The day my salon dreams came true

I have always been a little bit in love with the notion of a salon. Not the Steel Magnolias kind, where you get your hair permed & tinted while crying about your husband Beauford's wayward ways. Rather, the sort one reads about in European history, described by Wikipedia (source of all truth & knowledge) as "A gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation."

Yesterday, friends, I hit the salon motherlode :)

FIRST, I had lunch with my friend Broadcast Media Girl. We ate at John Harvard's, a local chain restaurant, so I'll just take it on faith that at somepoint back in the 1600s JH himself thought, "I bet those turn-of-the-century girls are going to need a place to talk...and it should be near discount retail and a giant shoe store..." He was right! I thank him for the inspiration. BMG and I spent the afternoon laughing, taking about God & boys, and, erm...refining our taste. Yes, that's exactly it!

THEN, Steve and I spent the evening at a birthday celebration dinner for my friend the Organized Gorgeous Gourmet (aka Julia...I'll out her so you can check out her book, because she's living proof these anti-aging tips work). Anyway, Julia inspires me--for her stealth alone...a little-known secret: she remains forever young by gathering her friends each year & feeding us gluttonous amounts of custard pie--so that salon condition was met. And the conversation...well, educational doesn't even begin to cover the ground the 8 of us covered. Here's just a sample of what I learned:

-A rat is different than a mouse, and you can't mate them...even if you're trying to get a donkey.

-The way to get a flying squirrel out of your attic is to obtain a fox, get it to pee in a cup, then dry the pee and spread it all over your home. (This has the added benefit of ending your hospitality obligations to all but your heartiest friends and family).

-Rumor has it that some audacious team in New Hampshire has asked ousted Red Sox manager Terry Francona to be their new guy in charge. His compensation package would include a few thousand dollars AND half-off burritos at the concession stand.

Good stuff, right?!? I woke up feeling enlightened, entertained...and newly aware that 2 slices of custard pie is 1 too many if I'm going to be laughing that hard for that many hours. It was practically aerobic.

What did YOU learn yesterday?