Tuesday, March 21, 2023

So, Elizabeth and I have been friends since she was 25 and I was 45! You guys! I am 20 years older than one of my friends. We taught next door to each other for four years and now she has left teaching for a different field. As I entered the stage of life where my kids were off doing their own thing, it has been nice to have a younger friend who has the time! I also think the pandemic brought us closer. Do you have friends of varying ages?

Elizabeth is so sweet, funny, and just a breath of fresh air. She won’t talk about herself for very long without saying, “but, how are you? I want to hear about you”. I have to keep pushing her to talk about herself instead of listening to me drone on.

This past weekend was Elizabeth’s bachelorette party about an hour and a half away on Nolin Lake.

There were many emails and texts leading up to it by the maid of honor who is her friend from college. I must admit I was intimidated and nervous about being the oldest one there. The ages ranged from 24-51. Elizabeth’s future sister in law Julie, her kinda sister in law (she is married to the fiance’s brother) Mary Grace, a friend Brittiny, a friend Kat, a friend Natasha, the maid of honor Carolyn and Erica and I made up the group. Another friend Jen tested positive for Covid and couldn’t come.

The first thing we did was meet at Bardstown Bourbon Company. Only 5 of us could do that. It was supposed to be 6 including the sick girl.

Elizabeth brought her dog Banana. She didn’t bring her dog a banana. Her dog is named Banana. Erica and I didn’t realize there would be 3 dogs, but it was no big deal except for a little chihuahua named Lana who pooped in our room. Anyway…

Another girl, Natasha, arrived a bit late with her dog, Carbon. They had to drive from Chicago. The dogs were allowed on most of the tour. The banana costume is because Elizabeth’s dog is named Banana. Notice Erica and I wanted the theme to be St. Patrick’s Day as it was literally March 17th.

After that, we got to the house and Carolyn gave us all a goodie bag with a flannel and a bandana in our favorite color and a few odds and ends for the weekend. It was very thoughtful. We all put on our flannels and bandanas.

Then, it was a flurry of unloading a whole bunch of food and adult beverages. The maid of honor wanted to do all the shopping and Venmo us. She asked us for our ingredient list if we were doing any cooking. I had to get Venmo for this trip! Ha!

During dinner we played a game where we told a story about ourselves and everyone had to guess if it was true or a lie. Many of us had never met so this was a good way to break the ice.

After dinner, we played a couple of games. The first one was a very rated R game that someone brought.

The second game was called Bridal Jeopardy and it was really creative and fun and we had teams of 2. The questions were about Elizabeth, Elizabeth and Andrew (her fiance), weddings in general, their wedding, or just about Andrew.

There were some drinks and shots while we played.

We all thought Erica looked like Michael Scott with her bandana like that.

Banana is only about a year old, but is the best behaved and sweetest little puppy. I think she is a Cavapoo.

I think I finally went to bed between 2 and 3 a.m. The kitchen was a hot mess and some of us cleaned it up before we went to bed. Thank goodness! Erica and I were the first ones up the next day and we started the coffee.

I was in charge of breakfast and I made coffee cake, egg casserole, and sausage squares at home. I heated them in the oven and it worked out great.

I brought my non-stick griddle and made brioche French toast.

The AirBnB was super nice. The weather was super crappy. There were so many things we couldn’t use because of how cold and windy it was. There was a hot tub, a fireplace pit, a beautiful long table on the front porch, a porch swing, a porch bed, a porch couch, an outdoor bar, and another outdoor seating area.

After brunch, everyone left for an aerial ropes course except for Erica and I. It was $70 and it just really wasn’t something either of us wanted to do, and we were really glad because of how cold it would be. It was also really far away from the house.

So, we stayed and watched the dogs, prepared charcuterie, started on dinner prep, and explored the lake and got Elizabeth a new contact lens case at Walgreen’s! Ha!

We made a caprese grilled cheese for our lunch:

The charcuterie with truffle popcorn:

The lake:

When everyone got back, we did temporary tatoos:

We put our shirts back on and took pics:

Then, a very crafty friend, Brittiny, taught us how to make earrings from polymer clay!

After that, we had dinner, which was a fabulous idea. We had a make your own pasta bar with salad and bread, done by Erica. I helped with all the prep in the afternoon and then after the earrings:

After dinner, we had our thrift exchange. We had to buy a thrift item in a favorite color of another person (it was randomly selected with an app) and then wear an outfit that would match. I said hot pink and then I wore my hot pink sweater. I received the bead and the scarf. The girl with me also said hot pink so we took a pic together.

Erica said purple and then we took a pic with the bride.

We also had to “create” an outfit for Elizabeth. One person did the clutch, one person did the veil, one person did the top, etc. I did the necklace. We also had to find this at a thrift store. Since it was so darned cold, we pulled the sheepskin off the couch to complete the look. Doesn’t she pull that off?

Then, we played a game where Elizabeth and Andrew were asked the same question and Andrew’s responses had been recorded ahead of time. It was so funny watching him try to answer in the banana suit.

It was really cute!

Dessert was a s’morechuterie board done by Julie. She included a chocolate chip cookie dough cheeseball!

Yeah, you better believe we used the indoor gas stove instead of braving the cold.

And, it looks empty, but we were all there…

This was another structure on the property with a bedroom, bathroom, bar, dance space, pool table, and arcade machines. We danced and did some funny line dances like the cha cha slide.

And, Bride down. I am also feeling like this after writing this post and I’m sure you are also in this position if you made it this far.

I think we went to bed around 1:00 a.m. the second night.

Sunday morning was all about cleaning, packing, and loading up.

The house was $120 a person for the whole weekend, which I thought was really reasonable.

I feel like we really clicked and connected despite the age differences. We all seemed to think the same things were funny and I am pretty immature for my age.

I can’t believe I could hang, though! I can’t believe I stayed up that late!

I hope that Elizabeth felt the love and that it was everything she hoped for. She would never tell you otherwise, though, because that is just how sweet she is.

When I got married no one really did this. I think we went out to dinner at Applebee’s and gave each other lingerie from Victoria’s Secret and called it a day. Did you do anything like this?

The maid of honor originally wanted to hire a private chef and a stripper. She lives in L.A. and I think this is more the norm there because I watch Real Housewives. I was also worried about what a “lake area stripper” might be like. No offense if you live near a lake and strip. My suggestion was that we ask the private chef to play both roles, but that would have possibly ended in disaster. There were lots of big…knives and hot…grease.

Anyway, that didn’t end up being feasible and I’m quite glad.

Amy