Casting the line

I am sure that just about every woman has had the experience of nurturing a friendship with a high maintenance person.  If you find yourself perplexed over whether or not you have, you may want to consider the possibility that YOU may be the high maintenance half. 

Let's conduct a short questionnaire to aid you in deciding whether or not you are a high maintenance friend.

1.  Do you expect your girl friends to go out with you for a girls night regularly?

2.  Do you get angry if your girlfriends do not text you every day?

3.  Do you feel offended if your girlfriend doesn't respond to your daily texts immediately?

4.  Do you ask your friend to watch your kids, run errands with you or mend your clothes?

5.  Do you rope your friends into projects that you want done, but you don't really want to be the one to complete them?

6.  Do you call your friend up at 11pm and ask them to come to your home to see if you hung your picture too high or to tell you if your outfit looks better with a necklace or a bracelet?

*if you answered yes to three or more of these questions....... You are a high maintenance friend.

Granted, every woman loves to have close girlfriends.  Those of us that are low maintenance can often identify (right away) what we are getting ourselves into.  

Some of my most lovable friends ask a lot of me.  Most of the time I am too much of a chicken to say "NO", or "That won't work for me"

Is it safe to say that the chicken and the high maintenance women are drawn to each other?

Is that because some women just need a girlfriend they can boss around, or because the chicken needs to be needed?

Well..... This week I thought of this saying.

Give a man a fish,

Feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish,

Feed him for a lifetime.

This saying came to my mind last night as I looked at a pile of 15 pairs of pants that my girlfriend asked me to hem for her.  She gave them to me at 3pm and wanted them done by 8am.

Naturally, there was some sort of disconnect when my brain tried to send the word "NO" to my lips.

After she left, I felt angry.

I was feeling overwhelmed with my motherly responsibilities, the upcoming holiday and the fact that we are relocating half way across the country in less than a month.

(It was at that point that this beautiful fishing analogy came to my mind)

I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the fishing lesson.

I marched those pants back to my friend's home and told her that next week we will be casting our lines into Sewing 101.

Like it or not, I will not do all her dirty work for her.  However, I WILL devote an entire day to teaching her a skill that she will need for the rest of her life.

Amidst all the frustrations of nurturing this kind of friendship, I think we are both learning a great deal from each other!

I havent' heard a woman say that she loves to string a new fishing line; or untangle the hook from a near by tree.  I don't know a woman that loves to sit for hours on a boat with no sign of the bobber bobbin; or gut a fish after the idea of catch and release failed.

But.....  If you find yourself on the boat with a person that you can giggle with and cry with, for those few short hours.........it is worth the work!