Errands

I'm not a big fan of errands. Even as a kid, I hated them, riding with my mom after school to "run by" the post office, then the bank, the grocery, the drug store. I'm still not sure what Mom was always mailing and it seems like maybe we were rich or something with all the checks that seemed to be coming our way.

When I had to run my own errands, I hated them even more. Errands become full-fledged projects when three young kids are involved. In fact, some of my errands, like getting gas for my car and grocery shopping were run after the kids were bathed and in bed and their dad could stay with them.

During my biggest and final round with anorexia, I was down to one errand. If I couldn't buy it at Walgreens I didn't need it. I didn't even shop the aisles because I knew where the otc drugs, razors, laxatives and diet pepsi were all located! And when your brain is so impaired from lack of calories that you can't remember to pay the bills, who needs the post office.

Anyway, since I've been well, my errand activity has definitely increased, one of the few bad things about recovery, I suppose.

This morning I left my house to run errands, complete with list in hand. (Why is it so satisfying to mark things off a list? I've even added things to my list after I completed a task just so I can put a check mark next to it.)

My first stop was the cable company in Crestwood. I switched servers a couple of weeks ago and needed to close out the account. Check.

Next, I stopped by school to feed our class hamster. Since we had a snow day on the last day before our holiday break, no one had taken her home for vacation. I was afraid she would starve before we went back so my guilty conscience was how Hannah the hamster wound up on my errand list. Check.

Next stop, J. Crew to find a pair of 29X32 pants for my 130 pound 6 footer.

"Collins!" my principal hollered as I was walking out the door.

It turned out she had some gifts for a family in our school community whose house had burned just a week ago. Her car wouldn't hold everything and she needed an extra set of hands and a van.

Rewind. Next stop, 110 Lee Street, LaGrange.
We unloaded my van and practically filled their grandmother's living room with stockings, food and presents. Of course, that was after we ran another errand at Kroger to purchase a gift card for the family.

Naturally, we had to stop for lunch after leaving their house. Naturally.

Nearly two hours had passed since I took a detour from my original errand list. I stopped quickly at the Summitt to buy Will's pants. Check.

I decided to skip the rest of my list so I could take Grace for a walk in the all too fleeting sunshine. She's looking pretty sassy in her Christmas collar, and I like the way she walks like she knows she's beautiful. As we walked along, a friend driving by, rolled down her window and yelled "Merry Christmas, Gracie! You, too, Angela!"

As we continued to walk I realized then that errands aren't so bad. In fact, maybe life is just one big errand. I just need to be willing to take my eyes off the list long enough to notice just what a wonderful life it is.