Mixing work and friendship

By Mir
August 23, 2008

I had grand plans for this afternoon—plans that did not, in fact, involve the computer—yet somehow it’s nearly dinnertime and here I am. I had several hours all to myself today, too. Poof! Gone! Not sure what happened there, but I strongly suspect it involved PathWords. And in case y’all are unaware, you know Aimee? Aimee who comments here all the time? Aimee is a PATHWORDS NINJA. I could play PathWords for a month and never get anything near what she scored. I strongly suspect she cheated.

(Confidential to Aimee: Haha! Just kidding! I’m sure you’re just brilliant!)

(Confidential to everyone else: Total cheaterpants, that one.)

* * * * *

Anyway, the other reason I got nothing done this afternoon was because I was shopping for shoes with Joshilyn. Over the phone.

This was not my intention, but you see, Joss called me up and needed help. And this quickly went from her describing outfits and shoes to go with them (and, of course, the shoes she was looking at) and me interjecting important and useful responses like “Well, how shiny ARE they?” to me flopping down on the couch and listening to her rummage through the sales rack and then gauging her muttering to then assert either “Not those!” or “Yes, those are good.”

I’m the Kreskin of ballet flats.

We were also discussing the Decatur Book Festival, which is coming up in less than a week. Joshilyn is a veteran of this thing, but I (along with Kristen of Motherhood Uncensored) am going for the first time, to promote Sleep Is for the Weak, and I’m a little nervous. So Joss was kindly giving me some inside information, too, which totally made it a work-related call. (Also, once I blog about something, that makes it work-related. Obviously.)

If any of you Atlanta- or Decatur-area folks happen to be at the Festival, Kristen and I are doing our panel on Saturday morning. And Joshilyn is doing several things, so she’s all over the schedule. Please come! Please also just come say hi; I’ll be around most of the weekend. I’ll, uh, be the one with the pretty shoes and the dazed expression.

* * * * *

Yesterday I took most of the day off and went out gallivanting with the one friend who’s been even busier than me, this summer. We haven’t gotten together in ages. So we’re out and about, gabbing away, and a little while after lunch we’re making the world’s slowest crawl through TJ Maxx, cackling about how our husbands would’ve started agitating to leave an hour ago, but this is SO GREAT being able to just take our time…

… and suddenly she remembered that she had a meeting. Like, right then.

Controlled chaos ensued as we scrambled to get through checkout with our items and get back to the car.

“Ant traps!” she reminded me—as I’d asked her to do, earlier—and pointing at the drug store two doors down. “Quick!”

“I can get them later,” I said. “Don’t you just want me to get you back?”

“It’ll be fast! Let’s just get them now!”

You may be shocked to hear this, but it turns out that the drug store does NOT have an aisle labeled “Ant Traps.” We ended up looping up and down the entire store before finding them, and then no one was at the register, and my friend stood there tapping her toe and jiggling in impatience while someone meandered up to take my money. Throughout, there was checking of the watch and exclamations such as “I don’t even have a number to call her at” and “I can’t believe I forgot this.”

Then we were rushing back to the car, again. Truthfully, I felt terrible about it, but I was still in a pretty excellent mood on account of we’d just spent several hours doing nothing of any importance and catching up. And it wasn’t as though she’d TOLD me she had somewhere to be, earlier, and I forgot. It was just one of those things.

And then my friend burst out, “See? This is exactly why I should just never make plans to do ANYTHING!”

I looked at her, and my face must’ve conveyed my reaction pretty clearly, because she immediately corrected herself: “Oh no. NO! Not YOU! The other plans! This was fine. I shouldn’t have made the OTHER plans.”

As we threw our things in the car I grumbled something about how I could tell when I was being dissed, and she continued to try to convince me not to be offended. Until I assured her that this was premium blog material and I didn’t mind at all.

