Well, it is finally friday! Kyle is heading to Denver to meet his family for the game and my mom is one her way to see me!!! We have many adventures of shopping planned and I just can't wait to see her.
I am gonna miss Kyle like crazy but I am sooooo glad to have some girl time with my mom. Although we talk every single day (seriously) - it's just not the same. I can't wait. Tonight we are headed to International Plaza -my fav shopping zone in Tampa Bay and tomorrow we head to Orlando to do some serious outlet mall shopping topped off by my second fav Florida mall - The mall at Millenia which is so fun and has my fav stores Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and of course the best store in the world! White House/ Black Market.
And on Sunday I am taking her to church at Baylife and then she insists on the beach! So, I'm gonna take her to Clearwater and let her put her toes in the winter water of the Gulf which is kinda chilly. But, seeing as how I haven't been to the Beach at all since she was here in May....it seems like a pretty good idea.
So, I have an issue guys... I have vented a thousand times to Kyle and now he has begun his own venting sessions. Here is the thing. We have made quite a few friends down here. Very nice fun people that we love to hang out with. But, lately it seems that a few of these lovely folk are kind of wearing on our midwestern hospitality. Now, I know that it should be Southern Hospitality via the magazine and all but that is not the case in our neck of the woods. Now, I like these people and I consider them very good friends - all of them. But, to my gals out there, I just wonder if you guys know what I mean. So, one thing is that although great and easy to talk to - you just can't depend on them for anything. I think that maybe this is hard on me because I really haven't had any close friends that were like this before. Example: If we were to be hanging out and I said, "hey, I am going to the baker and the candlestick maker tomorrow" and two people said that they would love to go with me and we set a time like between 11 and 12 and said I will give you a call tomorrow. Well, as far as I am concerned those plans are set. So, the next day - rolling out of bed and getting dressed to go - I am ready about 10:30 and having not heard from the said people yet - I give them a call. two answering machines. thirty minutes and then and hour later I call - same response. At 1:30 one calls me back - and says she wants to go but must go to her mothers first. It should take half an hour - I will call you then. At 3:00 she calls and says I am done - do you want to come over here. In awe I here myself say yes - b/c I still can't believe that this is happening and no one has even said the word sorry and the other is still unheard from. So I get to the house at 3 and we are talking and the other finally calls. She went golfing with a friend. ?????????? So, we say well, we havent left yet if you want to come - she is on her way home (30 minutes) away. She says yes and she will be there in an hour. an hour and fifteen minutes later she calls and says she's not coming cuz she still isnt home. we leave - the mall is 30 minutes away. we get there after 5...do some shopping - honestly fun times..at 7 she says she needs to go home. ?????????????? 30 minutes home - home by 8 - 2 hours of shopping under my belt and a whole barrel full of frustration. SERIOUSLY! SERIOUSLY! did this just happen? So, I know what your thinking:
Well Leslie, have you considered that these gals don't like you? Of course. But, they asked to come and we do stuff together all the time. They invite us over - we are friends. They just don't have the same concept of courtesy that I have always been used to.
So, this gets me upset and then it gets Kyle upset b/c he feels like I'm being treated badly but - its really the fact that we just act differently. So, this similar situation - no necessarily to this ones extremes of time, has happened. Plans to do things, never get done. They come up with things and plan it out - they never call. They say they are coming somewhere and then they don't. Well, it all happened again recently when I had a Jewelry party that I had gotten hooked into at a friends own party. Well, I told everyone that I would only have one if they all came b/c I know few people here and without them I had no reason to have one. I passed out the invites after setting the date and was met with one who couldnt come due to work (understandable - no grudge there/plus she ordered something anyways). Then two more a week later due to a wedding they had forgotten about. So that left me 4 of the church friends. Then one moved to North Carolina (understandable distance issue). Another had a baby (understandable- giving birth, dealing with newborn). I also invited the four girls I work with and a friend who is the wife of a guy who works with Kyle. One couldn't come due to sons soccer game (children before jewelry, i get it), another (grandma) used to sell the jewelry plus it was her deceased husbands birthday (no excuse needed). The other two confirmed.
Night before party - 2 from church friends (1 from wedding who is now not going and told me w/o me asking that she was coming), friend thru Kyle's work and two from work. 5 - good number. Day of party - 1 girl from work shows. no calls until 1:30, other girl from work cancels, 2:30 friend thru Kyle's work calls having just remembered due to incoming family, girl from church finally answers to call from night before and that morning and says cant come due to new puppy. The other girl who had the wedding and then didnt have the wedding never called, didnt show. Attendance= 1. Embarassing, humiliating..you name it...but, mostly dissappointed in the lack of courtesy of people to their friends. I can't even imagine my friends doing that to anyone. Not even a call! Don't make commitments you can't or won't keep!!!! As Stephanie Tanner would say, "How Rude!". Am I wrong here?
So, the list goes on with various other incidents that have left Kyle and I completely stumped on the subject of human courtesy in the South. It's just that people are so nice about being so completely thoughtless of others.
Hmmph!
Alright the venting has commenced.
Happy Friday!
-L
