the beautiful redwood trees.

When we returned to Amy's, we showered, then the real fun began: the opening of gifts. The adult themed gifts were fun and we all laughed and shared stories. There was "The Fiance Game" - a tradition we started at the bachelorette party before my wedding ten years ago. Similar to The Newlywed Game, but played before the wedding, one of the housemates calls the fiance of the bachelorette being feted to ask him questions, then the bachelorette is asked the same questions, and lots of, "Ahh! Isn't he sweet?!" and "Oh my God! I can't believe that!" ensue.

While the gifts and games were going on, we all were getting our drink on, in preparation for our dinner. We took two cabs to the destination: AsiaSF, a restaurant and club with lovely "ladies" as wait staff and entertainment. They really were pretty, though Kelly and I agreed one looked like Latoya or Michael Jackson from too much plastic surgery. I thought most of the ladies looked more feminine than I do, with larger boobs and smaller "guns" as we were joking about my giant muscular arms throughout the weekend. The table of drag queens sitting next to us made me feel better, though. They were all a bit more masculine, so I felt better, and I wasn't retouching my makeup throughout the meal as the lady next to me was.

After dinner, Bachelorette Dawn suddenly got very serious and starting polling/grilling the rest of us about our sex lives, which resulted in lots of laughs and true confessions. We finished up with a short visit to the dance club downstairs, where we posed on the stripper pole, but mostly felt old as we looked at the younger ladies in higher heels. We got cabs back to Amy's, where we all went to bed after downing much water, fearing the impact of the drinking. Sunday morning, Eva left at the crack of dawn, scrambling out to the airport shuttle after the alarm clock failed to go off. I'm impressed she made it so quickly. Julie and Kelly left later that morning, then Amy, Jen, Dawn and I went to lunch and walked around Golden Gate Park. Amy's husband returned from his weekend "Escape From the Crazy Women" - a smart thing to do when the seven of us are together, as Hubby will attest to. (Being awoken early in the morning to "The Sound of Music" blaring from the TV downstairs is a memory he has from my baby shower weekend in 2001.) I drove back to San Jose, where it was 20 degrees hotter, and made my way home to a smelly home -- what is that smell anyway? Does it always smell like this? -- and cranky Harrison, who was out of sorts from staying up too late picking me up at the airport and couldn't decide if he wanted a bath, didn't want a bath, wanted to use the potty, didn't want to use the potty, etc. Much tantrumming and screaming ensued, but eventually he was in bed and I was doing laundry and going through mail. Back to Reality.

Oh yes, the theme of our weekend ended up being "SexyBack", or rather _____Back, filling in the blank with whatever was going on at the time. Overheard this weekend:

I'm bringing:
Cupcakes Back
Frosting Back
Creepy Back (our visit to the "Cell Phone" lot by the SF airport Friday night)
80s Back
Windy Back (The Golden Gate Bridge and beach by the bridge)
Sweaty Back
Lazy Back
Ugly Back
Drinking Back


Seeing my girlfriends was wonderful, and I love that we've managed to stay in touch and have these reunions over the years, as we all live in different parts of the country (San Diego, San Francisco, St. Louis, Philadelphia and New York City - or Brooklyn and Queens). Truly, we're bringing Friendship Back! OK, that was cheezy. I'm bringing CheezyBack.