At Least They're Good Travelers

The lovely Julie hosts a wonderful Tea Party each December. She invites female friends and family members and we gather to share cookies, eat chicken soup, trade ornaments and just get into the Christmas spirit.

Julie sent an email about a month ago asking me and our friend Mandy if a specific date was good for us.

We both came back that it was fine.

And...I didn't write that date down. I did keep the email and figured I could check it as the date neared.

Mandy sent an email earlier this week mentioning the Tea Party. This email made me mae think that the party was yesterday. I confirmed the time with Julie but didn't mention the date.

So Friday I made three batches of cookies, did two loads of laundry and wrapped three Christmas tree ornaments.

The girls and I hit the road at 10am for the three plus hour drive to Indy.

We got there about 2:10 and...there were no cars in the driveway.

That feeling I'd had all morning, that worry that I had the day wrong hit hard.

I called Julie.

The party is next week.

As in...we were a WEEK early. The family that lives the farthest away had the wrong week.

I am such an idiot sometimes.

We asked if we could use her bathroom because, yeah, we'd driven pretty far and really had to pee.

Julie and Riley were about fifteen minutes from home. She asked us to wait for them. We did.

She felt awful for the mixup. I felt even worse.

The girls and I ended up spending about an hour and a half with Julie and her family. They were gracious about our impropmtu visit.

On the bright side, Alyssa and Olivia actually had more fun with Julie's daugther Riley than they would have had there been a bunch of other kids there. They did gymnastics, ran races, played upstairs and were just all good kids.

Julie and I had a better visit than we usually do because she wasn't busy making sure all her other guests are having fun.

So, selfishly, it was a great visit.

But yes, I've decided I need an assistant. Someone better than I am at writing things on a calendar and then actually checking the damned thing.