Manic Monday

This morning started off like any typical Monday. The kids had an early Ortho appointment. Chuck is usually the one that ends up taking them. There really isn’t a specific reason, it just usually works out that way. They ran out the door, I took a couple of sips of coffee in peace and quite and headed to work.

I was at work for maybe 10 minutes and I got a text, “the car won’t start”. Chuck was stranded with both kids. Mom is still at Mary Free Bed so she isn’t using her car right now. I thought I’d go pick them up, bring them to get her car, and they could get back to school and work. That’s the problem solver in me. I’m not sure if it’s a genuine super power of mine, or if all women have it. I definitely think it is predominantly female driven though.

In lightening speed I arrived. Now it was time for my other trick, calling anyone, for anything. Don’t get me wrong, my husband is probably the best man on the planet, hands down. However, phone conversations and fast food drive thru’s are his kryptonite. I mean painful to the point of humor and endless stories. It’s not that I think he couldn’t figure out who to call given the right amount of information, it’s just that I’m certain he doesn’t even know who our insurance company is. That however, is probably my fault because I can never remember to put that damn proof of insurance in the car. After 10 minutes everything was coordinated. The tow truck would pick it up and drop it off to our mechanic.

The plan was to take them back to moms, grab her car and we’d all get on with our day. In normal sibling fashion, there was constant bickering from the back of van. Something about shoes on seats and dirty looks. I’m usually pretty good about tuning them out, but somedays I pretend I’m in a limo from the 80’s. You know the kind that you can just roll up the sound proof glass and it all disappears.

There we were right around the corner from the house. We got caught at a yellow light. All I could think about was getting back to work. I was starring blankly out the window and I saw it. A little haze, then a little fog and then full blown smoke. It took me way to long to correlate the smoke and my engine. Holy shit my car was smoking. If it weren’t for my dramatic children in the back seat hacking and coughing, I might have been embarrassed. I just picked up my husband because his car wouldn’t start, and now mine was about to blow.

Thank God, my mechanic is pretty much the best thing around. Speed dial kind of guy. Im even 50% sure when I call him and it goes to voicemail that it wasn’t on purpose. We made it to Moms and parked it. At this point the only thing left to do was laugh. Laughing in the face of bad luck is my MO lately. I know things come in waves but lately this shit has been a hurricane.

Having a spouse that you can laugh with in these situations is priceless. We didn’t fight, we didn’t bicker, we laughed. As of tonight, my car is fixed, once again my mechanic is AMAZING. Chucks car started right up at the shop. We have no idea why it didn’t start at the dentist but as of now it’s ok. Fingers crossed that the rest of the week with be boring and uneventful.