Ya know…..everybody in this world is special. Some people are special because they actually have challenges to overcome in their everyday lives, some because they’re exceptionally caring, some exceptionally smart, some extremely beautiful, and some are just plain crazy!! I appreciate all of these people but my favorite are the ones who are a combination of them all!

Most of my life I have had ONE best friend at a time. Actually not really just one BEST friend but one friend at a time period! First of all, women tend to get on my nerves and second….I guess I felt I was being less loyal maybe?? I’m not exactly sure why it’s been that way but it has. I could (but I won’t) list who my best friend was at each phase of my life. I never intentionally moved from one friend to another…..life kinda did it for me.

At this point in my life, I have more friends than I ever have! I honestly don’t know what happened! Wait that’s a lie….I know exactly what happened…..at least initially. (We’ll get to that later) OK now I’m going to be listing a lot of people here and I only got permission to mention two because…..well you’ll see why because in a minute. For now, let’s concentrate on explaining how this happened and I just want to let ya know that all but two of these names are made up.

My current bestie (who I still consider my bestie) had to go back to work. That and geography put a dent in our time together. AN (I think I’m just gonna use initials instead of making up names) and I became best friends when our children met in kindergarten and became good friends. It was a little more complicated than that but we’ll save that story for another day. Those kindergarteners are now 15 so it’s been a minute! This whole multiple friends thing is still fairly new to me but I think we still need a bestie. I mean…..how many people do you meet in your life that will drop everything to come to your rescue at the drop of a hat? How many people do you bond with on a level that brings you closer than family? I think it’s pretty rare, but what do I know? I mean seriously though….how many people are going to know to tell my husband to buy me the exact same fryer for Christmas because I can’t handle change??? Ok y’all get the point…I’ll move on. It’s rare though! I’m tellin ya!

I think age has played a role in this whole multiple friend situation. I think with age I have come to appreciate differences between myself and others rather than distancing myself because they’re different. I mean what fun would it be if everyone thought exactly like I do? God forbid everyone dress like me!! Good gravy! That would be a disaster! Who would do my makeup for special occasions if everyone was as clueless as me?? I mean….I’ve had 2 weddings so far….who knows what’s to come?

I went to a small high school in a small town so our class was pretty close. I was actually one of the least close with everyone and still I consider these people my friends for life. I won’t go through them all but we’re talkin at least 3 besties from different times in my life, a woman who did my makeup for BOTH weddings, practically a professional chef, and just a lot of wonderful people. (I mean not a whole lot cause it was a small class!) OK now let me explain where the mass friend explosion happened…..

Karen!!! In a relatively short period of time Karen basically double my friends list in one way or another. First was church….that brought multiple new friendships and renewed some old friendships. I have never in my life heard of a healthier Sunday School class!! I’m not even talking spiritually! (Not that they are lacking spiritually.) These people are running 5ks and 10ks every other weekend! They do mud runs and spartan races and I don’t even know what else!! Then there’s me and my husband sitting in the room at 100 lbs over weight! Lol!! I can’t help but find it amusing….they love us though…I think! 🤔

I got AT having me do a Dragon Boat Race! Who’s ever heard of that?? NOBODY! That’s who! I got KA meeting me twice a week to work out! Poor woman….she didn’t have a clue what she was getting herself into! And I’m in the handbell choir! That literally makes me laugh out loud. I never in a million years would have guessed any of these things would happen but here I am….all because I have multiple friends with multiple personalities! (Some of them have multiple personalities each! It’s like getting 2 for 1! Or 4 for 1…..whatever)

KAREN!!! Round 2! So in addition to the church friendships she starts group texts! Do ya know who she put ya in the group with?? Nope! Probably not! She just decided you should be friends with this person!! So far I’ve been pleasantly surprised! First I got Amy. Until recently she was listed in my phone as “Amy Karen’s Friend”! I didn’t know her last name! I mean ya wait a little while and just correspond with someone who has a number without a name and if it continues then ya ask for the name to go with the number and then you’re friends. I don’t know….I don’t make the rules! Before I knew it we had HF, KH and TN added to the group text too! I’m still not sure everyone has a name to go with all the numbers! God help you if you get busy and don’t check your phone for 10 min!! You’ll have 276 missed messages!! Oh! And then you occasionally get thrown into HER Sunday school class group text! So in there we have a friend from when I was very little and a lady who I seem to occasionally have lunch with and several people I don’t know at all. Oh and one of them migrated from the Sunday school class group text to the multiple friend group text! Are y’all confused yet? Me too!

So just a quick run down (and these are just the people I speak to at least weekly)…..we’ve got the bestie, the high school girls, the Sunday school class, and the group texters! Great Day! My head hurts! Just so y’all know….that are a LOT of personalities!! OK now that you’ve been vaguely introduced to a bunch of people that ya don’t know jack about….let me explain to you why this is difficult for me. (Not that I don’t love and appreciate it!)

