Do you remember your mother's friends? Did she have great girlfriends?

My recent podcast with Kris Radish included her memories of her own mother and her girlfriends, laughing, smoking, cocktailing together. Even if my mother didn't do that, I now wish she had!

After listening, my girlfriend Colleen (my walking girlfriend with my other friend Allison), wrote me:

By the way, I listened to your podcast with Kris the other day while eating lunch. I really enjoyed it...especially the part when she was talking about her mom and her mom's girlfriends. It reminded me of something that I had not thought of for so long and just made me so happy. My mom died so young and has been gone for 23 years now. Mom and her friends used to sit around our kitchen table laughing so hard and wiping away tears from laughing. I remember as a kid thinking --- What could those old women think is THAT funny? They would laugh and talk for hours. What a hoot.

Thanks Kris for that walk down memory lane that Colleen hadn't taken in years. It really was a blessing to her.

Do you remember your mom and her girlfriends? Did they laugh? Smoke? Sneak cocktails? Bitch about life?!

Be the kind of girlfriend you'd like your daughters to be. Take time for your girlfriends. Show them how important they are to you. Make memories for your daughters that will influence them for life.

Thanks Colleen! Thanks again Kris! Girlfriends deserve thanks, attention and love. Show it!

Allison Update - on a glorious summer-fall day

Everyone should be in Cincinnati today. You'd love it here! We finally had some rain this week after months (literally) of no rain. The summer's draught left brown grass, distressed trees and a very poor excuse for a flower garden. Gladly, as the seasons change, those memories fade and all that matters is a perfect cool but sunny day like today.

Allison is enjoying the beauty from her hospital room. She's doing well for all you who have been worrying and praying. Colleen (another walking girlfriend) and I visited her in ICU last night. She looked good, especially for having been through a complete body overhaul. Lee, her husband, said they even got her up to walk last night after we left which is great. She hopes to be moved to a regular room tonight.

So, she's healing. That takes time but it has started and she moves into the next phase of her life. She's not only a 'jock' but also a fighter, so we have plans to keep walking for years and years to come. (And sharing occasional glasses of wine together.)

Enjoy the beauty around you - friends, seasons, trees, home, pets, life. Thanks friends for sharing this amazing day with me.

A Toast to Allison

Today, 13 hours later, I drove away from University Hospital. Not sure what else to to, I stopped at a convenience store and bought some chardonnay. (Wouldn't you?) My girlfriend Allison had surgery today. 12-hour surgery. Scary surgery. Cancer surgery. The kind of day that makes takes you up and pulls you down, that roams from boredom to fear, that makes you question life and just thankful for your girlfriends.

In 2000, we met at a dinner party and she mentioned she was walking a marathon. I was up for that challenge so I called her, signed up for it and we started walking together - for seven years, almost every Saturday except for travel, rain or stupid-cold days. On a normal Saturday we walk five to seven miles to that one Sunday when we did 26.2 miles. I figure we're up to about a thousand miles of walking and a thousand miles of talking. Talking about our lives, husbands, pets, friends, dreams, fears. A thousand miles of sharing mainly laughs and a few tears. Over Labor Day we hung out in NC at her mountain house (aka: the MoHo). Allison, and her husband Lee, are wonderful, forever friends.

Allison, like all girlfriends, is unique, as was her surgery. Actually, it is only performed at four locations in the U.S., seven in the world. Scary stuff, but you don't know my girlfriend Allison. She is (as we lovingly call her!) "a jock" - strong, determined and lives life to the fullest. Knowing the surgery was approaching and working around the chemo, she took advantage of every good day this summer. We'd walk six miles, then she would go to spinning class and golf or kayak later in the day. (See? Jock. We are just envious of her energy and spirit!)

Today was tough. It will be for a while, for the weeks to come. But Allison is a fighter and overall, things went pretty well today. Please keep her in your prayers. Keep all of our sisters who fight this evil cancer in your thoughts.

Learn the important lessons. That life is short and we do need each our girlfriends. Hug them. Share secrets. Walk and talk together. Hug or hold hands. Be. Together.

Love you Allison. Love you girlfriends.

p.s. And, knowing Allison, she'd want me to have some chardonnay. (She once asked her doctor if chardonnay was on the 'clear fluids' list!) I look forward to sharing some with her in the hopefully not-too-distant future.