"Being Snubbed By Beauticians Is Not My Idea of a Good Time"*

I've been going to MOPS, you may remember, in an attempt to give the kiddo a bit more social interaction with kids his age. By and large it's been fairly enjoyable. He has a ball and I don't hate it, which may be all you can really ask for. I do enjoy the crafts (there's always a craft) but I could really do without the speakers. (By and large, the speakers all talk about how you need to have regular sex with your husband, so just take one for the team cause it makes them better family men. Um...I've never considered sex taking one for the team and it seems to me that if you feel that way, you're probably just not doing it right.) Still, I'm making an effort.

And so, when the invitation for the monthly girls night came I didn't immediately throw it in the garbage. I put it next to my planner in the hopes of finding something that I just absolutely needed to schedule on that date and thus, shucky darn, I'd have a conflict and not be able to go. It's tomorrow. I have no conflict.

So as I was chatting with my sister this morning I asked her if I should go - cause I needed to RSVP either way. Being the older sister, she had this sage advice to offer, "Girls nights are like fiber: it's good for you, but you'll never really enjoy it." And so tomorrow night, against my better judgment, I'll be packing up my happy self and going to a game night with a whole bunch of people who still don't know my name (which, in the interest of full disclosure, is only fair as I don't know most of their names either) and with whom it would seem I have just about nothing in common (they all ooh and nod appreciatively over the take one for the team advice). I really have a rather huge sense of foreboding about the whole thing.

To make tomorrow even more fun, our MOPS small group has their special one-on-one meeting with the MOPS mentors (these are the women with grown children who encourage us to be good team players). I wasn't going to go to that, either, but I figured if we went with the whole fiber analogy that a little was good but more would be better. Plus, I don't want to be the only anti-social one in our small group. In the larger thing, I doubt anyone would've noticed that I wasn't there, but for this one it would've been considerably more obvious.

My sister suggested that if I wanted a girls night with people who were more like me that I should consider going to an ACM-W meeting. To which I responded that the only women who go to those meetings are the extroverts of the computer science world.

So tonight, I invite you all to the best girls night ever. It will run from 7 - 9 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time). Get yourself a book, a blanket, and a comfortable place to curl up. Have the beverage of your choice located nearby. Turn the ringer of the phone off and put your hubby in charge of any pet or kid related emergencies (for single ladies, just ignore any pet or kid related emergencies, it's likely they'll hold for 2 hours). Every time you hit a new chapter pause to look up and think how nice it is that you're not surrounded by a hoop of women who expect you to have something interesting to say in 30 seconds or less before they move on to talk to someone who is more interesting than you.

*Spot the quote