After my last bridesmaid post, in which I wallowed in my uselessness at this particular job, I noticed that I had forgotten my nephew’s first birthday. I say “noticed” but in reality my sister, the bride-to-me and mother of said nephew, phoned me to tell me. She was probably simultaneously wondering if she could get away with retracting the wedding invitation.
The realisation that I had slipped into useless aunty territory on top of being a bad sister shook me. I looked in the mirror and saw a woman I didn’t recognise – disorganised, forgetful and with hair needing colouring. So I pulled myself together, put on my best sister-of-the-bride face and decided to give the whole thing another shot by calling in the help of my good friends The Internet and Credit Card. Operation Better Bridesmaid could begin.
The Internet can and will help you with pretty much anything, any time of day or night. She’s good like that. When she and Credit Card join forces, they are unstoppable. That is unless The Bank, a fair weather friend to be honest, has disabled poor defenceless Credit Card all because of the late payment of €5 (see paragraph 2, disorganised).
Staring at the computer screen and the red writing telling me my card has been refused, I was in shock. This is not me. I’m good with money. I had reached a new low. I went to bed and vowed to wake up as a better person. That didn’t exactly work but I did wake up remembering that PayPal actually is my pal. He’s been minding some spare cash for me and so I gave him a shout. He let me access my funds and I was able to get the ball rolling on Operation Better Bridesmaid again.
Flowers for the bridesmaid -click.
Flowers for my mother – click.
Presents for my nephew – click, click, click.
That done I let Pay Pal and The Internet get back to whatever it is they do when I’m not around and I picked up the phone.
Warning to my mother that parcels will be arriving en masse – acknowledged
Invitation to my sister for a coffee date on Thursday – accepted
Offers of help with all manner of things to all manner of people – appreciated and will be accepted
My conscience was feeling a lot better at this stage but a look in the mirror confirmed that although the forgetfulness and disorganisation levels had sunk, the hair colour problem has only gotten worse.
Three hour hairdresser visit – done
Hair looking smooth, shiny and, most importantly, all one colour – affirmative
The texts began to stream in today.
“Thanks for the flowers, they are absolutely gorgeous”
” I thought we could go for lunch after we get our nails done”
“The marquee is nearly up!”
Operation Better Bridesmaid is in full swing.
Realisation that I work well under pressure – acknowledged
Glass of prosecco to celebrate the fact – drunk
.