Tuesday, August 12, 2008

How was your day?

I'm guessing it's been better than mine. Here's a summary of what's happened so far . . .

About 9:00 a.m.
Krissy calls to see if I want to take the boys on a bike ride with her and her girls.

Me: Sure! When do you want to go?
K: Whenever.
Me: I've got one of my former students coming over for lunch at 12:00 and then Adam is going to play with a friend sometime this afternoon.
K: Do you want to go now?
Me: Sure. That sounds a lot better than cleaning my toilets which is where I was heading. We'll be over soon.

So far so good. After asking Adam to settle down about 15 times and finally getting Noah to find his shoes and put them on, we head out to the garage to get the bikes ready to go. By about 9:45 we are finally on the road. We cruise past the first park and we are all feeling pretty good, so we keep going along the river trail to the next one. The kids play at the park for a bit and then at around 11:00 we decide to head home so that I can be there in plenty of time for my lunch guest. I buckle Noah into the trailer while Adam is having all kinds of bike issues, causing him significant frustration. He finally points out to me that he has a flat tire. Great. Krissy offers to stay at the park with the kids while Noah and I hurry home to get the car. I am huffing and puffing way more than I should be by the time I pull into my driveway and grab the keys . . . Doh! Where are the keys? I remember putting them in my bag before we left. Where is the bag?!?? It must be in the garage where I set it down while I was getting the bike trailer hooked up. Nice. I decide that maybe I can break in. Noah is getting pretty bugged at this point because he really wants to know why Adam got to stay at the park and he didn't, and I'm pretty bugged because he won't quit asking me what I'm doing. I decide to hop the fence to see if the backdoor in unlocked. One major arm scrape and broken toe (not quite - but it really hurts) later, I make three discoveries 1) the backdoor is also locked, 2) our house is not easy to break into, and 3) I am wayyyyyy too old and out of shape to be "hopping" 6' wooden fences.

At that point, I finally break down and decide that I have to call Phil. "Oh no," you say, "don't call Phil! Don't you remember the last "key incident"??? Yes, I remembered the last key incident but I was hurting and bleeding at this point and Adam was stranded with Krissy and her kids so I had no choice but to call Phil. I went to the neighbor's (since my phone was in the same bag as my keys) to use the phone and called Phil. Just so you know, he was very busy, but with very little begging he agreed to come and unlock the house for me. Yeaaaaaaa Phil! And rather than making me wait for Phil to get home, the neighbor offered to keep Noah and let me use her car to go get the kids so that Krissy could ride her bike home. Yeaaaaa Dardree! So I hopped in her car and took off for the park. About half way there, I hear a siren and look up to see flashing lights in my rear view mirror. Nice. Here's what happened next:

Mr. Police Officer: Do you want to explain to me why you are going so fast?
Me: It's kind of a long story. Do you really want to hear it?
Mr. P.O.: Yeah. I really want to hear it.
Me: (in one breath) I rode my bike to the park with my kids and then my little boy got a flat tire so I had to leave him at the park and run home to get my keys but when I got home I realized that I was locked out of my house so I tried to break in but that didn't work so I had to borrow my neighbor's car to go get my kids and my wallet is in the same bag with my keys that's in my house so I don't have my license either.
Mr. P.O.: (blank stare)
Me: See? (as I showed him my scraped and bleeding arm)
Mr: P.O. : I understand that you are worried about your kids but you were going 40 in a 25 and there are other parents on this street who worry about their kids too. Slow down.
Me: (Really????? That's all? Yeaaaaa Mr. Police Officer!!) I will. Thanks so much.

I got to the park, picked up the kids so that Krissy could ride home, retrieved Noah from the neighbor, and then returned to the house that Phil had already unlocked just in time for my lunch guest to pull up. Whew! I was a mess, and lunch wasn't ready, but at least I wasn't late and we had a great opening conversation.

Now I'm going to clean those toilets that have been waiting for me all day. And people wonder what keeps stay-at-home moms from getting more accomplished during the day.

5 comments:

Bike Junkie said...

Boy, sounds like an excessive ammount of whining to me.

Kelly Hill said...

heh heh heh

AprilC said...

GREAT story!!!! Sounds like something we have all done, you are not alone!

Anonymous said...

Loved your story !! What fun you SAHM's have !! But I really don't envy you so much.

Vanessa said...

wow, that police officer was really nice. lucky for you!