10:25 am: I scratch a couple items off my To Do list, including “Do laundry” and “clean out closet.” I put a “Tomorrow!” notation next to “Work out.” I head for the car for these last items: “Car wash,” “Get gas,” and “Get groceries.”
10:30 am: This isn’t good.
11:30 am: The Auto Club guy tells me I might be able to get the tire repaired. I aim the van at Costco, hoping to get this fixed before my afternoon carpool.
12:15 pm: I arrive at Costco. There’s a two-hour wait.
12:30 pm: While I wait, I sit in the back of my van with my rear doors open. I take a picture of the view of the Flower Fields from my seat.
12:31 pm: The rear right door slams shut when a car backs into it.
12:32 pm: The driver of the car is upset because he thinks I was backing out and hit him. I assure him I was not driving my car. He shakes his head.
I tell him my door doesn’t appear to be damaged. He shakes his head and tells me to go ahead and back out already. I tell him I’m not going anywhere. Really. He shakes his head, gets into his car, backs out and drives off, shaking his head.
I decide it’s probably safer to wait inside the store.
1:45 pm: The tire guy tells me 1) I need two new tires, 2) if I get them from Costco I’ll get a credit of almost $100, and 3) they don’t carry my tires, but the Vista Costco does. I say thanks and leave, making sure I back out very, very carefully.
1:50: Bwa ha, I think, this is what cell phones were invented for: juggling carpool schedules as I careen down the 78 freeway.
I call MK and leave a message asking her to pick up Tiger from his school, rather than from our usual carpool pickup point.
1:55 pm: I call Tiger to confirm. Tiger reminds me he can’t go to swim team without his swim gear, which is in the back of my van. I tell him he’ll have to skip swim team today.
2:00 pm: I leave another message with MK, this time cancelling our carpool.
2:05 pm: I hand over my car keys to the Vista Costco guys and head for the book section in the main store.
2:07 pm: MK returns my call. She reminds me she’s in Vista to pick up her daughter and offers to pick up Tiger’s gear from the Costco parking lot.
2:08: I race back to the tire installation area to grab Tiger’s gear before they hoist the van up on the lift. I barely make it.
2:10 pm: I sprint to the main parking lot where I meet MK. I give her Tiger’s gear and my profuse thanks before she leaves. I realize I’m out of breath and resolve to quit putting off my workouts.
2:12 pm: I call Tiger to tell him MK will pick him up after all.
3:00 pm: My van is finally ready. I collect it and notice my gas tank is almost empty, so I head for the Costco gas station.
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3:30 pm: I pick up Squirt. While he waited for me to arrive, he bought something called a Double Gulp. “It was only $1.50, Mom! And it’s like, four pounds of soda!”
3:31 pm: I lecture Squirt on the evils of soda.
3:50 pm: We get home. As Squirt does homework and gets ready for swim team, I put “Tomorrow” next to “Car wash” and “Get groceries” and cross out “Get gas.” I double-underline “Work out Tomorrow!”
3:52 pm: I add “Get new tires at Costco” and “Reschedule carpool” to my To Do List and cross them out.
What a sweet kid! I’ve always wanted someone to buy me 4 pounds of soda – my kids would have bought it and said, “we were thirsty,” when they handed me the empty cup!
Can I give you my to-do list!
And FWIF – running all over the place is kinda a workout right! so you did – see – cross it off too! 😉
Wow, it sounds like one of those days where you want to go home and go straight to bed.
Now, if you believe in karma, this may have begun when you noted “tomorrow” next to your work out. LOL. Good thing you double-underlined it for tomorrow (today?). Hope the new day goes more smoothly for you. 🙂
The driver of the car is upset because he thinks I was backing out and hit him. I assure him I was not driving my car. He shakes his head.
OMG! Idiot America at its best.
Now, Dennie, I wouldn’t have lectured the kid if he’d bought it for me! Heh! He finished most of it before we got home.
Hi, Ellen! Thanks for dropping by.
You know what, Pat? Hubby thinks he was just trying to get out of trouble, playing the Clueless Old Fogey card. I do believe he was just clueless.
okay, im not going to mention all the other stuff, I just wanna know….how the heck did you get outta Costco with only tires? If you don’t drop at least $350 there every coupla weeks how do you survive?
LOL @ “4 pounds of soda” OMG, i bet Squirt was bouncing off the walls!! I swear, i need oxygen just reading this post….you need a medal!
I can soooo relate! What a classic “Mom” day!
Oh – gotcha – and they say blondes are… OMG – the red – it’s all washed out and I am {gulp} blonde – ‘scuse me gotta run to the store and get another box of hair color…er, ah, I mean – groceries – yeah – that’s it…
Karma Chaos.
Did you walk through Costco while you waited? That’s exercise…:D
Can I borrow you list abilities, Bonnie?
I keep forgetting one thing from the store for the past few trips. Sigh. Momsheimers. But I’d probably forget the list. Or Two-toes would eat it.
Hope today goes better.
When I got back to California after spending my last two years in the Army in Germany (where every store closes at 5pm), I think I went to 7-Eleven every night at 2 or 3 am for three straight months to get a Big Gulp, just because I could.
Heh, Dave! Those were the days, eh?
I kind of remember that when 7-Elevens first opened up, they were open from 7 am to 11 pm. Does anybody else remember that?