... cont'd

So. Just to summarize: I'm flat broke, with a dead battery, semi-out of gas with two little boys- one mercifully sleeping, but only if I can keep the other one (currently screaming) from waking him up, while managing to somehow stay warm and dry and not think about the fact that my stomach is yelling about as loud as he is, since I haven't eaten yet today, either.

I pull him up from the ground to me and we sit under a ledge. Half of me feels like diving right in there with him sobbing in the rain, but my melodramameter starts buzzing- oh wait, that's me shivering because it's DAMN ARCTIC all of a sudden, and all I've got on is jeans, a t-shirt and some fresh boogers and tears. At least they were warm. Jeez. Now I know I'm a mom.

So I pull us into the car, and try to invent quiet, front-seat only games for the next hour. Luckily, my profession leads me to have as extensive training and preparation for this. This holds us for about 45 minutes. After an hour, I finally start dissecting the car for loose change, resolute to find a payphone somewhere. It turns out not many people walk by the bank on a day when it's closed and there's sudden torrential downpour. Imagine that. I know there are payphones a block up, and, not knowing anything else to do and no longer content to just hope someone might actually show up, I tell Tobin not to open the doors for ANYone and I'll let him drive for a little while, while Mommy comes RIGHT back.

"But if you leave, I will be all lonely! That's not very good!" he says. I know he's right, but there's not a single other thing I know to do at this point but stand at that payphone and dial every number I can remember collect until someone answers. Luckily, I also found Tobin's frog umbrella in the backseat, so I try to fit as much of my body as possible under and into it, kiss Tobin, shut the door and start running like a crazy woman. (carefully, mind you, since the pavement is nice and slick) Most of you are probably aware of my feelings towards coldness and water and the combination of the two. Not happy.

But, halfway up the block, I find a couple hovering with coffee under a ledge. I tell them my situation, and he says he has AAA, and he'll give them a call. Happy Happy Joy Joy, Happy Happy Joy Joy! I don't know if my face was wet from tears or rain at that point, but I am pretty sure I saw the clouds open up, a beam oflight gently caress his head and little trumpeting angels float down from the sky and circle, like when Sylvester gets hit with an anvil. I decide not to tell him what I saw, since some people get squirmy if you tell them there are little beings flitting about their head playing the Hallelujah Chorus. Instead, I thank him profusely and go to wait in the car with Tobin, who has miraculously damaged nothing in my absence. Perhaps a stray angel from AAA Guy ran over and cleaned the whole thing before I got there, because I'm pretty sure it couldn't have happened otherwise.

Thirty minutes or so later (we're 2 1/2 hours into this, now) the tow truck comes. (this must have been where the stray angel called for backup)First, he tells me it's the gas, then the battery, then the starter. Turns out it was a little of all three. A nice little combo pack of lovliness for me. *BUT* eventually, he started it and I was on my way, three hours into it. Snappy.

I got home, got Tobin down and brought Aiden directly to Sthstheee! since that's his first word every time we walk through the front door, anyhow. I go upstairs to find my roommates watching a movie. Juuuust chillin', nice and warm, eating popcorn, hanging out. Trying my hardest to smother my dagger-shooting fire-breathing powers, I gently explain my ever-lasting loathing for each of their black and twisted souls for not answering the phone or checking the machine the times I called. Then I  go in my room, shut the door, and collapse into a heap. If I didn't think tobacco was a direct link between man and eeeevil, this is the part where I would need a cigarette. Instead, I made some tea and proceeded to stare at the wall, warm like I'd wanted to be all along.

quote for the day: ""He who knows that enough is enough will always have enough." Lao-Tzu

...brought to you by the letter 'E'

Well, first and most importantly, I'M LISTENING TO NEW TORI, I'M LISTENING TO NEW TORIII!! Her new album is called 'The Beekeeper', (I wonder if she read The Secret Life of Bees, too. That book is great.) and it came out yesterday! Her new single is called "Sleeps With Butterfiles" and it's kind of a bit more laid back than her last album (well, her last was a best-of, gumblegrumble) and, of course, I *LOVE* it. It has more guitars and other instruments which is kind of cool, since she's usually pretty piano/organ/harpsicordish. Some of her albums I really had to sit with for awhile or even let sit for awhile and come back to before I realized I *LOVED* it, but this one like Scarlet's Walk, Little Earthquakes & To Venus & Back. Okay, so now you want to know, and you can go to www.toriamos.com to find out more. Oh yes, and there's also her new book, Piece By Piece by Ann... something. Powers? Crap. Anyhow- there's more info about it there too, I'm sure. I don't happen to have it yet, either. Not that I'm hinting. (hint hint)

Yes, so about the letter E.

So it's Monday, I'm in the car with the kids, making a deposit at the ATM before going to get gas and go home for the most important and cherished part of every mother's day... naptime. I left my cellphone at home because it's currently dead and  I'm convinced that I'll be snappy at the ATM. So convinced that I leave the car running, also cleverly avoiding a parking ticket (forgetting it's a holdiay) since I have minimal change- and remember, I'm being snappy. I complete my transaction snappily as predicted and turn around to hear chug..chug..chug.... then silence from the engine. Okay, fine. It's not warmed up enough. I stick the card & receipt in my pocket and sit in the car to check out the situation, and there it was. The letter E. Damn.

So. Two kids, $3, a gas can and a car that does me no good. Time for a little stroll, thank GOODNESS I got the stroller out of the Intrepid. (remembering now, that I'm driving the Jeep, which runs out of gas at 1/4 of a tank) I plop the kids in the stroller and cruise down the street to the nearest gas station, figuring this is life's way of getting me to take a walk in the sun with my kids. I park my stroller in the line of cars and wait my turn, get gas (with help from a kind elderly man) and start on my journey back.