(Really, it was a classic bonding moment of realizing that we’re equally matched in social ineptness. Score! I mean, for us, anyway. Not so much for anyone else who’s friends with us. Or has meetings scheduled with us. Oops!)

* * * * *

Two other (unrelated) things I wanted to pass along, while I’m rambling about work-ish stuff:

My latest article is live at Gather, if you feel like drooling over our homemade pizzas (again).

And the inimitable Beth Blecherman of Techmamas is urging folks to vote for women-championed sessions at the upcoming SXSW conference, including the Moms Who Tech panel, which will include yours truly if it ends up being selected. This would provide me with an invaluable excuse to buy more shoes, so please vote. Erm, I mean, this would be a great opportunity to shine some light on moms and mombloggers using high-tech items, not just the toilet paper and fruit snacks we’re constantly being pitched. I think it’ll be a lot of fun (and possibly eye-opening for some folks).

And I will TOTALLY use my iPhone to make sure I don’t schedule anything else at the same time as that session, too.

17 Comments

  1. Beth

    “I’ll, uh, be the one with the pretty shoes and the dazed expression.”

    Yeah, like THAT narrows it down! Now if you were wearing your superhero necklace, too, that would do it!

    And the forgotten meeting? TOTALLY something I would do :-)

  2. Flea

    Like we don’t know what Cinderella looks like. :) I so wish I could be there to join in the fun.

    Hope you’re getting some rain!

  3. Mike Golch

    just stopped by to say I hope that you and your family are having a great day!

  4. Jane

    Oh, the cruelty of other states using already taken town/county names… here in Illinois we have a town called Decatur AND a Dekalb county. So you can imagine my utter sadness when I admitted to myself that it was, in fact, in Georgia and not Illinos. I won’t get to see the shoes.

  5. Jane

    Illinois. I can spell.

  6. Laura

    Oh, that Aimee- she is without the scruples. Having grown up playing games with her I can attest to the fact that she is NOT ABOVE cheating, but sadly (for us mere mortals, anyway) when it comes to word games she doesn’t need to. She is also a Secret Scrabble Assasin and a Boggle Beeyotch. Insufferable, really.

  7. Laura

    uh, that would be assassin. Shocking that she beats me at word games, isn’t it? Sigh.

  8. elizabeth

    I love Pathwords, also, I totally suck at it. a great way to waste, er spend some time.

  9. Mom24

    When I click on the pathwords link, I get a ‘page not found’ screen in facebook. Help. thanks.

  10. Karen

    I wish I was in Georgia so I could go, dang it! Especially since it is in Decatur and I would also get to go to the Dekalb Farmer’s Market. I love that place. You definitely need to stop by there.

  11. Daisy

    Homemade pizza has been a godsend in our house. My son has undiagnosed stomach problems (still working with the docs) and can’t have dairy. We make pizza at home and leave the cheese off his portion. My daughter? She would make her own cheese and eat it all.

  12. Stephanie

    Anyone intelligent enough to buy an iPhone CERTAINLY gets *my* vote! It is, without a doubt the BEST, most useful “tech” gear I currently own. :-)

    Best of luck!

  13. Elena

    Oooh, look! SOMETHING SHINY, for you, over at my place. I hope you like it.

  14. Damsel

    That pizza looks fantastic. Yum!

    Voted for you… I would LOVE to come see you while you were in Austin! YAY for SXSW!

  15. Jan in Norman OK

    Apropos of the shared city names thing… is there any place in the US that doesn’t have an “Old Decatur Road”? And what is a “Decatur”, anyhow?

  16. Aimee

    Wow. I was being maligned all weekend and didn’t even know it. I am shocked (shocked!) that my very own sister, Laura, would imply that I would EVER cheat. I don’t cheat. I’m just good at spotting words, that’s all.

    *preen*

    Oh, and Mir? I just SHATTERED your top Scramble score.

  17. Kelly

    I can’t believe I’m going to be out of town from Atlanta when you are at the festival – ugh! (And pathwords is completely addicting).

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