weekend in the 'Ham

I came home for a much needed weekend of gorging on BBQ, drinking martinis with my two best friends and falling asleep at random intervals in the middle of the day. Despite being deathly ill with SARS - or maybe it's just a cold - it's been a nice relaxing couple of days.

Here are the highlights:

One of my best friend's threw a birthday party for her mother who passed away in the spring from ovarian cancer (Curses, Cancer!). I appreciate that may sound a little strange, but it felt perfectly normal to be in her home and celebrate her life - not by sitting around holding hands, sharing stories and singing Kumbaya - but by getting drunk on gin and tonics, eating ham biscuits and feeling Ann's presence all around us. (And we did pour one out for her... right on the kitchen floor if I do recall correctly.) It made me miss her dearly, think of my own mother, and thank my lucky stars for my amazing best friends.

We (five girls) finished the night by going dancing. We were the first to arrive and the last to leave. L told one woman she had great breasts (she did), and which point the woman shouted "they're mine!" We stumbled home at 3 a.m. and I woke up with a hangover and a cold.

At her hair appointment Saturday, my friend was chatting with her hairdresser Melissa who was just shocked and appalled at the London bombings. But what really stuck in her craw was that those bombers actually assembled the bomb in Leeds, Alabama (small town outside of B'ham for those who aren't familiar with this lovely state). "I mean, Leeds!" she says, "Can you believe it!?" My friend: "Um, I am not so sure about that, I think it's Leeds UK since they did bomb London..." Hairdresser: "Oh no, hon, I saw it on the news. They were in Leeds!" I think my friend dropped it at that point.

I took an Ambien the other night hoping to sleep more than five hours without waking up to toss and turn. Problem was I took it at 3 a.m. and woke up at 11 a.m. thinking it was 7 and the damn pill didn't work. It took two hours for the grogginess to wear off, but after last night I wish I had taken it again.

Among the things that keep me up at night:
1. getting a job
2. figuring out where I will be in a few months
3. the fear that I have SARS or lung cancer or bacterial meningitis rather than just the common cold
4. the news of a woman giving birth to a 15-pound child and wondering if my health insurance will cover an operation to end my own childbearing chances