Monthly Archives: September 2009

“Ladies Who…Concoct Cocktails!” Invitation

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Our next Ladies Who… event is below. There may also be a delicious surprise dessert, but Shhhh, don’t let the other ladies know. After all, it is a surprise! (Yes, I realize the irony of posting this on the world wide web and calling it a surprise. But they’ll never know…winky face).

Since starting this group, it’s been so great to hear about other women’s stories of groups they have started or have been a part of. I just find it so important for ladies to have a strong support system, and although there are other ways to have that besides starting a social group, we are more powerful when we share each other’s stories and can laugh and enjoy what it means to be a woman. Other women just continue to amaze me – what they accomplish, how they accomplish it, and just when I think I have someone nailed down and pinpointed – another facet to them is showed and unearthed. We are so complicated! I love it!

Please continue to share stories here and everywhere!

That’s why I am so excited to have Kate Gover come and share her excitement for tea with our group. Here is a brief snippet about her and her passion for everything tea from her website:

Built in 1867, the Lahloo was one of the most famous tea clippers of the 19th century. So-called because of the way they “clipped” miles, clippers were built for speed and raced to bring tea from China to London.  Having grown up around dockside in London, Kate Gover’s great-great grandfather George Hockaday was drawn into a career as a sailor and he worked on the Lahloo as she joined the clipper races….

Embracing her love and enthusiasm for tea, Kate Gover started to formulate a plan for her own tea business in 2005. She embarked upon a mission to research everything she could about the very best tea, where it was produced, who produced it and the history behind its production.
Through her experiences, Kate discovered that the very best tea is not readily available on the open market and set about looking for tea importers in this country who shared their passion and enthusiasm. The caveat was that they had to import seasonally and direct from independent tea gardens that supported traditional growing and processing methods.
The concept for Lahloo has been born out of the knowledge and passion gathered over a decade of research, travelling, sampling, smelling and tasting.

And so comes Ladies Who…Concoct Tea Cocktails!

Ladies Who...Invitation

Tidbits

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  • Also, interesting fact my grandmother just told me the other day. We are directly descended from the controversial fifth President of Cuba, Gerardo Machado. Apparently, my grandmother’s mother was his first cousin, and NOT the cousin he married (for anyone who knows anything about Cuban history). I knew we had some importance in our blood somewhere – even if a bit tyrannical.Gerardo Machado

And….that’s about all I got for now.

“I Am a Lady Who…” Thursdays

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I’ll go first.

I am a Lady Who… had a dog named Ari.

I was nine going on ten. I wanted a dog. My mother didn’t want me to have a dog. “A dog lasts for many years,” she said, ” and I don’t think you realize the amount of responsibility it takes to care for and pay for a dog.”

I wouldn’t have it. I annoyed her. I begged her. I wouldn’t shut the f@&# up for days, weeks, months. Who knows how long my poor mother had to adore the annoying pre-pubescent chubby bandana-wearing freak constantly badgering her about a dog. “I want a dog. Pllllease, can we have a dog?”

So, my mother, being the ever-so-wily mother that she was, came up with a plan to shut me up, and hopefully stomp out any hope of me getting a dog. “If you are truly serious about this dog, and you want to learn the type of commitment that is needed to raise one, then you must raise $1,000,” she asserted.

This is where I smile, jump up and down, and throw my arms around her wonderful little self. Not quite the reaction she was looking for. I was determined, and now I had a goal. Not things you want to arm those chubby cheeks with if you don’t want something to happen.

Six months of shoveling snow, raking leaves, mowing lawns, pet-sitting (yes, I started a pet sitting business), and I had not only lost some of my baby fat, but I had raised $500 to the chagrin of my mother.

She knew it was only a matter of time before I had raised it all, which meant a matter of time that she would be stuck with this dog when I left for college. So, the annoying little girl got what she was after!

Preferably my mother had two other requests – the dog couldn’t bark and couldn’t shed.  “Ummmm, isn’t that what having a dog is all about?” You may ask…

Would that deter me? Oh no. I went to the library and found out that there were numerous dogs that didn’t shed, but only one that didn’t bark. A beautiful Basenji. Beautiful dogs, but hideously expensive and temperamental. So, we decided on a Cairn Terrier – my best friend Courtney had one, and so did Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, so it seemed good enough for us. They rarely barked, barely shed, and were intelligent, energetic, and loyal.

We found a breeder in the newspaper.  I turned 11, and she was delivered to my house. I named her Ariana (meaning silver, for the silver streak on her back) Aubrey of Willow. Because she was a pure bred, she needed a proper name! Duh! And Willow Avenue was the street we lived on. We called her Ari (pronounced Airy).

She was a defiant little dog. She trained easily, but she had a habit of peeing inside just to spite you. She would walk right by your side on the leash just to the point when you trusted she wouldn’t run away, and as soon as you undid her leash, she was off. She protected you from other dogs twice her size.

Then Ralph happened. Ralph was my sister’s new dog. Amanda didn’t have to jump through hoops to get her. Yes, Ralph was a her and a bassett hound. Ralph dominated Ari, and I don’t think she was ever the same since. She became depressed.

Then, I took her with me across the country to California. She was definitely never the same since then. She would hide from people, she became a recluse.

Finally, eleven years had passed, and I couldn’t take care of her anymore. I was in my early twenties, and not as fit as a mother as I was when I was thirteen. My mother took her, and Ari livened up. Mom said she knew this day would come and she dreaded it.

But, she fell more in love with Ari than probably even I. She has been by her side for the last five years everyday, and she was her buddy. She walked her everyday, she fed her, and as Ari became more and more deaf, blind and mute (ironically exactly how she would have preferred her to be as a puppy) – my mother became her mother.

