Charity after the dance

I am not a night owl. I never have been. I remember the time in high school I invited over some friends to watch a movie and my little brother ended up entertaining them because I fell asleep about five minutes into the thing. In college I would often fall asleep on the ride home from a date. I always tried to tell my date not to take it personally, that it really wasn't them... it was me. With that background I can proceed to tell you the story.

It was my junior year in college. A guy from church, who I wasn't interested in but was a nice guy, asked me to one of the many dances at BYU-Idaho. I got all ready with the dress, shoes, makeup, and insane amount of bobby pins in my hair. We went to dinner and it was fun. We went to the dance, and it was fun. We went to watch a movie afterwords... and it was not fun. I got carsick on the way there, and then my head started hurting (probably from the plethora of bobby pins in my hair). Not just your typical headache, but the hurting where you can't even lay your head down because the pressure of it touching anything hurts.

Finally, he took me home. I said good night and walked in my apartment door thankful that the night was finally over and I could go to bed. Oh... my wonderful bed that always welcomes me home with a nice pillow on the side. The problem was that I first had to take off the shoes, take off the dress, take off the makeup, and pull out every stinking bobby pin... oh I was beginning to hate those bobby pins.

I stumbled into the bathroom and began the task of first finding and then pulling out all of those metal wonders of being beautiful. I started... and then all of the carsickness, headache, and late night got to be too much. I handled it the way any grown up girl would... I started bawling and cursing the man who invented bobby pins (knowing it must have been a man with sadistic motives). I plopped down on the floor big dress and all and sobbed.

Then, she came. My roommate and best friend growing up. Amie carefully pulled out each pin without ripping out too much of my over hair sprayed, matted hair. She undid my shoes (which were also causing problems because my finger dexterity had severely suffered from all the trauma thus far). She helped me get my PJ's and even pulled back the covers on my bed so I could climb in without too much effort. She sweetly and carefully took care of her toddler of a roommate.

What did she expect in return? Nothing. And that is the beauty of true friendship and the charity that develops in one. She took care of me and hopefully someday I can return the favor, even if she doesn't expect it of me.