Retreat weekend, with the emphasis on “TREAT”

Somewhere inside my head an eloquent post-in-the-making is swirling around. It’s about women and friendship and the creative act of bringing new relationships into one’s life and how difficult it can be to make new friends (particularly female friends) in adulthood.

The post is about the fact that blogging for me has truly become a means for making new friends, not new readers. About how rare it has been through most of my life to encounter women who are willing to open their circles of friends to me, to open their hearts to the possibility of knowing me, Amy, not Assertagirl, but Amy, and how grateful I am to have discovered some of these women over the last year or so.

A friend of mine who now lives out in British Columbia used to get together regularly with some of her women friends. They’d gather at one another’s homes for the weekend, a few times throughout the year, bringing wonderful homemade food, drink and music. They’d leave their spouses and their children behind. They called these weekends “NoKNoMNoE” (pronounced “Knock-Nom-Nah”), which meant No Kids, No Men, No Expectations. It was a retreat. I’ve always wanted to replicate these retreat weekends, and this past weekend came pretty close.

On Friday night some of the women I was working with at the restaurant before fire consumed it, came over to my house to share some wine and nachos and gossip. We’re moving on to other things now that the restaurant is being rebuilt, but I’m so happy that several of us are maintaining the ties we were binding before disaster struck.

On Saturday I made the trek into the city, a drive made much more enjoyable now that I have a neighbour and friend to drive in with, even if that means we wind up taking the long route because we’re gabbing our faces off.

When Tanis walked into the bar that night there were twenty faces waiting anxiously to see her, and she handled the pressure with absolute grace, the way she seems to handle everything that has been thrown her way.

Sunday featured brunch at Zelda’s, including scalloped potatoes and eggs benedict, which I would totally have argued have no business being on the same plate together ordinarily, but I clearly know nothing about food because OMG. The gay men in the corner were so not impressed with the stories of smeared poop they overheard, but this just made the stories funnier.

Sunday morning was sunny and bright, the perfect kind of day to get a quick ‘n dirty look at Toronto. And, of course, to do a little shopping.

So yes, this post is brewing away in the back of my mind…I hope I will find the time and energy to do it justice sometime in the future.

My latest post is up at BlogHers ACT Canada: How Can Kids Spread the Green Message? Our contest is still open, so head over now to participate!

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