There’s something about being part of a group of gals.  You can’t beat it.  Maybe it wasn’t that way in middle school…or even high school.  But once you’re an adult it just gets better and better.

Is this what Patty had in mind?  Being stuck together doing what we do best: Laughing.  Jean says she will bring a journal and capture all our funny jokes. The outtakes.  The things that made us snort.  The stuff that we will want to remember, and the same stuff we will probably recycle.  On that cruise that Trudi once took with Janey and Patty (remember the sock rule trip?)  Trudy wrote all the funny things down on post-it notes, and they stuck those to the mirror in the TINY cabin.  She says she still has the stack of post-it notes!  Cool right?

I think we should each write PROMPTS on slips of paper and then pull those from a purse whenever we need to stimulate some laughter.

“Everyone share a story about the first boy you liked..”Best trip you ever went on?”  “Were you ever a bridesmaid?”  And if you want, you guys can post below in the comment section some ideas?  You’re riding along with us!  We can tell.

I’m definitely loading up some Melissa McCarthy films for nighttime hotel room sleepovers.  Bridesmaids.  Tammy.   The gang sitting around a laptop or hotel tv (if we remember the right cables).  Maybe the industrious ones will be researching the next day’s stops.  Making sure we don’t get lost.  Meanwhile I’ll be typing away but still listening…  I like the stories.

Are you learning from Patty.  Maybe you’ve started to think about how you would handle some of the challenges she has faced and is facing?  Some folks are telling me that they would be much more likely to “curl up in a ball” and isolate…circle the wagons and create a small inner circle.  That makes sense too, for them.  Patty’s way is HER way.  It’s easy to admire her way, isn’t it?  She calls her treatment center “Moffitt Cancer Center and Spa” for goodness sake.  And her catch phrase is “I just want to spend the rest of my life laughing…”

Easy to say…but harder to pony up and get your body to the “spa” for bi weekly chemo.  Yet she does.  She has another magical dose three days before we leave.  Two of us have offered to ride beside her in our own wheelchairs while the other three PUSH.  We’ve got your back honey.  If it comes to it.

And leave the laughing part to us..we’re on it.  We’re cueing up Melissa movies and Ellen’s dance moves.  We’re planning on singing songs in Sparky the Suburban.

Hope this one makes you all smile as much as it does me…picture us grabbing hairbrushes as microphones…

We leave in a week.