I woke up at 4AM. I needed to leave work by 1PM, pick up the kids, then be on the freeway by 2:30. I knew what I had to do. I had to be to work by 8AM. I got the kids up early, got them dressed quickly. I started putting the clothes for the wedding in the car. I had gotten everything up the night before, polished the shoes. Dresses, coats, suits, my shoes, and then I noticed Jory was missing his backpack and we were behind schedule.
“Dude, where’s your backpack?” I asked.
He ran into the house to get it, while I got the girls in the car. As he came out of the house, he closed the door behind him. The door was locked. I wanted to cry. I had to fight hard not to cry. For the second time in one week, we were locked out of something. I couldn’t cry, it was an accident. It wasn’t Jory’s fault. I could see the look on his face.
“It’s okay, Jory. It was an accident,” I reassured him. I said a quick prayer. It looked like we were going to have to possible borrow Mrs. Wilson’s car to get Oma’s keys to unlock the door, then stop back by Oma’s job to drop the keys back off. I so did not have time for this today.
“Mommy, we can walk the girls to school,” Jory suggested happily.
Yes, that was exactly what we were going to have to do since my keys were in my purse on the sofa.
We took out the double stroller and the girls happily got in. Off we went with me in my flip flops. I called my job to let the editor I was going to work with, who was coming in an hour early to work with me, that I was locked out of my house. Too late, he had left his house extra early to beat the traffic. He was already at work. Crap! Another prayer, he’s got kids. He was understanding, but I felt bad. I tried calling my mom. Thank God, I told her to take her cell phone this morning. She didn’t pick up.
We arrived at the school and Mrs. Wilson looked at us and asked, “Car troubles or locked out again?”
“Locked out,” I said, as I kept trying my mother. I finally got her and I explained what happened. She said she would call to see if someone in the family could drop the keys off to me. I called around and found that all family members I could reach either couldn’t come or had already left for work. Please God, please. I have to make it to this wedding.
But while I was waiting for my mom to call me back, Jory played at his old school while Mrs. Wilson and I chatted. I found out that she missed her cruise that she was suppose to take back in August. And I also learned that if you’re leaving from a foreign country and coming into America you can’t pick up the cruise on the American side. Interesting tidbit to know.
My mom called back to say she was coming home and to not go anywhere, before I could explain that we were at the school she was gone. Crap!
“Jory, we gotta go.”
We said goodbye to the girls and Mrs. Wilson, running out the school and pushing the double stroller.
“Mommy, can I get in the stroller?” Jory asked.
I can’t push a 40 pound stroller and 40 pound Jory in it. “No, dude you can’t. But if you want you can hold on to mommy’s shirt.”
And so he did.
We ran the first six blocks then we pooped out. My mom works maybe five, ten minutes from our house. Hopefully we could meet her there.
It felt like Jory holding on to my shirt was weighing me down, but we preserved. We tried to do a sprint run, which worked for a half block, but the long walk down from our corner to our house we walked. And as we arrived at the house, there was Oma.
“I thought I told you not to go anywhere?” she asked.
“We were at the school when you called. Is the door unlocked?”
“Yes.”
“Thanks, bye.”
I quickly went in the house, got my keys out of my purse, finished moving the rest of the remaining items to the car. Jory and I got in the car and took off.
I got to work one hour and forty-five minutes after I had originally intended. I went straight to the edit bay and started working, after apologizing profusely.
We got through the shows, I did my other work, then decided to go put my dress in the shower to get the wrinkles out. I go to the bathroom only to discover the shower has one of those gimpy hand held shower heads. I hate those with a passion. And on top of that, there was no hook to hang the shower head from. I tried to rig something up, but nothing quite seemed to work, then I thought I got it. I felt the water temperature and I knew it would take twelve lifetimes for this temp to create any sort of steam to get the wrinkles out of my dress. Crap!
I decided to give it one last try, until I see the water gathering on the floor and then inadvertently wet my jeans in the process. Perfect. I turned off the water and thought the dress is just going to be wrinkled.
I went back to my office with the dress and waited to find out if I could leave at 1. Nothing. People walked by me and nothing. Please God, please. 1PM came and went. It was time to put on my big girl panties and face this situation head on.
“You’re leaving now?”
Really?!?! Are you serious!?!? “Yes, I am.” I gave a breakdown of all my work that had been accomplished and quickly ran out the door. As I got into the car, I realized my dress wasn’t hanging with the girls. Crap! It was in the office. I tried calling people in the office to bring it to me, but no luck. I whipped the car around in the parking lot, left the car running as I ran inside, grabbed the dress with no one seeing me, and hopped into the car and took off.
I arrived at Jory’s daycare only to discover, they were just starting to cook lunch. Great, now we have to stop at McD’s to get him something to tie him over until we get to the kind Miles’ family home who had offered to put us up and feed us until the 7PM wedding. Fine, let’s just keep it moving.
We drove swiftly, yet safely to the girls’ school to discover that they were napping. Yep, it was nap time. Are you serious?! I grabbed Layla sans shoes. She didn’t need them on. The sub woke Rowan, I threw their blankets and sheets over my shoulder and waited while Rowan finished putting her shoes on. The baby woke up as I buckled her into her car seat.
Finally everyone was in the car, now it was off to McD’s, gas, and then the freeway. I see the line at McD’s and know I’m going to have to park and go in. I pulled into the handicap spot right in front of it and hop out. I placed my order only to discover I had walked into the slowest moving Mc Donald’s in the free living world. Are you kidding me?!?! I just want to go to my friend’s wedding. Introduce my kids to the world of weddings. The terrific trio were wedding virgins. I got the drinks and took them to the car so at least I could feel like something was being accomplished.
After five minutes (cause what are they doing here killing the cows out back?), I made eye contact with the manager, which seemed to help but maybe not because it felt like I was in there for another five minutes. Finally our food was up and I ran out the place, hopped in the car, and took off. Thankfully the gas station cooperated with me and everything went smoothly there, except when it came to making a left hand turn out of the place. Traffic was everywhere, the clock was ticking. I was getting on this freeway as close to 2:30PM as possible, it was already past 2:30. I decided to go for it, I saw some space and weaved in and out the stopped car and made my turn out. SCORE! We made next stop the freeway.
By 2:45PM, we were on the freeway where I learned you can drive 40 mph on the 405 South. I had never driven 40 mph going to the OC before. Did I need to call the Miles family and say, we’d be super late. I called and told them we were on our way, so at least they had that heads up.
Shortly before 4PM, we made it to our destination. Praise God!
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