GALentine's Day
What is GALentines day you ask? GALentine’s Day is the day before Valentine’s Day where a group of female friends get together to celebrate how amazing women are. It was created by Leslie Knope from the popular TV show Parks & Recreation. As she puts it, "Oh, it's only the best day of the year. Every February 13th, my lady friends and I leave our husbands and our boyfriends at home, and we just come and kick it, breakfast-style. Ladies celebrating ladies. It's like Lilith Fair, minus the angst. Plus frittatas."
This year I decided to organize a get together with a few of the amazing women in my life to eat, engage in some interesting conversation, and celebrate each other. I'm definitely no Leslie Knope, but I channeled her most creative ideas and did my best to make this GALentine's Day a memorable one.
First, I made initial plans. This year Valentine's Day falls on a Tuesday so for convenience sake, instead of GALentine's Day being on the 13th, I made it the Sunday before, the 12th. I also made reservations to a restaurant that could accommodate us ladies for the Sunday before Valentine's Day. That was a bit of a struggle, but using opentable.com to make reservations made it a breeze and I found the perfect location.
Second, I sent out invitations. I drew up a simple design and decided I wanted to go the old fashion route and send them out via snail mail. Little did I know stamps cost 49¢ a pop!! Since I'm not made out of money, I went 21st century style and sent it right to their inbox. Below is the invitation.
Third, I waited patiently for the day to arrive. In the meantime, I put together favors for everyone. It wasn't anything big or extravagant, but a few useful products. I found some cute, miniature, Valentine's Day tumblers and in them I included chap stick, nail polish, chocolate, and a face mask. Again, nothing too extravagant, but I hoped everyone would enjoy them!
Finally the day arrived! Full disclosure: I am a bit of a control freak and wanted everything to go perfect. I was afraid that since not all my friends knew each other, conversation might lag. I tried with all my powers to come up with games so there wouldn't be any awkward silences, BUT OF COURSE, I am friends with highly intelligent, beautiful sun goddesses that don't need games to interact with one other. Everything went splendidly. We all mingled, ordered food, and had a great time (I hope).
There was one game I thought of: Name women in your life that you are inspired by. I love this. It really takes us to the root of what GALentine's Day is about, women celebrating women. How far we've come, how much we've accomplished. Hearing everyone's favorite ladies was awesome. Here is a list of some of the ladies that we named:
Overwhelmingly: Our Mom's because DUH! They are amazing. Carrying us in their bellies for 9 months and taking care of us, up to this day, shows how much unconditional love they have.
Michelle Obama
Selena
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Melissa McCarthy
A couple instagram gals like: @alex_L and @nikishabrunson
And the women we interact with everyday that work hard in this male-dominated world.
Overall, I think GALentine's day was a success. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to be a woman. Yes, we might get the short end of the stick sometimes, but we don't lie down and let it get to us. We don't complain about it. We do something. We work hard and take it like a WOMAN, with grace and dignity.
So for all you ladies out there reading this, please feel free to use any of my ideas. Also, it's not too late, GALentine's Day doesn't have to fall on February 13th or be in February at all! As long as you get a group of girls together and celebrate each others accomplishments, any day can be GALentine's Day.
