Y'all get it now, don't ya

I love my best friend, we'll just call her Alissa (because that is her name), so much it is scary.  Dan Akroyd had a comment after Belushi's death that sums up exactly how I feel.  "We were as close as two individuals can get in every way except the sexual one."  or something like that.  I am paraphrasing but putting it in quotes too.  Who cares?  Anyway, I do not have a sister, but a brother and she is better than a sister because we do not ever compete and we always have each other's best interests in mind and there is zero baggage.

I guess about six years ago we started going to Chicago on Mother's Day Weekend. I cherish this trip more than going to Kate and Wills' (yet another unhealthy obsession) wedding this summer.  We both talk about how these trips are as important to us as the births of our children and our respective wedding days.  "Alissa" lives in we'll say "Indiana" and we talk on the phone almost everyday.  Sometimes several times a day.  So when we reunite those few times a year it is very special.  We drink, eat, see movies and shop, shop, shop.  We discount shop and save our husbands a TON of money.  Just ask them sometime.  They love to talk about our weekend together.

I laugh so much and so hard that my stomach and jaw muscles ache the Sunday I come back.  I smile the whole next week recalling the antics and jokes we played on people of the Windy City. I love, love, love Chicago because it is hip yet still has that midwestern attitude.  It's a cheap one hour flight on Southwest and the boutique hotels have great discounts in the Spring because it is usually still cold.

The first year we went we stayed at the Marriott.  It was a very big deal because our children were all very small and we were leaving them with our Mother-in-Laws.  You thought I was going to say husbands didn't you? ANYWAY, we were checking in and the woman at the counter was asking us the usual questions so we took the opportunity in the busy Lobby to tell her our "friendship" life story and how "we both have all girls and we met in high school and we are leaving our children with our mother-in-laws - her in Indiana and mine in Columbus and we talk everyday on the phone and we never get to see each other and it's so funny when we go out because guys either gravitate toward her or me but never both because I'm a blond and she's a brunette and men seem to prefer one over the other...infinity."  Oh, shoot, my husband is a follower.  I keep forgetting to block him.

Soooo...the woman listens to all this with sort of a smirk on her face and as I am preparing for her to verbally cut us into teeny tiny pieces (as the line behind us begins to snake into the conference rooms)  she says, "Y'all finally get it now, don't ya."  Mistified, we finally shut up and stare at her as she tells us that "Mom's don't get it.  Mother's Day is not about your children and being with your children, It's about patting yourself on the back, treating yourself and saying Your Welcome.  Every Mother's Day I check myself into this hotel.  I buy myself a bottle of wine which I finish BY MYSELF, order myself a nice meal which I eat BY MYSELF and take a long hot bubble bath all the while toasting myself for what an amazing job I have done and how lucky everyone is to have me.  Then I cry myself to sleep.  Now y'all go enjoy yourselves.  I just upgraded your room."

Ladies, book your Mother's Day trip NOW.  That is why I am not waiting to post this on Mother's Day.  It will be too late.  If Chicago is your thing, we always go to Sunda with Alissa's brother and his wife who I am equally in love with and we have stayed at The Wit, The Allegro and The James.  The discount stores we go to are Nordy Rack, T.J.Maxx, Marshall's, and my personal favorite "Da Loehmann" - all in the same area at State and Randolph.  Do something for yourself and yourself alone but don't forget to say "Your welcome".