If we were having coffee, the meeting would start with a long hug.  You would talk about your children recently in a car accident and currently recovering.  You would tell me about the driver who hit them and insurance woes your family is right now facing.  You would cry a little bit and I would hold your hand. You would ask me to get your mind off it, so I would tell you about  my first “mom’s night out.” An actual mom’s night out!

I had fun, but I made several rookie drinking mistakes: I mixed my liquors, I hadn’t had much to eat the day of the event, and I didn’t get something greasy to eat on the way home. At three the next morning, my head was killing me, and the Wee One needed to eat. I thought I was going to die while I fed her, and after she fell back asleep, I got sick. Cohiba took over in the bedroom with her and I slept on the couch. Ugh, embarrassing.

If we were having coffee, we would talk about our days at the Ren fair and laugh about the cast party. I would lament about the weak Ren fair in Washington and we would talk about other forms of cosplay that Cohiba and I are considering. As a Doctor Who fan, I would LOVE to dress up as a Weeping Angel, or, as a slightly older woman with pond curly hair, I could be River Song. I don’t know how I would incorporate the Wee One in it, though. Or maybe Wonder Woman, as this ties into a dream I had in my early pregnancy. I would ask you who you would want to be, and you would say something awesome.

At this point, you would decide you would like that piece of carrot cake, and when you come back with it you break off a little piece for me.

If we were having coffee, I would tell you about movie theaters up here that have “mommy and me” showings – shows when they turn down the volume and babies are welcome. They didn’t have that when your kids were babies, you said, but you took your youngest anyway, just because the older kids really wanted to see Mulan and you couldn’t get a baby sitter.

Speaking of kids, we would talk about Halloween costumes! This is my first one with a child, and you have LOTS of ideas having been through so many years of costumes.  You would tell me a story about two of the kids going as a rainbow and a pot of gold, but then they started fighting and your daughter with gold face paint started crying and got it all over her costume.

Like our time began, we would part with a long hug and you promise to come visit me in Washington soon.

*With my friend Kimecha