The Fine Art of Trying to Schedule Time Together With Friends - it should totally involve wine, lots and lots of wine

This whole weekend has been an exercise in frustration.

But rather than bore you with all the minutiae that has driven me crazy over the past two days (traffic, crowds, more traffic) I thought I would share this nugget of wisdom with you instead.

"When you attempt to set up a girl's date so that your friends can exchange small gifts, catch up with each other and escape from their families for a few hours - don't make it complicated."

My dear, darling friend whom I love to pieces is doing her absolute damnedest to drive me completely insane.

First, there was the round of emails asking if we all wanted to get together.  We did.  Then there was the next round of emails asking when would be good.  Everyone replied any time except for the 16th and the 18th.  Instead of picking a date - there was another round of emails.  Finally, I replied that I was good for any date at all - SOMEBODY pick a date.  I figured it was better left in their hands to choose - since I don't have small children and I'm on vacation.  Finally a date and time was chosen - Sunday (today).

Then came the phone calls.  One tells me that she can't do it at the initial time because of an unexpected funeral - totally understandable.  So I call the first friend (the one who is trying to drive me crazy) we discuss and she suggests moving it to Monday.  Fine, I call second friend back she tells me that while she could do Monday - she would prefer to keep it on Sunday - just later in the evening - because of her husband's work schedule.  Fine.  I call first friend back - she waffles a little, but in the end is fine with it.  I call second friend back to let her know that we are set for Sunday (tonight) and that yes, she can borrow that dressy jacket for the party she was going to last night.

In between all the phone calls, I am attempting to find gas gift cards (did you even know they had these?  I didn't - what a great gift idea for the very poor teen driver in your life) which isn't as easy as driving to your nearest gas station; just so you know.  I ended up driving all over town trying to find gas cards for the most convenient gas stations in Man-Child's route to school.  After visiting 5 different stations - I finally found them. Yay!  I have a feeling these will be the best gift under the tree.

Upon arriving home, I immediately begin to regale Hubby with all the details of finding the gas cards and the drama centered around trying to schedule our girl's date.  His eyes immediately glazed over.

But apparently, some of it must have filtered into his brain because this morning he asked if we ever got the details straightened out for today.  I told him that we had.  Then I laughed and said, "But it's early yet.  First friend still has time to cancel."  We both laughed and went on our merry ways.

About 2:00 pm I receive a call from the first friend.  You see where this is going, right?

She cancelled.  She can't do it tonight.

Her reasons?  Very thin.  Very, VERY  thin.

Knowing her the way I do, I can honestly say I am not surprised.  But at the same time; she's lucky I love her so - otherwise I might have to smack her.