What I Miss ....

It has been two weeks now since I left Fool's Paradise on the South Beach Diet website. The first week was really hard .... this 2nd week has been better. Having this blog is helping. It gives me a spot to vent. And it gives me a spot to share.

I spent 3.5 pretty darn happy years hanging out with some truly amazing, wonderful women. And ... I spent the last 4 months just trying to keep the hope alive that it could be that way again. I failed.

And boy do I miss what it once was.

Back in July of 2003 I read about the South Beach Diet and decided to give it a try. I joined the website ... which at the time cost $6.95 a month to belong. The site hosted Message Boards ... which I had zero experience with. Somehow I stumbled into a group who was calling themselves "Fool's Paradise". They were hilarious!! OMG .... one line zingers with plays on words ... it was clear these women had amazing intellect. Some were very witty and wordy ... others were the "straight men" .... it was clear these women were friends and played off each other really well.

I read them for a couple of days ... then noticed a reference to Poo-Ping ... one of the women's dog. LOL ... I had to ask ... I think my first post to them was asking whether "Poo-Ping" was really the name of the dog. Who would name their dog "Poo-Ping"?? Oh ... and by the way ... since starting this diet I was having a bit of trouble "poo-ping" myself ... did anyone else have this problem and what should I do??

A couple of the women on the thread had become very knowledgable about the diet and they quickly mentioned Milk of Magnesia would help ... (and it did).

I asked them how I could join this group ... they said ... just post and play with them. So I did! It took me awhile to figure out what I was doing ... and even longer to figure out who everybody was ... I had to take notes ... I kept getting Caterry and Catmadam cornfused! But as we all chatted and laughed, our own language started to develop ... certain innocuous words like "plan" and "ponder" took on whole new meanings. Mis-spellings and typos became integrated into the play.

Recently I have typed that I had "plans" to do something .... and had to pause to think "does this person know the FP meaning of plan?".

The true heart of the hilarity in Fool's Paradise was a woman who called herself BellyBeGone. She would be the owner of the Chinese Pug called "Poo-Ping" .... and no, that wasn't the dog's name, but in MY heart, it was and still is!

This woman was/is truly amazing. Her ability to twist a very simple statement into a laugh was sheer genius. LOL ... ROFL ... Snort! All of those were oh so true!! If anyone could bring out a good SNORT, Belly could. But all the other women in these threads had their own individual skills and we all played off each other in truly delightful ways.

Mind you .... none of us actually knew anyone else in these threads. None of us had ever met. But some people played off each other so well that everyone thought they had to be related ... maybe even sisters? Belly and Catmadam and DRMCK all claimed to have the same Mama .... DO and Caterry and Purple Angel became each other's halves .... yet no one had met face-to-face.

I was kind of a side player. Always there ... always laughing ... occasionally getting a one-liner in myself. But ... everyone knew me ... and I was always welcome ... and it was a sisterhood of friendship and laughter. And it was nice.

I miss that. I miss that a lot.

I won't write about what happened to destroy all of that. Suffice to say that wherever two or more women gather, there will be drama ... and there was DRAMA ...

I want to write about the good things ... the laughter, and sense of belonging, the kindnesses, the surprises, the concern, the KARMA.

As a group, we kind of discovered that we had an ability to support each other through times of need. One of us would be hurting ... physically or emotionally ... and the others would send out what became known as "Fewl's Karma" and such wounds would begin to heal. One of the ladies was excellent about sending flowers or plants or fruit baskets. We got to know about each other's spouses and children ... and we started caring about each other's lives as a whole. When one was hurt ... we all hurt ... when one was happy ... we were all happy for her. ((Yikes ... we sound kind of like the BORG)). We experienced job loss and surgeries and natural disasters and death of family members and health issues ... as well as promotions and awards and achievements and successes. We laughed ... and we cried.

We were a sisterhood. And I miss that.

A lot ....