Spur of the Moment - Summer Memory

My cell phone rings, and it’s my best friend Robin. “Hi, how are you?” she says. I can tell in her voice that’s she’s having a bad day. “I’m fine, what’s up?” “Whatcha doing for dinner?” She asks. I tell her something on the meal plan I’m following, and she proceeds to ask if her, her husband, her oldest daughter, and our two other friends; Andy and Laura could come over for a BBQ. I smile, even though I know she can’t see me. Of course she can come over for dinner! But I tell her, “Let me ask Jon what he thinks and I’ll text you back.”

My husband, the yes man, of course says yes, we both LOVE having our friends over and it’s all the better when it’s not planned out and we all just end up together for the evening. So, last night was one of those nights. At first I somehow felt overwhelmed with anxiety when everyone bombarded the house, but then I just relaxed and realized they don’t care (like it’s always been) if my house was messy or if I wasn’t ready for dinner yet. We’re such a family. Everyone brought over supplies for dinner, the appetites, and their smiles. We ate hamburgers, chips, beer, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Coke, and Salmon and asparagus. We had the music turned on, Julia was running from outside to inside to see everyone, Laura’s pregnant belly was out for all to touch, Robin was drinking her “special” beer, and the guys were BBQ and talking about random video games and etc.

We started a fire in the fire pit, pulled all the chairs around it, and drank out sorrows, bad days, aches and pains, and became the relaxed group of friends again. No one was nagging, no one was arguing, and no one was storming off with bad feelings. The fire was brewing, the girls became wrapped in blankets, and the guys poked at the fire. Eventually the guys went inside to play a game of Munchkin (I most certainly need to tell all about this game) and the girls stayed by the fire. Jon and I had put Julia down for bed already (someone who was exhausted just by the 2 and half hours of party time she got in) and were now free to enjoy the evening. We took pictures as a group for once, missing Laura who had to work in the morning and went to bed early and another couple of our friends - Paul & Jessica, and for once no one had food in their mouths or was making some stupid face from the spur-of-the-moment captures of the party I would take. This is my family, my tribe, and my friends. I love it when we get together spur of the moment.