This weekend Anna and I joined most of the rest of my family to support and celebrate the achievement of this wonderful woman in Champaign, IL. Yes, Molly (my sister) completed her first marathon and let me tell you, we were exhausted. I never knew watching a marathon was such work. Regardless of our fatigue, we are SO proud of Molly.
A week ago today was my birthday and I turned the ripe age of 27. I'm not sure I'm old enough to be 27 and I imagine that I'm probably going to feel that way for the next number of years until my body really starts to tell me that I'm older than mid-20s. Anyway, last week I received some pretty cool gifts. The coolest by far was a joint gift from mothers and fathers and one that I absolutely love, but its not the subject of this post.
Within a week the petals are wilting and soon will be gone. Now, I did ask for an inexpensive orchid because it would be my first and I didn't want the guilt of killing an expensive plant. However, I did not expect my skills to be a touch of death to the plant.
Anna and I both had a fairly rotten day today and the night wasn’t looking any more promising so Anna proposed we get Qdoba for dinner.
“But that’s not my comfort food,” I replied.
“Well what’s your comfort food?”
“Uhhh, oatmeal.”
“Gross.”
After a brief conversation about whether to pick it up or eat it at home we headed off to Qdoba. It’s a short drive through the 7 degree winter air. I was about to pull into a parking spot to our right, across the street from Qdoba, when Anna pointed out a space right outside the front door of the restaurant. I pulled forward and entered into a U-turn in the middle of Main Street which I usually complete with great ease, well...not this time. I had to stop the car mid turn and stop the oncoming traffic to complete my U, all the while Anna was screaming for fear of her life (Anna’s editorial comment: Screaming? Really?). To her defense the traffic was coming toward her side of the car, but in mine, we were perfectly safe. I’ll sacrifice some of the details of the visit in order to maintain your attention (and to keep me from looking like a moron.)
We were finishing up dinner right as Anna’s friend and co-worker Kristin walked in and joined us. It was a fun visit with lots of laughter over whether or not a man in the restaurant was aware of the wad of tissue sticking out of his nose. As we walked out the door, Kristin commented on our convenient parking spot. Heh....
Anna and I hopped into the car, buckled up and prepared to pull out into traffic. I backed up as far as I could without bumping the car behind us. As I tried to pull forward and left out into the street, my tires just spun and I slid to the right. I backed up and tried this about ten more times - all the while laughing about the absurdity of the moment. Here we were, trapped between a Honda Element and a Volkswagon Cabriolet on Main Street, full of people passing by. We did have one guy stop to see if we needed any assistance, but I waved him off thanking him for the offer. For a brief moment, I considered leaving the car there until the morning and us just walking home. Under normal circumstances, this plan might be acceptable, but it was incredibly cold out. Then I thought perhaps we could just wait out one of the cars parked before us or behind us. Then I thought about calling someone to get another opinion.
Finally, I decided that what I really wanted to do was just try another dozen times. Anna, in her wisdom said, “Why don’t we head over to Ace Hardware across the street?” I tried to argue for a couple more tries as if magically attempt number 26 was going to be the one that worked, but Anna declined my “logic” and convinced me to give Ace a try.
At Ace, we talked to the first employee we found and presented our situation. She replied, “I’m from the south and I walk to work, but you might try asking Kevin in the back.” We found Kevin and presented our problem and without missing a beat, he grabbed his jacket and followed us outside to see me get in attempt number 42 and 43.
“You’re gonna want some sand so that you don’t just have melting ice which will be more slippery. I’d just pour some out for you, but we don’t have an open bag right now.”
(Now, I have to say that as I’m typing this out, it sounds a bit like Kevin was just trying to make a sale, but Anna and I agree that Kevin sounded pretty genuine in his attempts to help us.) We crossed back over to Ace and bought some play sand for $5.37. Kevin followed us back across the street and pushed my car back as I accelerated so that we got as much of a runway as possible. He poured down the sand and spread it around and I hopped back into the car. Attempt number 92....success! I threw the flashers on and gave Anna a chance to hop into the car with the sand in hand and we hollered a sincere “thank you” to Kevin who was already making his way through the traffic back to Ace.
Here’s to Kevin for the hand and play sand!
p.s. I don’t even really like Qdoba...
