Shopping as a Virtue

Parent teacher conference week means long weekend, which is flippin' awesome. Setting my alarm last night was torture. That is all I'm going to say about that.

So, I used my long weekend to make a mad dash to KC to "help my sister move." See the quotes? That is because.....apparently I'm not much, um, help. Not by most definitions. I'm just not a take charge personality. My sister is type A by the strictest definition. I pretended to be type A until I turned thirty at which point I embraced my inner freak and fell all the way past B to C. There isn't a C? Come over, watch me, and prove it.

Sooooooo basically I followed her from room to room while she sorted stuff I am incapable of sorting, and taped up boxes when she finished packing them and watched as she had to untape them to put another thing in or take another thing out. Yeah, helpful, I know. And then I and my four offspring unpacked five sleeping bags and pillows so we could sleep there and "help" the next day....wherein I watched her hold her supremely tired little girls.

I really would have packed for her, but in each room she was down to The Crap Which Must Be Sorted. (Note: Type B: throws in box a deals with it a year later. Type A: Sorts and packs.)

Anyway, at some point in this process, I mention that while I'm in the city, I intend to take my Eldest shopping for a winter coat, seeing as how it is getting cold and the child doesn't have one. My sister gets a hopeful expression on her face and asks if I will take Teen Girl 2 shopping for a coat also. I say yes, we move on to another room where I do nothing and she sorts.

Eventually it is time for sister to leave to pick her husband up from the airport. I and my offspring leave to have lunch with a friend. By the time we all return, her husband is there and she is flat booking it through the sort/pack. I get Teen Girl 2 and head to the mall where Eldest spots the coat he wants (green and black) in 0.04 seconds and is Done With All Things Mall (and can NOT believe that I don't have anything in my purse to entertain him while his cousin puts a little more thought into her coat selection).

An hour and two coats later we return to sister's house where she now has a friend there to help her. Who is apparently Type A as well because now the kitchen is in boxes, my sister is moving at the speed of light and the single most important thing I can think of to do is get myself and six children out of her house. So we leave.

When I got home, my husband asked me How Did It Go? and Was I Any Help? And all I could think to tell him was that it seemed my purpose was to hold my sister together until helpful people could show up. Because apparently the most helpful thing I could do for her was to go shopping.

Which she confirmed later in a most eloquently worded thank you email in which there was profuse gratitude expressed for just such a service.

So, there you go. Next time YOU move, let me know and I'll go shopping for you.

OH! And the song. Traveling forces me to flip radio stations. On the way home I got to rehear this oldie but goodie that I intended to sing to my beloved for our wedding, but chickened out. I still know every word. And considering my husband now talks my ear off, it has a whole new meaning to it. ;)

Have a great Monday!

And sister, if you read this, please don't take offense. I'm poking fun at ME not THEE.