Ap Moment of the day~ How to make friends and not really influence anyone one way or the other really as I'm not a very pushy person at all......!!

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today the children and I joined a friend and her little girl for a trip to Hobby Lobby (You should be able to hear a fanfare there...!!! if not, please provide your own suitable huzzah type sound effect. Thank you. ) or, as some like to call it, the Mecca of crafts, home decor and accessorizing!!!! I'd not been there in years and was stunned at the size of the store ( and the teeensy~ness of the aisles!!) It's a full blown MIRACLE that my little guy, Captain Destructo himself, did not once reach out and smash three billion dollars worth of this, that and the other with one swoop of his chubby arms...!! However, I'm digressing! ;D (no WAY!! How could this HAPPEN!?!? )

ahem.

Sooooo... we went to Hobby Lobby, we picked out this, that and some of these....oh .. and those...!! It was super! I helped my friend spend a boat load of her cash and didn't spend one penny of my own!! THOSE are my favorite shopping trips!! :D

oh yes... sorry...!!

We shopped and checked out and both went our separate ways in the parking lot after hugs and promises to talk later. I needed to run back in to the store to go to the bathroom. I left the kiddies locked in the van with books and told them I'd be right back. I ran back into the MASSIVE store and searched for what seemed like a month for the bathrooms. Oops. I said bathroomS !! I should have said BathROOM. One. Bathroom. For a store that is intended to suck in a gazillion "guests"... so I see the bathroom door... a vision for my sore eyes and aching bladder... I'm almost upon it... I can almost feel the handle in my palm, am sensing the relief I will feel in a short moment... but.... AAAACCKKKK!!!.. another woman, in my mind Old Wrinkly and MEAN grabs the door handle before me, swoops in and locks it. In vain I grab the handle and yank, wiggle and pull on it, my brain screaming "NO!! NO!!!! There can't ONLY be ONE STALL in this HUGE STORE!?!?! NOOOO!!!!!!" Only there is. The poor woman must have been thrown into a bladder freezing tizzy by my door hammering.. perhaps she thought I might actually make my way in...!! I began to wait. ... and wait .... minutes pass. In those minutes another lady comes along towards me. Instantly my eyes seize upon her. I glance quickly at the bathroom door.... no way sister... it's MINE..... I assume a wider stance in case I need to tackle her. She heads to the bathroom door and pulls on it...... I gather up my deepest, sternest voice, I lock eyes with her and lower my forehead just a little......".... erm....I'm waiting..... there's ..... there's a line...!!!"
The lady and I begin to wait together. A team now. We keep our eyes peeled against further invasion. Back to back we stand, all the better to see a full 360 scan of the store. Another woman approaches <<>> I hit her with my best shot "OCCUPIED!!! THERE'S A LINE!!!!" My team mate and I begin to banter .... we've been waiting so long we ask each other... "perhaps she fell in?" !! then it escalates..." You know, I'm not sure I WANT to go in anymore...!!" I counter with "If I didn't have my kids in the car I'd make you go next!!!" .... Suddenly we hear the FLUSSSHHHHHH of the toilet! The relief is almost palpable. Surely the wait will end soon. ..... more minutes pass. ANOTHER FLUSSSSSSHHHHHH!!! Now we're panicking!!!! Just how bad is it in there?!!?!?!? We're nervous now! The potty humor is flying back and forth trying to mask our fears...!!! Finally the door unlocks and the woman exits.... "It's not very clean in there" she warns. Team mate and I exchange wary glances and each raise our eyebrows in due concern. ..."I'm going in!.." I announce ..."but I'll be FAST!!" I dash in, holding my breath and pee like I've never peed before!!!! I wash my hands and fly, triumphant, out the door!!! "STOP THE CLOCK!!!" I yell!! "Much faster!!" my team mate beams and I find myself smiling with pride! " Nice waiting with ya! " I call out, as I begin to jog back to my kids and the van.

As I run, I am suddenly struck by the thought that I really liked this woman! She was about my age, she had a similar sense of humor to me, she liked Hobby Lobby obviously and she had my back when we were waiting in line!! We had bonded!!!! and now I was leaving and would probably not see her again.

I'm reading a book called "The Friendship Crisis" which talks about how hard it is for women to make new friends as adults. How hard it is to get the time to find new friends and then to take the time to nurture them. The book suggests if you find someone you think you could be friends with, then let them know! Get their phone number, make a date to meet up sometime.... I was thinking all this on the way back to the car, but figured I'd missed my shot. Fate had another idea in mind as when I was backing out of my parking spot I saw her leaving the store. I drove around the parking lot and wound up across from her car as she was loading it up. "HEY!" I called out..."So you made it out then?!?!?" she called back "Yeah!" I asked her if she lived locally and she said she did. "Great!!!!" I yelled. "Would you like a new friend?!?!!!"

And that is how we met. I phoned her tonight when I was making dinner and we chatted for a while and shared some good laughs. We're going to have coffee soon and get to know one another some more. I'm looking forward to it.

Friendships are what help make the world go around. We should always nurture our old friends but also remember to make space and time for new ones. It's the AP thing to do!!!
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"Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends." - Mary Catherwood

When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don't stand still and look around

On all the hills I haven't hoed,

And shout from where I am,

What is it?

No, not as there is a time to talk.

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall, And plod:

I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit.

Robert Frost.