Cruise Control, Part One

Ok, so I guess it helps to start from the very beginning. It's a very good place to start! (heh, sorry, that was bad.) [reference to The Sound of Music there] Just to warn you, there are going to be a lot of useless details in the next few posts, but I really want to remember the entire weekend, so I am feeling the need to be thorough. Sorry.


Anyway... so this past weekend has been marked in my calendar for quite some time now. A good friend from high school, N, is pregnant with her first child and was having a shower on Saturday. Several of our high school buddies, D, R, and K were expected to be in town, and a couple, C and L, were flying in to surprise her as well. I was so excited to see all these girls - some of them I hadn't seen in about 8-10 years.



In an effort to gear up for the festivities (and do a little self pampering) I decided to do some shopping for a shower outfit and have a nice, relaxing pedicure on Wednesday night. The shopping went fairly well (next time I will refrain from having an extremely salty meal before trying on clothes though - ick!) and the pedicure was just what I needed (well, except for the moments when I felt like Elaine in that Seinfeld episode when she goes to the nail salon and the women talk about her). Afterwards I met some fun mommy friends for coffee at the local Starbucks. It was a wonderful evening. I returned home shortly after 10 and Hubby had already put Kiddo to bed! woo hoo!


So the plan was for me to get up Thursday, pack and get the Kiddo and myself out of town sometime after noon. I had an "appointment" with my favorite hairstylist/mom in the world for 7:30 and figured that even if I left town at 3 I would still have plenty of time to get to her house for my cut and visit. Well, you know what they say about best laid plans...


A bit of backtracking here, as you may recall we just recently purchased a new-to-us vehicle, and after driving it for a mere 2 days, the check engine light came on. We had the code read at the local Auto place, and it was telling us that there was something wrong with something that could either be an easy/cheap fix or a rather difficult/costly fix. *sigh* Joy. Hubby's dad (Happy) decided to inform the dealer just to see how they would react and surprisingly, they asked us to bring it in so they could check it out. And while it was terribly convenient that I would actually be in town for the weekend the problem was that 1) the dealer was about 45 minutes away from my destination city and 2) I was supposed to be the chauffeur for everyone for the weekend. There was no way I could be without transportation and still be able to participate in all the festivities. After much hemming and hawing on my part and several phone calls, the dealer agreed to give me a loaner car while they diagnosed and ultimately fixed the problem. This really left me with only one issue - I needed to be in my destination city pronto!



So my lazy morning of packing and getting ready to go turned into a mad-rush-throw-it-in-the-car-and-get-outta-here kind of thing and shortly after noon we were off. Pressed for time, I stopped for a hasty refuel of the car and we were on our way. Neither Kiddo nor I had eaten lunch, so I decided to go to the quickest fast food place I could think of and pick up something to eat. Wendy's has always been the fastest in the area I was in so I pulled in, only to find a line of cars there that wrapped around the entire place. I decided to stick it out anyway. I paid extra for a large Dr. Pepper with my meal, because the reality was that the drink was what I really wanted - I couldn't have cared less about the greasy fast food that accompanied it. I got about 5 miles from the food place when I finally took my first long drag on the straw... only to realize that not only was the drink not Dr. Pepper, but it was diet! Ack! I couldn't even choke down the diet and there was no way I would be able to make the 3 1/2 hour drive without a drink, much less finish my meal without one, so I was forced to make yet one more stop to the nearest Sonic. I knew they would get my drink order right, and of course they did. The car hop did however give me a funny look when I set the freshly iced, barely touched diet yuck on the little tray for her to take away.



The rest of the drive was pleasantly uneventful, and once we arrived, Happy and I jumped right back into the car and drove to the dealer. What should have been a 45 minute trip took us about an hour and a half. Granted, there was some traffic, but Happy was driving and well, um, sometimes he can get a bit, um... distracted. So, we got a lovely tour of the neighboring city before finding the dealer lot. It took us about 35 minutes to get home! (I was driving) ;)


After a quick dinner I raced over to my hair appointment, had a nice little visit and then headed back to the G&H's house for the night. I fell into bed at a far later time than I had hoped for and slept rather well despite my Kiddo kicking me in the ribs for most of the night.


More later,
D :)