Solid Gold

The other day I told my best girl my super-secret weapon for dealing with tough situations, and then decided that it was simply selfish to keep it a secret for any longer.  So, here's what you do:

When you are in the middle of some extremely stressful or crazy point in your life, take a second and imagine yourself in 30 years.  You're sitting with your best friends, you've got a glass of wine (or margarita or whiskey or whatever your poison is) and are regaling them with your stories.  Sure, they've heard all of them before, but when you're old you get to retell stories and no one is allowed to call you on it.

Is this story, the one you're living through right now, going to make the cut?  Are you companions going to laugh or gasp or yell, "Oh I know you did NOT!" when you tell them about it?

In my mind, I'm sitting on a patio of a quasi-swanky restaurant with Andrea, Jane, Becca, Sarah, et al. I've got a glass of red wine in my right hand and I'm waving it around all crazy while making faces, impersonating voices, and perhaps talking a little too loud.  My girls are howling with laughter at my antics, occasionally telling me that I am so wrong for what I just said.  The waiters are mildly scandalized, but what are they going to do?  Throw the nice old ladies out?  Besides, we tip really well, and we're regulars.  Even they have to snicker a little at our self-deprecating tales about bad jobs, bad boyfriends, bad investments, and bad luck.

"... so there I am covered in blood, having just flashed the entire neighborhood my ass..."

"... and I said 'fuck it, if we're going to be homeless, we sure as shit aren't doing it here' and we headed west two days later..."

"... then the teacher was like 'you realize you missed the final entirely?' and I about pissed myself until..."

"... I thought he was trying to screw us all over but it turned out that the building manager was selling the coffee shop out from under him and he had no idea..."

It doesn't cure whatever craziness I'm going through at any given point, but it certainly takes the sting out to realize that it's going to be hilarious to tell when I'm old.