The more serious side of parenthood

    I'm spending the weekend with my best friend F. She's moving to California at the end of the month and we scheduled a special girls weekend for this weekend. The thing is, like most things in life, it didn't exactly go as planned.

   Without going into details, I ended up being in the right place to help F through something really rough. Then I had to try to explain it to her daughter without scaring it.


It ended up sounding like this:

   "Your mom is a little emotional right now. You know how, after you have a bad fall and scrape your knee, the first couple days it's really tender and sensitive? Well, your mom's heart is like that right now. Her heart is really raw and tender. She just wants to not talk about it because talking about it makes her think about it and that's like poking a new scab on a fresh scrape. It doesn't feel good right? She'll be okay, just today is like the first day her heart is hurt."

  It helped both of them, her daughter got an explanation for her mom's mood and her mom didn't have to face this meltdown alone. F and I had some good girl time earlier in the day. We went to breakfast, got facials (Ah-mazing!), came home, I had a nice nap and then the meltdown episode happened.

   In the end, my humor helped cheer F up...or at least make her laugh long enough to feel better for a little bit. That's what best friends are for, right?

fancy free and child-free weekend plans

  The best part about moving home from Okinawa was being an hour away from one of my two best friends. It's turned out to be the best thing for both of us, like when F needed me to care for Peanut whole she went out of town for work. It's hard having a job that requires traveling and a single mom, unless you have wicked awesome friends who you trust like family and can take over temporary parenting duties while your gone. Living an hour away allowed me to be that person for her, which allowed Peanut to stay in her own home while her mom was away.
   It also afforded me to be there for some rough nights, when F just needed a friend...even if my in-laws were here visiting. My best friend was hurting and I was finally close enough to help her, so I went and helped. I was even there for a week taking care of her and Peanut as they battled the flu. That wasn't why I was originally there, F was supposed to be going out of town, but the flu kicked her in the teeth and made it impossible for her to leave, so Nixon and I stayed and I made sure they were taken care of.

   The worst part of being in the military is, you're almost never in the same place for more than a three to four years. F's time in Maryland is coming to an end and she's going (back) to California. Yep, we just got back together, all three of us (C is living in North Carolina just 5 hours away) on the same coast and it was too short lived. At the end of the month, F is on her way to sunny California.

   Tonight begins my last weekend with her. I'm "ditching" Nixon (I'm leaving him with Mac for the weekend) and I'm spending time with my girl. I'm not sure when I'm see her again after this, but we're going to make this weekend count. Spa trip for facials (if that falls through we're doing spa day at her house), wine, girl talk, even some totally child-free one-on-one time.
   I'm going to miss the hell out of her! But tonight, this weekend, is all about making memories and spending time together, not goodbyes.

   I love you, F.