$187 Later...

Today started out pretty much like any other Saturday at the James house with the exception of daughter K starting her Saturday morning Geometry tutoring and the fact that we planned a late B-day BBQ for her and a couple of her friends later in the day.  

So 9A.M. little man and I went off in one direction to shop for B-day food/party supplies and hit up a few stores for some new duds, while P and K headed off to the other direction towards the high school and the gym. It's rare that T and I have mommy and son time so I was excited that he actually wanted to hang with me.  Cuz you know...he's getting older and that's just not the cool thing for a middle schooler to do...I guess.  We ended up hitting Sonic for breakfast and as much as I thought it sounded good, I was so wrong.  Man, do I miss the days of rolling up to the Sonics in Texas.  Here in Virginia, the food tastes NOTHING like what I remember back home.  Anyhoo, after a quite disappointing breakfast which was so not worth the fat or calories we headed over to one of my favorite stores, Ross.  Sadly, T had better luck than I did when he scored a Bob Marley t-shirt for $6.99 and some new socks.  I went there just knowing I was going to leave with several cute new tops, sundresses and shoes, but BOOOOO I was wrong.  The only thing that even caught my eye this trip was a pair of red Bermuda shorts that I will be able to wear to work.  I'm pretty sure P is thrilled that I left there with only 3 things.  We ran by Payless so that I could attempt to find a cute pair of summer shoes (aka. sandals) but yep, that was a total bust too!!  At this point I began thinking that maybe the Man above was trying to tell me to take my butt home and not spend any money, but ha! I still had to go to Wal-Mart (aka Hell on Earth) to shop from my actual list.  Yes, I did have one and yes, I did use it, but didn't quite stick to "just" the list.  Does anyone really do that?  So I strolled around Wally Hell with list in hand filling the cart with this and that only to find another this or that to which I was sure K and her friends would love so those items were added to the cart too.  I didn't go to my regular Wall Hell so I was more entertained than usual seeing all the creatures roaming around in the daylight.  People of Wal-Mart should be getting some great pics from this store.  Finally, after getting everything on my list and several odds and ends for the house I happily (roll eyes NOW) handed over my check card to cover the $187 worth of randomness.  Damn, why is everything so expensive?!!?? And damn did I really need 2 new red serving bowls and a new hibiscus printed tablecloth?  Uh, apparently I did...I bought it, right?

 Now fast forward to our little BBQ get together for K's  B-day, which was actually last Sunday.  Since her B-day happened to fall during Spring Break we decided she could invite friends over this Saturday instead to help her celebrate.  She seemed really excited to have friends over since this would be the first time she'd had company since moving in with us in September. (More on that another time)  So around 430P.M. I start getting things ready in the kitchen and P started the grill since the girls were due to be at the house between 530 and 6P.M.  One girl said she would be over after her little brother's baseball game, which started at 4PM and another girl was due over between the set times.  Now we've discussed with K how "everybody that you think is a friend, ain't your friend" and sadly I think she got a reality check today, when neither of these girls, who she calls good friends, showed up for her get together. Not only did the little bags of rudeness not show up, they didn't give her a courtesy call or text either.  Am I pissed, hell yes I'm pissed, that was a lot of money spent on food and festivities, but I'm more hurt because K is so hurt. She tried hard to play it off by saying over and over again that "it's all good, I got my family here", but that's some bullshit, I could see through the hurt in her eyes and her fidgeting.  Now don't get me wrong, I get that stuff happens and these girls may have good reasons why they couldn't come, but damn, if you're a true friend, why not just say "sorry, but I can't make it, something came up."  Luckily all the food didn't go to waste because my BIL, SIL and adorable 10 month old niece came down from Maryland for a visit.  What we didn't eat for dinner we sent home with them. 

I can only hope that K enjoyed and appreciated what her dad, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin and I tried doing to make her day special.  I have a feeling she's going to go to school Monday with a new attitude about friendships. 

 On a happier note, T made a new friend today.  Funny, we've lived side by side for a little over 7 months now, but T has claimed he's "too shy" to just walk up and start a conversation with A., who is in 5th grade.  Soooo, P did the boys intros and then left them to chat over the fence.  It was really cute listening to them. I called T in to eat dinner and where do I find him?  He's next door chilling by the fire pit discussing middle school, video games and the like with his new pal.  I'm hoping this is the start of a lasting friendship. 

And yes, I warned you that I ramble...and I DID THAT, on this, my second blog.  Hope it didn't bore you to tears.

Hugs and Good Night!!

 AJ