I've been a huge fan of women getting together and bonding all my life. My circle of girlfriends has always been the most important thing to me. I love how the women I know are so supportive of each other. Whether we're helping someone get over a bad break-up or just helping each other find a wrinkle cure, we love spending time together.

So when my friend, Claire, suggested that we have a Botox Party, we all said yes, thinking more about how fun a party sounded than considering what we were agreeing to do to our faces. Johnna knew a friend who had been to a botox party a month before and got the name of the doctor from her. We set a date, arranged refreshments and showed up at Claire's house on the day of the party.

We were all hanging around, munching on veggies and having a generally good time when the botox doctor arrived and passed out medical consent forms. It was only then, as we read over the forms that it occured to us that we perhaps should have done a little bit of research on what this botox thing is before we jumped on the bandwagon. The tension in the room was palpable. I'm sure most of us were lingering on the list of negative side affects that included, among many other unpleasant items, possible and sudden death. I don't think I had ever considered beauty to be more important than life.

The doctor could sense our discomfort and launched into what sounded like her normal spiel about how safe and FDA approved the botox cosmetic procedure is. And it did calm us down a bit. After a little stalling and hesitation on everyone's part, Claire, always great at breaking the ice, jumped up and said, "Well I for one can't wait. Do me first!"

The rest of us were simultaneously relieved that we didn't have to go first and concerned for Claire's well being. I couldn't banish the creepy thoughts of Claire dropping dead in front of us and then the doctor chasing after the rest of us with the needle to "do away" with any witnesses. What had we gotten ourselves into?

The doctor had set up a chair facing a corner of the room, for a little privacy. We took a "before" polaroid of Claire's face and off she went to get her botox procedure. We sat on the couches silently fiddling with the celery sticks, baby carrots and cheese cubes on our little plates. In a matter of minutes, Claire was sitting with us again, beaming. "You have got to try this. I think it's already working, my wrinkles are going away" she said.

We all examined her closely, comparing and contrasting her before polaroid with her face. It did seem like her wrinkles were reduced, right before our very eyes, it looked like a wrinkle cure for sure. The botox injections seemed to work. This inspired Diane to be the next brave soul to take the plunge. After that we all relaxed a bit and took our turns in the chair, collecting before and after wrinkle shots along the way.

The party picked up a bit after that as the conversation flowed and we had fun talking about wrinkle pictures and how we were going to show off our newly wrinkle-free faces. Diane, Taylor, Danielle, Gina and I all got our faces done with a botox treatment and things seemed to be going smoothly.

But right before Helen went to get her procedure, I glanced over at Claire and noticed that her eye looked a little funny. I grabbed her before picture and looked back and forth between the two. Her left eye was starting to sag a bit! I was almost not going to say anything, but it was too late, Claire and Gina both noticed that I was up to something and I had to tell them what I was noticing. Claire went to the bathroom and inspected for herself. She came back looking a little freaked out and confronted the doctor about the results of her botox treatment, who expained that it was one of the possible side effects of Botox. "Well what am I supposed to do about it?" asked Claire. To which the doctor responded that it should not be so prominent after about a month and that it will wear off completely in about 2 months. A month with a sagging eye?!

As you might guess, things turned a bit sour from there. Helen opted not to go for her botox cosmetic procedure. And the three others who had not gone yet decided to opt out, as well. We payed the doctor for the procedures that had been done and she packed up and left.

By the time the doctor left, Claire's eye sag was a bit worse than before and the rest of us were checking the mirror regularly to see if we were showing any signs of sag. We weren't, but we spent the rest of the evening together, consoling Claire.

Although many of us were actually happy with the results of Botox (I definitely looked at least five years younger) and found my face to be wrinkle free, we were not happy with the apparent risks associated with it. I have to say, once mine wore off, I barely missed it.

The girls and I have agreed to hold regular "home spa" parties instead of botox injection parties. We treat each other to facials, manicures and makeovers in search of another wrinkle cure. It's cheaper and safer and it's a wonderful excuse to spend more time together, which is, of course, what really matters.