My daughter and I had a “girls’ only” trip to Arlington over the Presidents Day long weekend. My oldest son wasn’t feeling well and my second son had a rehearsal he had to go to, so on Sunday afternoon my daughter and I unexpectedly found ourselves heading up to Arlington on our own. My dad happened to be in L.A., so when we arrived we had a cozy dinner with just my mom and sister. That night, after I got my girl tucked into bed, I slipped out of the house to catch up with my friend Janel. When we got kicked out of Starbucks at closing, we returned to my parents’ house, where we continued whispering and laughing into the wee hours of the night.

The next morning my daughter and I joined my mother on  a stroll down memory lane. She asked me to drive past our old house in Arlington, which she hadn’t seen in years. She always regretted having sold it. “I’m mad at them for taking down my blueberry bushes,” she grumbled as we drove past the house. When we drove past the bank we used to go to, I told my daughter all about how my mom used to torture bankers there on a regular basis. “I was young. I had energy back then,” my mother said wistfully. Finally, we went grocery shopping, partly to stock up and partly so that my mom could get some exercise as she slowly walked up and down each aisle.

We saw these:

A strange glint caught my eye. I bent to get a closer look and saw this abomination. Those are rhinestones glued to the center of the roses:

A clear example of “gilding the lily,” or in this case: “bedazzling the rose.”

One aisle brought back another memory that made me laugh out loud. I’m sure the other shoppers thought I was insane as I chortled and took a picture of this:

I was remembering shopping with my second son when he was maybe four or five years old. As we walked down the aisle, he ran his chubby little finger along each of the packages.

“What are these?” he asked.

“Oh, uh…they’re just things for women,” I answered vaguely.

“But, what are they? Cheese sticks?”

“Yep. Cheese sticks. For women.”

I brought my mom back home and then my daughter and I headed out again to meet up with my friendy Wendy and my sister. We paused to admire the view of D.C….

We decided to split up for lunch. My daughter was delighted to get Auntie Sissy all to herself. I dropped them off at the Shake Shack, from whence they sent me this photo:

I took Wendy to Teaism in Dupont Circle, a favorite old haunt that we’ve gone to many times over the years.  We had one of those long, heartfelt conversations that make you laugh one minute, cry the next, and love your friend all the more. As we were leaving, Wendy pointed out a table of young women and started saying something like, “They could be us years ago. Now look at us, we’re so…” At this point I plugged my ears with my fingers and started singing, “Tralalalalalalala” so as not to hear the rest of her thought. I’m choosing to think that she was about to say, “…we’re so much more fabulous now!”

I called my sister and asked if she and my daughter would like me to come pick them up. My sister put my daughter on the phone. She had taught her how to say this:

Leave a comment if you recognize this line…

Oh, how I love these women!