This Tuesday, my mother put her down. She was going on 16 years old, and very old for a dog. She had no quality of life. My mother was the one who was there with her as she was laid to rest.

I didn’t think I would be this emotional when I heard Ari was gone. I hadn’t been with her in five years, but she was with me for more of my life than she wasn’t. My mom and I cried together on the phone.

Thanks mom for letting me get a dog. I am a Lady who had a dog named Ari. (Please excuse the ridiculous picture below – I take no responsibility for the bow on my dog’s head…but she is cute, huh?)

Our Dog

Our Dog

Now, what kind of lady are you?!

Labor Day, so I Labor

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I started my first day today in an office stuffing tea (Lahloo Tea), helping a friend out. It was the first time I could really take a step back from my life as it is now and have a peak in. Maybe it’s because boyfriend is out of town for a couple of days, and I’m on my own. Maybe it’s because I was in a different environment than I usually am.

Nevertheless, I hovered above next to the solar-powered light bulb, looked down and said hello to myself, the English, working Meagan, and asked myself it was really true how lucky myself was. Myself nodded back and smiled. Here I was in an office, stuffing tea, pretending like I was working. I mean, I was working, I wasn’t pretending, but it somehow felt like I was pretending. It felt like I was pretending because this was the first time I was working not to pay the bills, put gas in my car or frantically get my student loan payment in on time. I was here, and it felt like socializing. It felt amazing.

The casual chit chat about the concerts that were coming to town, the many weddings we had been to this summer, and how our weekend went by too quickly. The lack of tension between my shoulder blades and the comfortable silences. This wasn’t work, it couldn’t be.

I was out of my glorious relationship bubble I’d been living in for the past nine months, and as I was walking back to the bus stop on my way home, I smiled to myself. Not a happy smile, but a, ohhh, I -get-what-I-have-now smile. You see, today was familiar. More familiar than being madly in love, happy and passionate about waking up day in day out to write the novel I’d always wanted to write.

Today was the first day I’ve lived in England like I’ve lived for most of the rest of my adult life. Alone. Walking to the bus. Working. Disregarding the crude stares and whistles from the heavily suped up Nissan Skyline hatchback. Small smirks of acknowledgments to the other women who were caught in a similar situation, alone and heading home. Taking in my surroundings, being aware that my handbag over my shoulder is not unzipped, blending into the background. Wondering if the guy sitting behind me on the back of the bus would stab me before or after he ran off with my money (gruesome, I know, but hey, it’s just how the mind works).

This was the me who had walked down the Parisian Rue de St. Lazar, New York’s 8th Street and 6th Avenue, Hollywood’s Hollywood Boulevard, Philly’s Chestnut Avenue, and Baltimore’s Pratt Street. Alone, taking on the world head on, and eager to see what lay ahead, yet fearing that the here and now won’t ever catch up with my desires and yearnings to be the most famous actress the world had ever seen..

But she isn’t me now. That girl hasn’t gone completely, but I smiled because I am now a more subtle version of me. A wiser me? Hopefully, but at least a more practical me. I almost felt like I could look back at that girl from those other streets in those other cities, and say, good job. We’ve done well. It wasn’t so bad after all – in hind-sight. We got through the thick of it, and turned out happier because (or despite?) of it. I’ve had a good life.

And, not that I felt like this was the end of her, or that I’m saying goodbye to her. Just the angst of being in my early twenties is over. I’m more settled now, and calm. I don’t have that voice in the back of my head fearing that my life will be over by the time I turned 27, and it was running out. Because I have turned 27, I am it. And, thank God!

I own a television now – not because I’ve given up on the idea that watching other people live their lives is nothing compared to living your own, but because I’m no longer afraid that my time will run out before I’ve lived it. I’m OK with watching other people and sitting on the couch for a while. I’m aware that I could die tomorrow, but I no longer feel like I need to cram it all into today just in case.

So, yes. I am grateful for being a lady who lunches and occasionally stuffs tea. I am grateful for experiencing this amazing new culture. I am grateful for making the friends I have, and having the friends I’ve made, and for having the most wonderful boyfriend in the world. I’m grateful for my family who reads this blog faithfully (even if I get a little long winded! Especially Granpa Harry who is blind, but still manages to read and set up my fan club.). And I’m grateful for finally making it to 27.

Bristol is more beautiful than I remembered it being yesterday. Kate, the owner of the tea company, took me on the roof of The Offices. She counted 18 spires from churches all around us. The old cathedrals, banks and breweries blending with the new post-war buildings to make the city scape of one of the most affluent cities in England. The roof top alone served as an example of the old blending with the new – Solar energy technology powering the building, and giving birth to tomato plants all at the same time, on the same roof.

September is here, and, as my friend Jessica said, the New Year has begun. Time to dust off those erasers, rulers and 3-hole punchers and get back to studying (take it as a metaphor if you want). I’m ready for Autumn brown corduroy trousers, how about you?

Newman and Woodward wore corduroy. Nuff said.

in Corduroy

Ladies Who…Walk

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The Ladies Who… Club is international!!!!

My best friend Courtney has officially started a “Ladies Who…Walk” Wednesdays in our hometown of Baltimore, MD. What a great way to get other women motivated to do some exercise and socialize at the same time.

I am so proud of her for getting this started, and look forward to hearing her updates.

If you want to start a Ladies Who… Club somewhere in your town, don’t hesitate to contact me at Meagan@ladywholunches.net .  I can get you set up with a ladywholunches.net email address, and I will make sure to include you on my blog. It’s not hard, and all you have to do is pick a theme, the same or a different one every time, and get some women together!

Thanks Courtney for making the club international.

And, I just wanted to send a special thank you as well to Alexa Brandt who was the original inspiration.  She started a club in Los Angeles called The Ladies Lounge, and here’s an example of one of their meetings.