Little Red Envelope

Pie Club

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 | Odd Bits, Random Thoughts

I’ve always been good at making friends and lousy at keeping them.  Maintaining friendships requires a lot of work, and I’m happy enough with my small circle of confidants to be lazy when it comes to such things.  I do, however, love the company of women and I’m lucky enough to have Pie Club to provide me with just the right dose of estrogen.

As far as clubs go, Pie Club is kind of…lenient.  If the name alone is not enough to hook you, here’s the basics:  There are no rules, really.  A group of women (though men are not excluded) gets together once a month at someone’s house.  The hostess picks a couple recipes that she’s never tried before (previously considered a rule, but even this has been ignored by the rebels) and provides all the ingredients for her selections. The hostess always chooses at least one dessert – this is not a rule but it is a group of women, and nobody wants an angry mob.  Everyone else brings an ingredient for a simple supper. When everyone arrives, we begin to prepare the supper and surprise items and enjoy lively conversation.  Sometimes you grate cheese and then chat for an hour, other times you take charge of a recipe and gab while melting the chocolate. Somehow everything seems to get done in good time and it’s almost always delicious.

Many times I feel like I’d rather stay home than go to Pie Club.  After all, there’s always something “more important” to do.  But, it’s always a great time and I’m always glad I went.  The group of women that show up each month is different – there are always some familiar faces and there’s usually at least one new recruit.  The constant of Pie Club, though, is that it’s a safe place to be yourself.  We laugh, we tell crazy stories and we all have something to offer.  It’s loud and it’s crazy, but mostly it’s fun.

Most of the women who I see each month at Pie Club would not consider themselves my girlfriends, but I consider them so.  The truth is, I really don’t know enough about any of them except that I’m happy to see them each time I walk through the door, and that’s enough for me.  They are friendly faces and they are always smiling.  They’re a great pick-me-up  and as a wind-down they’re hard to beat.  The best part about Pie Club, for me, is that it is a group of friends that requires no work.  I don’t have to feel bad for not calling anyone back or not getting together often enough.  The date is set, you come or you don’t, but we’ll do it again next month and I hope you’re there.

Over the course of the two years that Pie Club has now been in operation there have been a few lovely traditions added.  We have aprons now, which helps with names, we take a group photo each month, and we have a journal to record what we ate and how we all felt about it.  But the best addition, in my opinion, has been recent.  We have loosely adopted a motto: Best Club EVER!

Definitely.

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