Messages In A Bottle

Do you remember being little and the lore of sending out scribbled messages in glass bottles? Little thoughts and hopes and worries transcribed on paper that seemed to be as profound as they were forgotten after you wrote them down and they bobbled away. 

With CJ's birthday party towing in some friends from out of town and Fashion's Night Out in NYC drawing in some girlfriends from afar for a girl's weekend, that is exactly what I feel I have been getting over the past couple of weeks. Little messages. Reminders. Calling cards to sanity. I guess sometimes our friends can be those bottles. They know us. They capture little memories and pieces of us. And with them in town, I guess things I had forgotten about myself washed up again via Delta and JetBlue. Just when I needed them most.

I have lost myself in a project as of late {one day I will be able to tell you all about it...hopefully} and it has left me drained and tired and at the worst of times, hopeless. They say this city can chew you up and spit you out, and believe me, it can.

But the past couple of days I have been undercover. As a tourist. In my own city. And it has felt almost existential, really. As if my sole purpose of being in this city isn't to add another notch in my professional belt, but to actually live and enjoy and breathe.

My girlfriends and I spent four days literally pin-balling around Manhattan. There were crisp afternoons nibbling on burgers in the park from Shake Shack. Afternoon tea at Bergdorfs. Swanky Saturday nights at Buddakan. Shopping, celeb spotting and sipping champagne down Fifth Avenue for the illustrious Fashion's Night Out. Giggling at wild cab drivers. Staring in quiet at the Empire State Building. Conversations so meaningful we nearly missed a subway stop...or two. And playing dress up in some of our favorite boutiques. But most of all, remembering that there is more to life than the accomplishments we hope to list on a resume. 

These girls, these friends, these are my true accomplishments in life. 

Sadly, as messages in a bottle go, I had to send them back to their respective seas {Florida and Mississippi}, but something tells me it won't be long before the tides of life wash us back together again....

Comments

[Olivia M.]

I love this. I'm especially missing my dear friends today, including that lovely little lady in the middle of the photo.

This post was especially beautiful, just something about it.

[Melbourne Mumma]

Oh, here's to good friends. Long-term girlfriends that have stood the test of time are more precious than gold! You wrote this so well. :)

[Andrea Stanley]

Thanks for the kind comments, girls! xoxo

[sara]

I am literally tearing up! I love you! Here's to my pennies!