(Courtesy Valerie Rains)

In honor of back-to-school time, I thought I'd do a little post about my most recent girlfriend getaway, all by the numbers. (Stay with me here—we're pretending it's math.):

• 5 friends—3 newlyweds and one mom-to-be among them
• One gorgeous 3-bedroom house in the Catskills (Thanks, Tina!)
• 2 truly horrifying horror movies, selected at the Phoenicia, NY gift shop/moccasin store/movie rental place/used book seller by our resident scary-films expert
• (I won't say how many bottles of wine)
• 4 badminton rackets, 3 of which were functional
• 3 different kinds of bug repellent (more on that later)
• And an embarrassing supply of tabloids, replenished midway through the trip when we'd all made our way through the rotation of magazines at the dining room table

It seemed pretty miraculous that we managed to pull this thing off with only about two weeks' notice, but it was well worth the effort. My friend, Michele, documented the trip over at cafemom.com, as part of her pregnancy chronicle; I love that she was able to take the time to get away with us before her twins (twins!) are born this winter.

Anyone else care to share the stats of their last girls-only trip?