Someday, many years from now, when our faces are crinkled (along with everything else), we shall sit poolside at unconventional hours and drink Chablis at 3 pm. I’ve never been a Chablis person, but when our middles are thicker and softer, and our hair is thinner and coarser, I intend to make it my signature drink. You, my much-cherished girlfriends, will surround me, and we will laugh until tears squeeze out of the corners of our eyes. Just as we do now. Because we will have traded a carpool line for an actual pool, there will be no rush to leave. We’ll complain about aging, just as we do now, and our husbands will tell us we’re as beautiful as we’ve ever been. Just as they do now.

I tell you this story, because right now, our lives are less Chablis-esque. We meet for coffee with the snow piling up outside, never removing our parkas. Gripping our hot cups and cold hands, we run through the possibilities of the immediate future. The far-off future. The future that sits in the middle. Maybe if we talk about it enough, we’ll find new solutions. Maybe miracles will occur. We sure could use a few.

While I know we’ll never forget this winter, I hope in our “Chablis at Three” days, the edges of these hard times will have softened. I hope we remember the small kindnesses we shared. The year Kellie had to blow out her birthday candles a month late, and Shayla surprised us with the beautiful cupcakes. The year the snow fell and fell on our lovely dinner at Noah Grant’s, just as it did that first dinner at Zing. The winter I declared “This Shit Calls For Pie”, and made a promise to keep us in pies until this wicked season turns. I have a funny feeling I’m going to be making a lot of pies.

Maybe in our Chablis at Three World, we’ll see that many things changed, but some wonderful things stayed the same. Look at the far edge of the pool: there are our husbands shaking their heads because we got to chatting, and we’re late for dinner…again. No, I don’t care if you wear the same blouse you wore last week! Why would I care?! I’m wearing the same blouse I wore last week! (We’ll call them blouses, because screw it. We’re old.) I’m wearing it again because it flatters my saggy boobies. What am I saying? My boobs are perfect. Crap girls…how many glasses did you let me have?! STOP BELLYACHING BOYS! WE KNOW! We’re late for the Tokyo Buffet and all the good sushi will be taken! Now come over here, sit down, and have a glass of Chablis with us. Sweet sassy molassey, I think we drank it all. Come ladies, help me up. I gotta go change my blouse…

That’s the life ladies. Chablis at 3. We’re staying by each others’ sides until we have Chablis at Three.