Planny, Planny…

I am an ENTP. That means my personality portrait is Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving. If you are really, really curious to learn more here is a link: http://www.personalitypage.com/html/ENTP.html.

There are not that many ENTPs in the world. We account for a little over 3% of the general population.

As an ENTP that has a slight ENTJ (http://www.personalitypage.com/html/ENTJ.html) tendency, I love to translate theories and possibilities into solid plans of action. I am both the one that dreams big and likes to lay out the plans on how we shall make those dreams come true! When the thought of something specific lights up in my mind, it is difficult to move me away from beginning the process. Finishing is a different story except for parties.

To be clear, my definition of a party may vary slightly to yours. I think any time two or more friends or family members join my boys and me, that’s a party even if all we are doing is eating popcorn and watching Hallmark. I love, love, love to have people around and I especially love to cook for them. Due to my limited available time, I plan menus and obsess over them for every “party” I have. Let’s just say that I have a solid layout of the menu for our week long vacation the second week of July. Today is June 10^th.

I recently moved (last week) to a rental home. My best friend, BamaGirl, is visiting us this weekend. I have been planning the meal since last Sunday. We are having turkey meatballs, (Triple M’s delectable recipe) salmon patties, cheesy potatoes, whipped sweet potatoes, broccoli, corn, pineapple upside down Bundt cake, brownies, (SouthernCharm’s infamous ones) and smoothies. Here is the thing: BamaGirl does not know at what time she is arriving, and it’s driving me loony. She knows this too.

When BamaGirl and I first became friends, we planned a surprise birthday party for her mom at a mutual friend’s home. She and I had only been “hanging out” for about three months and were still learning about each other’s quirks. I took the lead in planning since that’s my thing. I told BamaGirl to get to the house early so we could set up. We did not state a specific time. That was a mistake! My idea of early is about an hour. Her idea of early is fifteen minutes. We’ve learned to be more specific J.

BamaGirl is one of the most considerate, sweetest, and loveliest women I know. In my previous post, I shared about having a “Carrie” and a “Charlotte”. In my mind, BamaGirl is definitely “Charlotte”. She’s cried and laughed with me more than I deserve in the last couple of years and I’ve had the joy of being part of her family as an adopted sister. She’s amazing. To top that off, her little girl Sweetpea is just like butterflies and rainbows, lollipops and sunshine.

I‘ve tried very hard not to act stressed when we’ve spoken about our visit this week, but she knows me too well. Last night she sent me a note that said, “I am more worried about you stressing about it my planny planny friend”. That totally warmed my heart. BamaGirl is the kind of friend where you know, even when something goes wrong, the intent was always the best. She makes it easy to love her and be her friend. I learn everyday from her and her sweet, gentle spirit. Even if we only have popcorn and watch Hallmark when she comes over (after the food is burnt because I would have started cooking at 7am), it will be a party indeed!