my book club is better than your book club

hands down, that is the truth.

you might be asking, "but rachel, how can you possibly know this when

you know nothing about my book club?"

let me tell you...

exhibit a:

our first meeting was a tea party book club.

karen, the host (and genius whose brain child the club was) made

a plethera of fancy tea party treats, and also supplied hats and

gloves for all of us to wear.

this was the first sign that i 1) would love these girls and the club i

was joining, and 2) was about to have the time of my life once a month.

exhibit b:

the book we decided on for our first official month of book club was

beauty: a retelling of the story of beauty and the beast, by robin mckinley.

(worst book i've ever read, but i'll get to that later)

as we were discussing the book, and the club in general, someone had the

idea to not just have a tea party every month, but to make the meeting a party

with the theme of whatever the book was that we just read.

this meant that our next meeting would have a princess theme...

the wheels in my head started turning, and tears came to my eyes as i

began to think of the fact that i would now have an excuse to bust out

my old prom dresses and have some real fun.

not only did we dress up for this meeting, but karen (once again) went to great

lengths to make this a top notch gathering...the walkway was lined with candles

and roses (like in the book!), there were beautiful chandeliers hanging from

the trees (from the trees!), and someone had even painted a castle for a backdrop.

also note, karen had a culinary spread worthy of royalty (which we were that night).

we started the night as perfect ladies...

dressed to the nines, and enjoying every minute of it:

and then our true colors started to shine through the tule...

richard told me i make this face a lot.

i don't even know what to say about that, other than this:  i only make that

face because of things that other people do.  it's not my fault.

i twisted jenkins' arm so hard to wear that dress (and am very thankful she did),

but she did it in true jenkins style...with jeans underneath and a sweater over the top.

she makes this face a lot, too.

the hit of the night was karen's "too much chocolate cake"

which i like to call "bruce bogtrotter's chocolate cake"

like brucey, i could've eaten that whole thing!

and then we got down to business...

i seriously did not care for this book one little bit, but i still looked

forward to book club all month just for the dressing up and hanging

out with these fabulous women!

i know the idea of a themed book club is silly, but that's what i love about it!

this is an excuse to check out of being a "grown up" and be the girls

we truly are...vivacious, fun-loving, and always down for a good time.

i'm sure you can find each of our names on a bathroom stall somewhere...

which should probably be the new requirement to get into the club.