Photo by Laffy4K
Nothing like the start of a new school year. Chaos at my place. Of course getting back home right before school started didn’t help. First day of school and my kids do not have their schedules, passed out while we were out of town. My youngest is entering middle school for the first time, another one entering high school (at least she has her older brother to show her the ropes.) Few school supplies bought ahead of time.
It is never a small list. My youngest claims there is a giant storage room where her klennex boxes, paper towels, ziplock bags are sitting along with those of her much older siblings, and one day they will need to build a new building just to hold all that stuff. She said she has never once used nor seen many of those supplies.
We go to school early, pick up schedules, thankfully my high schoolers can handle that by themselves. It is much cooler to have your senior brother show you the way around campus than your mom.
My youngest doesn’t care, unlike her older brothers who once they hit that age will only hug mom in public if they are dripping sweat. She wants my hand and I show her how to find her classes. She still tells me she will never get married unless the guy agrees to move in with us, and she won’t go to college unless I come too.
So I’m catching up on stuff that accumulates when away for 2 weeks. Kids hit the house starved, grab snacks, then crash. Getting up at 5:30 to be at the pool by 6 AM then swimming a few miles had something to do with that. I wake them up about 9 so they can go to bed and it is panic city.
They said they were good on supplies, but now suddenly they forgot that they needed all kinds of stuff, and need it for tomorrow, can’t find their lock for swim locker, need a new one, etc. Fortunately Walmart is open all hours. Sadly their shelves look quite empty. I get what I can, the rest will have to wait.
My youngest has to have deodorant for her athletics class (her electives are swim, soccer, and athletics –the more time she can spend not sitting at a desk the happier she will be). Now she hasn’t quite reached that stage, but I’ve had enough whiffs from those sweaty boy hugs that I don’t mind.
There is a guy looking through the different brands, scents, so I naturally made some kind of comment about finding a smell my youngest would like. He says he likes trying new things and to smell this tropical one. So I do. It reminded me of the smell of the candles passed out in our bags at the SendOutCards convention. And the conversation went something like this:
“That smells just like this cool candle I got, sort of a pina colada smell. It was a different kind of candle.”
“What do you mean?”
“When you light the candle, it melts into a pool of massage oil”
“Cool, where can I find such a candle? I’ve never heard of such.”
“I got mine at a convention I just attended for my business. You can buy one at my website.”
“An online store?”
“Sort of, we have an easy way to send cards and gifts from your computer, saves trips to the store. I can give you a couple of cards for free to send out, give me a call and I’ll show you where to find the cool candles”
And so I give him a business card, he thanks me, introduces himself by name, blesses my business, and promises to send a card.
Take any time out of my day? Not really. But I’d have never meet him if I wasn’t out and about.
Then I look in the hardware section for new locks. I hear my name, and there is the guy who’d left a message in my absence, that I hadn’t had a chance to return his call. He wanted to pick up a big 50 gallon drum for water storage. Another friend left it with me when she moved and he was wanting one. I give him my cell number.
So much that got accomplished while shopping for school supplies. The water barrel just got picked up this morning. Not heard from the guy in the deodorant row. I need to remember to collect names and phone numbers. If I’d said “I can show you were to find those candles, give me you name and phone number, email address” it may have been better.
With all the school activities going on, there are plenty of excuses to be out and about. Start conversations. 🙂