As I write this post, I am sitting in a hospital room across from my mother.  She underwent a scheduled surgery earlier today.  The room is silent, except for the humming of the machines and the child-like sleep sounds coming from Mom. Three of the Lunch Ladies (what I call my mom’s posse’) just left.  They range in age from early sixties to mid seventies.  These are the women who anchor my mother.  Two are missing from the bunch, but that’s because they had a funeral to attend. 

I always marvel at the antics that my mother and her friends get into.  I am usually the silent observer when more than two or three of them are gathered.  They are really fun to watch.  Today was no exception. 

Seldom without a book and/or my laptop, I was prepared for the waiting game/long haul.  I know how boring it can get in waiting rooms.  Except the room with these ladies was anything but boring.  They love telling tales- tall ones and small ones.  They love talking about their children, grands, and great-grands.  But one thing that I notice is that they offer nothing but positivity and encouragement to each other, no matter what the situation is.  

The one with the weight issue was encouraged to keep at the exercising- even if she isn’t getting the results she wants because she was “looking relaxed and there has to be some benefit to all that exercising “.  The one with the husband who wants to sell their family home and move further out into the country on some family land was told to just “let that man dream.  You know he ain’t going no where if you ain’t happy”.  The one with the daughter that lives ten minutes away that she hardly ever sees was told to “give her some time to grow.  She’ll learn to appreciate having her mother close by” . 

While I was supposed to be working, I was paying close attention to the conversations going on around me.  And of course, they weren’t going let me off the hook.  

“Crystal” (my family calls me Crystal- a short, boring story for another day), “what you typing on that computer? Are you writing about us?” 

“Leave that girl alone.  She’s writing her best seller.  We might get to be in one of her books someday.”

“Just make sure I am slim and sexy. And make sure you show how brazen we are.  You know people like brazen women, no matter what they say.  They are more interesting to read about.”

All this before I even opened my mouth. 

It wasn’t long before I realized what my APOOO post for this week was going to be. 

Be brazen in your life.  And make sure you have some brazen friends along for the ride.  Life is so much more interesting that way.

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