The Day After...

Its funny, but the day of my actual birthday was pretty uneventful.  Not much happens when you turn forty-four on a Tuesday in the summer.  It's not a milestone birthday, I still had the kids to entertain, I still had to work, but the day after was quite the opposite...

I had to cart the boys around with me to go to my stores.  They reluctantly joined me with hands full of I-Pads, phones, headphones and a promise of a visit to any restaurant they wanted when I was finished (as long as they behaved like civilized humans, that is).

After I was finished working they were able to vote where they wanted to eat.  They both picked Sonic, a usually forbidden location, a mecca of grease and high fructose corn syrup.  We pulled into our chosen ordering lane, or trough, and I leaned out the window and ordered their concoctions of fried food and neon glowing slushies and after their food arrived I began to back out of our lane.

That is where the trouble began.  I looked in the passenger mirror and noticed that I was extremely close to hitting the mirror against the ordering board on the other side of the car.  So, I put the car in drive, planning to pull forward and then back the car out going in the opposite direction of the ordering board.  Well, somehow the opposite happened and I only managed to get myself closer to the board.  I tried to correct the car again, only continuing to make it worse, and that is when we heard the dreaded scraping of metal against metal as I had wedged the car into the sign.  And Then...We were...Stuck.

Oh the horror, the embarrassment!  Who does that?  What were we to do?  I bring up asking a stranger and the boys unanimously shout "No Mom, You cant have a stranger get into our car!"

There was only one solution of course...I had to call my husband at work.  So, my husband had to leave work, drive across town and save us.  He, of course, had a much worse vision of the our predicament in his mind's eye.  He was actually amused and relieved that it wasn't as bad as he had anticipated.

After a quick assessment of the situation, he jumps into the driver's seat as I sheepishly look on, expecting more damage to the car as he un-wedges us from the sign, but no...three quick movements, three quick seconds, and the car is out of its bondage.  I look on in amazement.  HOW did he do that? How could he possibly un-do what I had done so effortlessly, so quickly, without any fear?  I just don't get it.  I just don't understand.

But we were out.  I was able to drive us home safely, was able to park in the garage safely, without any mishaps.  I was only left wondering...what next?