Don't Waste My Time

There are few things I hate more than my time being wasted. If I choose to waste my own time (by being lazy, for example, dorking around on fb or youtube) then that's fine. But if someone else wastes my time, I get angry. 

There are only so many hours in the day!

Recently the kids and I attended an end-of-the-year activity with our homeschool group.  When we arrived, the two parking lots for the park were completely full.  So we had to park at an elementary school down the street.  It wasn't too bad but as the big kids ran ahead, I was left carrying my heavy, needs-to-be-cleaned-out diaper bag, Quartus who had just woken up, and my potluck contribution on a large tray.  (This is no big deal because I'm a mom!  Not the first time I've found myself in similar situation.)

As I walked up I noticed that there were no tables for food and I didn't see anybody else holding trays of food.  I was confused.  Another mom quickly stopped me and said, "Oh, you must not have heard!  The picnic benches here are all totally full so we're going to move the potluck portion to a different park down the street."  Annoying, but whatever.  She gave me verbal directions and it seemed like it would be easy to find the next place. 

So the first part of the activity went well.  It was really fun and a great experience.  Then I packed up my kids and my junk and trekked back to the car. I realized quickly that I had completely forgotten the name of the street that I was supposed to turn on.  But I wasn't too worried because I figured I'd be able to follow everyone else.  

I got behind a big group of cars that I figured were part of our group and got going.  But then we just kept going and I got worried that I had driven too far, "There's no way this second park is this far away!"

But then the big group of cars turned left and I happily followed.  Then I just kept going.  And going.  And the landmark I was supposed to be watching for to turn next never came.  I had driven a long way and figured everyone else was probably already at the park and eating by now.  I decided that we were not going the right way.  I got back to the first park and tried again, turning left sooner this time.  

This obviously wasn't the correct way, either.  Angry, frustrated, and embarrassed, I apologized to the kids, instructed them to open up the pigs-in-a-blanket to eat dinner, and drove home.  

I'm frustrated that the planners hadn't known sooner about the conflict with the first park.  When I got home I was curious and checked the event site to see if maybe I had missed a notification on there with the new address because I don't have a smart phone.  The only thing I missed was a comment a few minutes before I left the house saying to bring a chair to sit in to eat at the first park.

I'm angry and embarrassed at myself for being so bad at remembering directions.  This has gotten me into trouble so many times! 

I'm embarrassed that I was so dissappointed at Hubby (Mr. Introvert, homebody, doesn't like crowds, doesn't like heat, doesn't like eating outside) for not coming with us but then it didn't turn out to be as great as I expected.  When I came home I prefaced my venting to him with, "Don't tell me you're glad you didn't come.  I may explode.  Or cry."

But I'm especially angry at all the time and money that was wasted this evening.  I drove all that way (it was pretty far from my house) to get there, and spent all that money buying gas and our potluck contribution, to only be able to participate in the first half of the event!  I was really looking forward to this event-the whole event.

That was a lot of time spent to not be able to enjoy the party.  That was a big waste of time to me, which I can't get back.