Bitch in the Big Badass White Car, Part 2

(or, Everything's Coming up Roses!)

If you haven't read my last post, Beware of the Bitch in the Big Badass White Car, please do or this post will have no relevance whatsoever. You'll just scroll down and think, so what? Whoop-dee-do... Big Whoop! Well, it was indeed a big whoop!

As I dressed for lunch -- we were surprising a good friend at one of my favorite restaurants for lunch -- I thought long and hard as to how I should wear my hair. Up. Down. Bun. Ponytail. Sloppy tossback. Barette. Headband... And then I decided that I would toss it back in a tidy pony tail with a pink pony tail holder to match my sweater of course.

L is pregnant with her third child, third boy and about to pop out the littlest one any day now. My friend Christine took care of everything... the reservations, details, and in the end, even the check. She was truly generous to host us all and we all had a lovely day. Especially L who was completely surprised!

I had on a black sleeveless dress with a ruffled collar, pink cardigan around my shoulders, pearl earrings and my black TB sandals. Perfect for a Ladies Lunch at my favorite haunt, Splash at the Inn at Longshore in Westport.

It was a perfect day for dining outdoors and enjoying the magnificent view of the Long Island Sound. The menu at Splash is absolutely to die for mouth-wateringly delicious. I didn't eat breakfast on purpose (and ate so much at lunch that I was not even hungry for dinner.)

Look at the clouds in the picture below... they are so perfect they don't even look real!

Some of the things we had to eat were shrimp salad on a croissant, lobster salad on a croissant, tuna steak burger with a hoisin glaze and wasabi mayonnaise, crackling calamari salad, Oriental chicken and cabbage salad, and of course the obligatory glass of Chardonnay ;)

I just love these two pictures below where Line (pronounced Leena -- she is Norwegian!) is about to kiss her husband, Gamaliel (he is Mexican!)

and here she is with her boys, K and N

I haven't had much time away from the kids this summer. So when I do get away it is all that much more special, especially when that means getting to spend an afternoon with with great friends, many of whom I have known for over a dozen years, having great food, great conversation and great fun. Since we were outside we could be loud and have fun without disturbing everyone else (which has happened in the past!) and just be ourselves.

It must have been Women Who Lunch Day because I saw very few men. Mostly there were tables of women, tables of women who looked very much alike with long blonde hair (all frequent the same salon I wondered) and tanned, toned and tight bodies with designer tops and white jeans, or cool sundresses all from Mitchell's, the chi-chi-est store around, no doubt... in Hermes sandals with Prada satchels.

I like to people watch, I always have. I am a big observer. When I was a child I would oven walk over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a few blocks from my home, and sit on the steps of the grand museum and watch all the varied sorts of people passing by. I still love to do this.

At Splash, these other women might have had all the right stuff in terms of material goods, but what they did not have was the life, laughter and sparkle in their eyes that we had. They weren't... well... they weren't real. And they were not enjoying themselves and their day nearly as much as we were.

We all parted the restaurant and headed in our separate directions. As I was sitting at a red light waiting for it to turn so that I could make a left to run a quick errand, Christine pulled up in her grey Bimmer SUV. She honked her horn and I looked over, rolled down my window. "Hey Jess!" She shouted. Your new car goes well with your blonde hair! You look good in a white car!" The light turned green and with that she took off.

I headed off to my final errand. I was in and out in less than five minutes, including a quick visit to the loo.

And look what I got, the icing on my cake!

And how lucky am I that my sweater matches my driver's license! (I would have totally clashed yesterday!)

And how lucky am I that I won't have to renew until 2015!