ChaChaGirls

It's Time To Party!

OGGW stands for Old Girls Gone Wild.  This is not a new reality TV show, but an actual weekend that joined 15 of my sorority sisters from the University of Florida.

This gathering occurs almost every year at different locations in Florida cities. This time, we were in the tropical paradise of Key Biscayne near Miami.

If you remember my first blog three years ago about being President of Over-packers anonymous, I didn’t disappoint. It was cheaper to upgrade to first class than pay the excess baggage fee for my trip!  What can I say, a ChaChagirl has got to have choices!

After meeting in 1988 at the ripe age of 18 at the ZTA sorority, we now officially know each other more than half of our lives.  These gatherings are ChaCha essential as we re-tell stories, bond, discuss our children, husbands, ChaCha life, and we get to just enjoy our friendship.  Of course, sun and some alcoholic beverages help the weekend right along!

In true ChaCha spirit, there was a theme with blinged shirts/hats to coordinate.  Our OGGW on the Key made an impact wherever we went.  At UF, the Zebra was the animal of the ZTA sorority so I made cute ChaCha gift bags that had Zebra notepads and zebra mints in it.  ChaCha rule number one: You can’t go empty handed to a party!

Sadly, the hostess of our event was very sick and couldn’t participate in our weekend, so we included her in the most ChaCha creative way.  If you are familiar with the book series, Flat Stanley, we had Flat Amy!  She was a cut out of our friend who was truly the life of the party, even from her hospital bed.  Flat Amy went on the boat, sang at karaoke, ate our catered dinner, and sadly, she even had too much to drink!   We can’t thank Amy’s husband enough for captaining us on his “All Smiles” boat and giving us the ChaCha special treatment.

In honor of Amy, we made a donation to her favorite ChaCha Charity, IPADs for Soldiers. This is a wonderful cause and I invite you check out their website at www.ipadsforsoldiers.org. 

 In 2010, Amy’s friend founder Winnie Pritchett, whose son Wes was serving in Afghanistan, realized the needs of troops risking their lives far away from their homes and loved ones. Recognizing that those serving in the more remote regions have no TV or cell phone, and no way to carry heavy books or computers in their 110‑lb rucksacks, she decided to do something about it.  Can you imagine having no ChaCha communication with those you loved?

The girls on this trip are as different as the books they read, from the Hunger Games, to the sexy novel Shades of Grey, and a story of WWII survival and redemption called Unbroken.   We had one thing in common though, we loved singing the song, “We Are Young,” as we felt like we were back in college when we all got together.

In the true spirit of girl’s weekend, I only had one ChaCha photo to share since the lawyers in our group had us sign a non-disclosure agreement.  What happens on the Key, stays on the Key!  Actually, do you know how hard it was to get 15 girls all looking great in one photo…almost ChaCha impossible!

If you have a group of friends that have kept in touch for more than 20 years, send me story about your girlfriend getaways and be entered to win a ChaCha Friendship ring! s@chachabella.com