My days have been extraordinarily full lately and oftentimes I am unable to have lunch at the office, which I happen to enjoy. Yesterday, though, I was able to free up my schedule and spend more time in the office and actually have lunch there. I was prepared with my soup and apple. Upon entering the staff room, though, Noemi announced that Sylvia, someone who volunteers for our Stone Soup kitchen, had brought leftover soup and quesadillas for everybody. Noemi, Lynette, Barb, Ina, and I were joined by two Hispanic ladies, Sylvia and Maria. The soup and quesadillas were delicious and the conversation was LIVELY!
It was so much fun just talking about anything and everything that we could all come up with. Barb told us about her difficulties of remitting money to a bus company in Mexico City. Ina shared her experiences with being left at home with teenage boys. Noemi compared the family culture she grew up with to her American husband's family. This then turned into how our Spanish-influenced culture compared to the American culture. This I find so fascinating because even if we Filipinos are Asians, we are so much more like the Hispanics of the Americas. Sylvia then shared with us how the boys that her children went to grade school boys have now grown up into good-looking, hot, young men. This brought the house down! We could probably be heard a mile away as we all laughed and pounded on the table at the scandalous thought.
I couldn't help but think how much I miss these lunches with girlfriends where you can be as silly and scandalous (within reason, of course). The combination of the hearty food, the lively personalities, and the openness of the group just made for a great lunch hour.
As I write this, though, I have to admit that I also have another group of ladies that I lunch with. It's a super, secret club that only women are invited to. We're called the VCCWs -- or Very Cool Catholic Women. This is another lively conversation, but a little bit more serious. We also have some interesting women in this group. Sue, who is the Coordinator of the Newman Center, is a hoot. She tells the best stories and is very animated. There's Amy who is a new Catholic. She's Passionate with a capital P. She became a Catholic after reading about Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement. Needless to say, she's part of our Social Justice Commission but will be moving to California in July. Barb, who is our Pastoral Associate, is also quite lively and really adds to the conversations. Judy Ringle has read just about everything and is very energetic as well. She does a lot of glasswork as a hobby and even made us our lovely VCCW pins. This is just part of our group because I haven't had the chance to lunch with the other members yet. We just get together for lunch each last Friday of the month in the same restaurant to talk about anything and everything.
It's particularly interesting how different we all are yet our basic foundation is really quite similar. Women just have to talk and express their feelings. From here, we move on to other topics. But until we're able to download, these thoughts swirl around our heads and can lead to anxiety attacks if not poured out. We are capable of solving problems that we feel men seem to have a harder time grasping, yet we don't really want solutions to our problems. We just want to talk about them. Why? Because we're women. We just want someone to listen. We hyper-analyze situations, but don't want to be analyzed. What did she mean when she said this? Why do you think he did this? Does this mean that I'm so and so? But don't tell me what's wrong with me because you'll be wrong.
So, when's our next lunch?
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