The Price of Making Friends

I am always thinking in terms of what things cost- sorry but true. So yesterday at church they were having a little get-together to make Advent Calendars. I wasn't sure if I was going to go or not but decided that since I'm trying to make friends in this new city where we live I'd better give it a try.
Of course there was a list of materials I needed to get if I was going to make the calendar so I headed off to the trusty Wal-mart an hour and a half before I was supposed to be there. Should be enough time right? Well, trusty Wal-mart was untrustworthy and they did not have the things I needed. Rats. (Not to mention that when I got there I realized that Gem was buckled into her carseat but her carseat was not buckled into the van. EEK!)
I fixed that and then I had to go across town to Jo-Anns, stopping for gas on the way. I calculated that by the time I got to Jo-Anns I would have five minutes to get the kidlets out of the van and into the store, ten to look for the stuff, and five to get back out of the store and into the van-leaving time to get to the church in a punctual fashion.
When we got to store #2 we were hurrying across the parking lot- trying to get into the store in the allotted five minutes but poor Buttercup could not go as fast as I was trying to make her go and she fell down. Of course she was wearing a dress so her knee was really really skinned up. I packed her into the cart with her sisters, amidst her tears and headed for the store restroom. Washed the knee, wiped the tears, checked the watch- now I had 5 minutes to find the stuff and 5 to get back to the van and on the road. Maybe I sound heartless for not giving up at this point, but I was on a mission to make friends (and an advent calendar).

Well, as you can imagine that was basically impossible, but we did make it to the class, only about 15 minutes late. (I even found a band-aid in the van and fixed up the knee.) Buttercup was very subdued, Gem screamed her head off, and Bubbles was trying to hold my hand while I was cutting fabric with the scissors I had to borrow because I forgot mine in my mad rush to have a social life.
The price of making friends? A tank of gas, a bloody knee, the guilt of being the inadvertant cause of the bloody knee, and an all around stressful morning.

The best part of the day? One of the women called me later just to chat about making the tree. Sounds downright friendly doesn't it? :) :) :)