ANXIETY!! My anxiety is awful! So as much as I love all these personalities and ideas etc in my life…..when we take it all out in public…..I feel like…..I AM GOING TO LOSE MY MIND! First of all, most of these people are at least a couple years younger than me and even the ones who aren’t still have kids considerably younger than mine. I don’t know what happened between the time my kids were little and now but it’s a new world!! I mean….I don’t wanna step on toes here….I’m pretty sure at least Karen and AN know how I feel about kids in public but wow! I took my kids out all the time…no problemo! When we went out to eat and they sat in a high chair or in the booth/chair by me and that’s where they stayed! When we went to stores they either sat in the buggy IN THE FRONT PART or stayed by me while I shopped until they were old enough to just go walking around separately. That’s not how it works anymore! Kids go where they want and do what they want and get in the way of other shoppers/diners! Everybody is cool with this! Everybody but me! So I generally just completely avoid going out with the kids. Kids at my house…that’s fine but in public we are not gonna see eye to eye. I’m fairly certain that Karen finds this amusing! I think she’s trying to see exactly how many kids she can put me in public with before I punch one or just lay on the floor kicking and screaming till they take me to the loony bin. I don’t blame her….I mean, it’s probably entertaining from her perspective. Maybe it’s good for me! If not there’s always my “crazy pills”.

NOW…..let’s get to today! I mentioned that Karen and AN are aware of my kids in public issue…….Amy apparently is not aware. Amy has this cool bus that she’s been working hard to fix up basically for fun and adventure. The group text gals had an outing a while back in the bus and I missed it thanks to my anxiety etc. So today Amy invited me to go with her and Karen in the bus to have lunch and run a couple errands. I was all in! I’m not completely sure why they still invite me to do stuff…..maybe they get tired of my guilt tripping them when they go without me, or maybe it’s because their husbands think they’re less likely to get in trouble when I’m around (even though I have ZERO control), or maybe Karen did tell Amy about my kids in public issue and they’re both trying to see what it takes for me to lose my mind. I don’t know but first of all I ain’t too proud to take a pity invite and second and most importantly……Amy didn’t tell me they were bringing kids!!

This isn’t even a whole day….this is just a couple hours! I don’t think y’all could handle a whole day!! So here we go…

Here’s my ride!! Little did I know how much I was going to need to Trust and Let Go! Karen bought me this thing by the way…

OK so here you will see that Karen found a rug she liked. BUT she needed to see the whole thing rolled out before making the decision to purchase this rug! Amy will be needing a rug as well and I mean….I guess ya gotta do what ya gotta do!

Once the decision was made to purchase the 500lb rug, it had to be folded back which explains both this image and the child standing on the rug mountain in the previous picture! (Calgon…..take me away!)

This one is a bit blurry but I think you get the idea! I made the mistake of saying that I liked the colors in one of the rugs so now I needed to get a rug too! Oh and if any of y’all are concerned about whether or not Amy found a rug….she did! Just thought I should let y’all know her efforts were not for nothin! So now I apparently need and rug AND we need to see it on the floor to decide on what we want! This is not my first run in with these two and rugs! I knew what I was in for…..I did not know, however, that Ollie’s sold rugs!!! I am proud to say that I made it out of Ollie’s without a rug!

This kid has no idea how lucky she is!! I told her I was gonna crawl in the buggy with her and go to sleep/hide!

She objected to that idea…

Y’all meet Shon! (Or at least the back of Shon) Poor Shon walked by the rug isle at the wrong time!! I tried to save him but he apparently didn’t think I was serious! Shon’s punishment for walking by the isle at the wrong time was digging through extremely heavy rugs, trying to get a 10% discount on the rugs, and ultimately loading the rugs in the bus!

This chick gets off easy again!! BD just comes and rescues her!!! What the heck Bo??

Next stop was Lowe’s. Karen just needed to get some paint so Amy agreed to stay in the bus with the kids while we went in as long as Karen promised not to go looking at other stuff!

This is Karen NOT lookin at other stuff in Lowe’s! 😬🔫

So we’re headed back…..Safely home in the near future! Karen decided to offer to drive! I don’t know how many of y’all have ridden with Karen in a regular vehicle, but riding in a bus that she is driving was NOT on my to do list!!! Just sayin….

Seriously though…..these are some pretty special gals that know how to have a good time! Maybe some day I’ll learn too!! (Without kids!!!)

PS: This blog was posted and then deleted and now reposted. I second guessed the blog and more importantly I quickly thought of MANY friends who were not mentioned here. I hope all of y’all who were not mentioned realize that I love ya. It would have taken too long to mention every single friend so I just went with a couple groups. 😘