I think it is worse when you never see it coming. You awaken to a beautiful morning with the sun streaming through the windows. {Yes, I sleep until 7:00 a.m. most days. Whatever.} You jump out of bed with visions of coffee on the deck and a leisurely start to the day. Then, you hear the cough.

This is not the my-saliva-went-down-the-wrong-way kind of cough. Nor is it the I-want-your-attention kind. No, this is the cough – the one that you will literally hear in your sleep for the next ten days. It is the dry, hacking, cancel any plans you may have had kind of cough. It mocks you and any medicine you throw its way. The cough makes everything seem more stressful. You lose your mind when a child spills her milk at breakfast even though you have been cleaning up spilled milk since ’02.

When you hear that cough – give it up, girlfriend – you are in for the long haul.

Late yesterday afternoon, two of my children began showing signs of the cough. My three-year-old {who has not napped since the great bedtime battle of 2013} asked to lay on my bed and “rest her eyes.” Danger, Will Robinson! Then the one-year-old, who normally naps like a boss, decided sleeping was so not her thing. By 5:00 it became clear that the cough had, indeed, invaded our home.

Here is the thing, sweet friends. I had a girls night out planned – the kind which requires no high chairs and no one orders macaroni and cheese. Home is where the heart is, but guacamole is good for the soul. What I am saying is that I left my clingy, hacking children in my husband’s very capable hands and left.

Y’all, let me tell you something. There is very little in this life that can not be drastically improved by guacamole and girlfriends. I did not say “fixed,” mind you – but made better. Sometimes, we just need a reason to put on some earrings, to eat a plate of food without sharing and to laugh at ourselves.

We did not solve the world’s problems. We did not discuss anything that is currently trending on Twitter or Facebook. We laughed. We breathed. We sat, uninterrupted except for the lovely waiter who refilled our glasses, and just enjoyed a meal. It was lovely.

Then, I drove home in a guacamole haze not realizing that I failed to turn my headlines on until I was three red lights down the road. I drifted off to sleep knowing that I would, once again, awaken to the sound of the cough.

I laugh at the cough. This ain’t my first rodeo.

Happy Wednesday.

<3 Stacy