On Saturday, the stars aligned for four friends to plan a get together to have lunch and see the movie Redeeming Love. If you are a busy adult, you know how rare that is – and while that was the plan, what ended up happening was even better.
It started earlier in the week with one friend initiating a group text asking if anyone wanted to go see a movie that week. Everyone thought it sounded fun – and then, we looked at our calendars. One of us could do Wednesday and Thursday, one could do any day except Wednesday and Thursday, and so on. I kind of figured it would be end up being one of those “at least we tried, maybe next time” scenarios and honestly, I was bummed. I miss these ladies – between the holidays, COVID, and just general busy lives, it has been hard to make it work to get together.
Then, someone suggested Saturday lunch and a movie, and we were on! Monica could only join for lunch, but we would take it! Some time together was better than no time.
Saturday came and we gathered, as planned, for lunch. We laughed and got caught up – it was awesome. Then, Monica brought up the fact that she had been thinking about getting her ears double pierced, but that she was a little nervous. Kristi suggested that it might be better if she had someone go with her for moral support, and Courtney and Kristi made recommendations for the places to go that had done a good job when they went in the past.
The conversation quickly pivoted to the fact that we all had been thinking about something similar. Phones were pulled out, messages were sent and calls were made to the two tattoo parlors that had been recommended, and before we could change our minds, it was decided that we were ALL going together, RIGHT NOW. The other three ladies texted with their husbands to coordinate kid coverage back on the home front, and we loaded up in to Kristi’s pretty convertible to head out on our new adventure.
When we walked into the tattoo parlor, the guy working behind the counter was a little overwhelmed. I guess he’s not used to four women in their forties busting in there (stone cold sober, I may add) with a million questions all at the same time. There were people in line ahead of us, so he told us it would be an hour wait. We didn’t care – we would go get coffee while we waited. We signed the forms, selected the earrings we wanted and paid – and then, left to go find the closest coffee shop.
We found a Donut Joe’s not too far away (and had one of the girls that worked there take our picture), but after sitting outside at their picnic table, decided it was way too cold to sit outside for a full hour. So, we loaded back up into to Kristi’s car and headed back to the tattoo parlor. After killing an hour in the car (mostly talking about our kids), we finally got the call that they were ready for us – but when we went inside, they let us know that they were waiting on some additional needles and could only do two of us to start and the other two would have to wait for a little while longer.
We couldn’t go back together due to COVID restrictions, so one by one, we all went back to sit in the chair, while the others waited in the lobby. While we waited, I couldn’t help but laugh at how differently the day turned out than what we had planned. Originally, we were going to go to lunch and see a Christian movie but ended up in a tattoo parlor with some “interesting” art on the walls.
After we finished, Kristi took us back to our cars, and we took one more photo together to capture the fun of the day. We hugged goodbye, and all left with our hearts full and ears pierced.
One of the things I miss most about being younger with no responsibilities were days like this, where you went where the mood took you and had just as much fun driving to get there as you did once you arrived. As a single mom in my 40’s, my life is pretty tightly scheduled and doesn’t have a lot of room for spontaneous shifts like this. It makes my life run more smoothly, but this day was a great reminder that sometimes, the best things happen when you throw the plan out of the window.
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