I'm walking along the street, and my friend Leo (who I'd lost track of long ago) pulls up alongside me. We talk for a minute, then decide he should meet me at the house in a few minutes after I get the gas in and kids down so we can visit properly. He takes off, and I finish walking back to the car.

So.... I get the gas and the kids into the car, slide into the seat, relieved that it was such a minimal ordeal and happy to have taken a nice walk in the sun with the kids and run into Leo. I put the key in the ignition and turn. The engine yawns and fumbles around and goes back to sleep. No, no, Jeep. Niiiiice Jeep. I give it a minute, pump the gas, and try starting it from neutral. Another sleepy attempt. Nonono... it's time to wake UP! Wake UP, you car! I get out and rock it, hoping it might stir the gas around in the tank (hey, sometimes that works) and try again. Another lazy protest. They sky and my mood are getting a bit cloudy at this point, and Aiden is already shifting between punchy and overtired.Ugh.

About 20 minutes later, a nice couple in a BMW stops and I ask the overprimped, frizzy haired wife is they have a cellphone I can use. She directs me to her husband in the car. I call my house, since I know Leo will be there soon if he's not already, and I'm pretty sure my roomates are home. Please oh please oh please answer... nothing. I leave a semi-pleasant S.O.S. on the machine, hang up and call my dad's cellphone. Please oh please oh please answer... nothing. I again leave a semi-pleasant S.O.S. on his voicemail, hang up and call his shop. Please oh please oh please answer... "Car Doctor, can I help you?" Haaaaallelujah! A human! ... that proceeds to scold me for running out of gas and give me a list of things I shouldn't have done. I'll kill you, and your little dog, too, dammit. Shut up and HELP already! He says he'll tell my dad that I'm stuck and where. Whew.

Aiden is exhuasted at this point, since we've been in the same spot for over an hour. He starts crying which stresses Tobin out, so I try and find something to entertain Aiden with, and let Tobin play on the sidewalk away from Aiden's ever fervent wailing.Where is my dad? Where is Leo? Where are my roommates? The crying is escalating, and so isthe tension in between my eyes. I find a sippycup Thank GOD and give it to Aiden, who mercifully falls asleep within a few minutes.

Thinking (read: hoping, pleading to God, wishing with all my might) that maybe the battery and gas had come to some allegiance to help me out, I again try the key. Nothing. Not a damn thing. No click, no lazy protest, no sign that the car even acknowledges the presence of myself or the key. AAAAUUUGGHHH!!! Of course, at this point, Tobin falls down on the concrete and is screaming, and so I get out of the car to notice that A) it had gotten FREEZING and windy in the past 10 minutes and B) it was starting to rain. Special.

 

 

Okay, here we go again. I have another free minute or ten, if I'm lucky. Yesterday, Aiden wasn't awake yet when I had to go to work, so Steve, one of my roomates (who Aiden *adores*) said he'd listen for him until I got Gabby and Tobin (from Manny) and was able to come back. Translation: I got 15 entire minutes to myself, unobstructed by housework, e-mail or cellphone on the way to work. As an additional bonus, the Intrepid is out of commision because the fan is broken (that's not the good part) which means I get to drive my dad's Jeep Wagoneer, which is ubercool in my book. I feel so much more at home driving something like that or an old truck than a new zip-de-do-da little schnazzmobile. You know?

I just finished putting some pictures up from when Steve and I took the kids to Howarth Park this last week. It was only about 5 minutes out of the car when Aiden fell on his face on the pavement, and about another one and a half before he was back up and reaching for the skateboard, his first love. He can say "Hot!" which was also Tobin's first word (did I already write that?) and (is there a way to convey severe disgruntlement in writing? because I'd like to do it here) *ahem*... yes, so the second word Aiden can say is (gruntlegruntlygruntle) "Steve". Yeah. Feeeeel the love. For Steve. Did I mention disgruntelement?

Okay, so it sounds like "Sthsthstheee!" (you have to say with a lot of lube in your cheek if you really want to get it right) but still. I suppose I understand the draw of someone who can do "gnarly kickflips!" (or "nahly KICKflips, Mommy!! as Tobin would say) over someone who feeds, changes, clothes, entertains, educates, provides medical, dental and all transportational needs for the next eighteen (or so) years. What am I saying? I need to learn to skateboard again.

Tobin is growing up so quickly... I can already see him turning into a four year old, and he's barely three. It's like he wakes up in the morning more handsome and intelligent every morning. Well, almost every morning. Sometimes he just wakes up crying and covered in pee and that's okay, too. (although definitely not preffered) He and Gabby make up their own little worlds when they play together, and it's so wonderful to watch them and remember what it was like to just imagine something and have it be... where the entire reality of the situation is altered because they're so submerged in the world they've created. Well, I supposed I know some adults like that, but it's considerably less innocent and inspiring, if not the complete opposite.

I've still got to look into uploading video on there- I"m not sure if they're set up for animation or not. I've got some really cute footage on my phone of the kids. I took them camping this weekend, which was a bit chilly, but that's why we love California! Camping in February. Hell yes. It was beautiful and hardly anyone was out because of the Superbowl. I think my Sunday was MUCH better spent throwing rocks into the river with Tobin for two hours than staring at the tube eating chips. If the Niners ever get their grits, maybe I'll feel a bit differently.

Anyhow- I'm going to spend some more time cleaning and possibly even bathing (now that might be pushing it) while I still have some time. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures- I'll be putting more up as soon as I have them.

quote(s) for the day: "You are worried about seeing him spend his early years in doing nothing.  What!  Is it nothing to be happy?  Nothing to skip, play, and run around all day long?  Never in his life will he be so busy again."  Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Boy, n.:  a noise with dirt on it.  ~Not Your Average Dictionary