Willy and I met when we both worked for a small software company here in Ottawa.  At the time that we started working together there were about 40 employees, and we were a close knit bunch.  As the company grew, so did our circle of friends. They were a lot like family in many ways, likely because many of them WERE my family.  At one point my sister, brother, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, boyfriend (not Willy), roommate, and my best friend were all on the payroll.  Can you say nepotism?

Time went on, the company grew and was purchased by a large corporation, I left (as did some others), but many of the core group stayed with the big company.  Willy and his friends largely stayed together on the same team, which worked well, as a bunch of their wives became good friends with each other and their few female colleagues.  Over time we started to take advantage of the fact that our spouses worked together, and used them to pass along things that we had borrowed from one another.  We called it the courier system, and it worked really well!  It became very convenient when we all started to have little people and share baby clothes.  Well, we thought that it was convenient…

It was the courier system that I thought of when I forgot my purse at girlie poker last night.  It is this very reason why I don’t generally carry a purse.  I forget them everywhere.  Given that I am often carrying a camera bag, I can usually jam my phone and wallet in it and get by.  The problem is that I get sucked in by some cute bags, and I found some really cute ones in India.  Ones that I leave in my friend’s kitchen late at night when I am solo parenting.  A quick email to my friend, and her husband was bringing it to the office today for me to pick up.

The courier system does not work as well when Willy is out of town.  Either things have to wait until he is home, or go and pick up them up myself.  Woo’s epi-pen was in the bag, so I had to get the bag myself.  Unfortunately, I was busy and missed the small window of time when I could meet my friend’s husband due to his busy day. Before I could even try to figure out how to get the purse today, another of husband/co-worker/friend let me know that he had my purse and was free for me to come and get it from him.  I messaged him to call me and let me know where to meet him.  In that time he let me know that he bumped into yet another husband/co-worker/friend who lives near us.  He was driving right by our house on the way home and would drop off the purse.

I have my purse now, proof that the courier system works really, really well, even when there are links missing.  It helps to have really great friends who take good care of you, and for that I am grateful.  I’ve ditched the bag for now, but I know that another will tempt me soon (there might be a couple of cute ones in the shipment).  Hopefully I will have developed a system for remembering it by then.