December 19, 2010

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.

13 comments:

  1. It always seems to work that way, doesn't it?

    Instead of gas cards we buy Walmart giftcards because you get a 3 cent discount on gas when you use it.

    But either way- it's a good gift.

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  2. You should totally go kidnap First Friend and make her go have fun with you and Second Friend!

    I know that I would love it if someone did that for me!!! I NEED TO BE KIDNAPPED ASAP!!!! :-)

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  3. Hilarious. : ( getting together with girlfriends is crazy, right?

    I can't believe you have a driver...and a dater. Crazy talk.

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  4. There's always one, ins't there. I wish I had friends here to get together with... Actually, I invited two sets of friends and their families over on Xmas day- they have no family here- and we're getting together with ours Xmas Eve. Still nothing firm... whatever. I'm buying wine and lots chips and dip!!

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  5. I can get gas station gifts at the gas stations here... hmmm..

    I hate planning things that involve more than 2 people - seems like someone has a reason they can't go at a certain time or date.

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  6. I hate trying to get together with a group. It ALWAYS makes me insane!

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  7. I, too, have discovered gas cards, which are just as awesome as those Visa or American Express gift cards.

    Now if we could just get gift cards of TIME...

    Pearl

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  8. Oh, wow! And you totally saw this coming, right?

    This is how us women get a bad rap....and guys think we're birdbrains.

    You should tell your friend (first one) to call you from the restaurant once they're there...and you'll drop by!

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  9. We have the same problem getting "the girls" together but only do it through email!

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  10. Ah you sound just like me... trying to get everyone together is so frustrating sometimes. But it's worth it when its friends who you really love. xxx

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  11. Sooo frustrating especially when it takes so much organisation. I hope you had a great time anyway.
    Love the idea of the gas cards, I'm pretty sure they don't do those here.
    Happy Christmas to you & your family. x

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  13. I'm a late-comer to this thread, but I know the problem.

    Where I used to work (Nixdorf Compter AG,Germany [defunct]), our department was wide spread and meetings were difficult affairs.

    One day my boss sent a round-robin email calling a meeting for the Monday of the following week and we were told to 'make arrangements' so that it happened. Some couldn't make it,so it was rearrange for Wednesday. This didn't work either, so Friday ended up being the 'Day'.

    On Friday we were all there and my boss started the meeting by saying he'd called the meeting so we could decide when we should hold our weekly meetings!

    My boss was a young university graduate trying hard to show his boss that he had everything under control ... but we still felt like
    disembowelling him!

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