"It's been a good night."

Forgive me, Lori, for stealing your blog post word for word....but I'm just never going to be able to describe our wonderful evening as eloquently and passionately as you did.

It's been a good night.

"I know it’s been a good night because of many reasons. I’m sitting here with heated Indian leftovers at my elbow and a happy glow in my heart. The glow in my belly grows as I continue to consume the Tika Masala, but my heart is so happy because I know such amazing people. The Musketeers rode again tonight, and our fantastic four has grown to a comfortable five and it was amazing to be here and be happy together. We realized that it had been six months since the last time we combined, and that is much, much, MUCH too long between gatherings with these women. My assignment to myself is to get onto Facebook this very night and ask them all when we can do it again as soon as possible…and how many of your friends do you feel that way about? Only gone for an hour and I want to see them again.
There were tears of sadness and joy. There were lots of hugs to spare. We laughed so much that I’m glad there is no worldwide quota where my laughter would have stolen giggles from some pour soul in Korea because they would be sad for a long time to make up for me. We heard shocking stories of divorce (curse online gaming yet again), upcoming hysterectomy surgery (no way are we, any of us, old enough for such procedures), and several moments of, “not sure what will happen next with my life”. Surprisingly, every negative event ended with the smiling faith that Heaven’s path will be interesting once I see it more clearly, or even that there were so many miracles through it all that I can’t deny this is where I need to be even if I am not happy about why the miracles came about.
The negative events were far and away surpassed by the laughing though. All the do-you-remember-so-and-so?’s, and my-kids-do-that-too!, and guess-what-I-found-out? The backup plan of movies and popcorn never came close to surfacing. The babies played so well…after territories were mapped and the hair-pulling stopped…and even that was hilarious…sad baby faces are so cute. There was so much to catch up on that poor Hannah got shot down in her attempt at directing us all in the “Stop Talking Game.” Happy child at least took comfort in the fact that she won. Throw in slices of a decadent pie, and it was quite a heavenly evening.
None of us thought to pull out a camera…stupid house of the cobbler and her kids with no shoes. Literally cannot count the number of picture taking devices under this roof and none of us paused to say, “Cheese!” I wouldn’t have shown the best of the bunch in print by any means, but I pony up to the fact that a photo is a moment captured, and these nights with my ladies are worth capturing…grey hairs, chorister arms, and moms thighs notwithstanding. How I love them all. …the ladies…not my thighs.
We talked about the genesis of our group name, and so I had to go hit Wikipedia and find out why it’s so fitting. The regular dictionary definition of “a soldier armed with a musket” just didn’t cut it. And I quote:

The Musketeers of the Guard were a junior unit of company strength of the military branch of the Royal Household or Maison du Roi. They were created in 1622 when Louis XIII furnished a company of light cavalry with muskets. Musketeers fought in battle both on foot and on horseback. As a junior unit in the Royal Guard, the Musketeers were not closely linked to the royal family. Traditional bodyguard duties were in fact performed by the Garde du Corps and the Gardes suisses. Because of its junior status, the Musketeers were open to the lower classes of French nobility or younger sons from noble families whose oldest son served in the more prestigious units. The Musketeers soon gained a reputation for boisterousness and fighting spirit because the only way for social and career advancement was excelling at their task as mounted light horsemen.
Their high esprit de corps and can-do attitude gained them royal favour and they became a popular fixture at court and in Paris.
The Musketeers were among the most popular of the military companies of the Ancient Regime. This popularity was due to the lower entrance requirements. The senior guard units were in effect closed to all but the most senior and wealthy of French nobles, so for the vast majority of French nobles (many of whom lived in genteel poverty), service in the Musketeers was the only way to join a cavalry unit in the Royal Household and perhaps catch the King’s eye.

So there you have it. We aren’t prestigious or privileged but we’re versatile and hard-working. We make the best of our situations and put up a pretty impressive fake-it-till-you-make-it show for the world at large when we need to. And we all believe without a doubt that we WILL make it in the end…whether that means catching the eye of the king or surviving another week of carpool…We believe collectively in each other, and we root for our sister-friends. Together we are stronger.
To Sarah, Kami, Chellie, and now Heather, I tip my ostrich feather plumed hat to you all in respect, love, and gratitude! All for one and one for all!
…now get out your calendars and let’s do it again!"