Good Morning, this is your wake-up call.

It's summer vacation for my kids, but they still have to get up early every day, throw on shorts and sunscreen, eat breakfast, comb their hair, brush their teeth, and grab their backpacks and lunches before I scoot them out the door for day camp. 

Camp is a gorgeous place in the redwoods, and they hike, tie dye stuff, swim in the pool, and sing camp songs.  Sophie was a little mad at me earlier this week because I wouldn't allow her to take one of her new bras to tie dye.  She settled on a camisole and the last of the white tshirts and pillowcases in the house.  But as fun as camp is, they are burnt and want to just watch TV in their underpants all day while drinking milk and eating cheetos.  I was thinking of taking a weekday off work, just so we could all hang out half-dressed and eat processed food and watch The Simpsons, but since I'm using all my PTO for illness and travel, it may have to happen on a Saturday.  I don't know, I think if I'm going to hang out with the kids in my bathrobe and eat bologna with fritos and mayo rolled up in a corn tortilla (because I can't eat white bread, but maybe I'd just suffer the consequences to have a bologna and frito sandwich) then it should really happen when we are playing hooky.  I don't care what they say, lots of wrongs make one big RIGHT in my world. 

The mornings are hard.  They want to sleep in, and if the world were a fair and decent place, they'd be able to.  The girls sleep with me every night.  Most mornings, I get up, do some work, get dressed, and then start with them.  I dress them while they are still waking up, and walk them to the table so they can eat.  Sometimes they are not awake enough to deal, and will dip their hair into their cereal, or jam a spoonful of Frosted Flakes into their cheek while their mouth is still wide open. 

I wake the boys up by walking into their room and telling them what time it is.  This happens every ten minutes for about an hour, and then when they get up they are pissed that they have to rush because I didn't wake them up on time.  They can get ready fast, and always are just finishing up when it's time to go.   

But yesterday, yesterday I walked into the boys' room, stood on the bottom bunk where Nate was sleeping, and reached up and over to touch Lex on the shoulder.  Hey, I said, Good morning.  I want to talk to you about something.  I told him what was on my mind, he listened and I was reassured that I didn't need to worry.  Then I stood back on the floor and saw that Nate was up.  I gave him a hug and asked him what he wanted for breakfast and said I'd get it after I dried my hair.  Then I walked around the corner into my room, and overheard the boys talking.  I don't know if they thought I could hear them, or if the conversation was genuine, but Lex said, Wow, that is so much of a nicer way to wake up.  Mom came in and actually talked to us instead of yelling to us that it's time to get up.  That was nice.  I liked that

Definitely something for me to think about.  Because, hey, if the kids like me better, maybe they will pick up more of their crap off the floor.  Just sayin.

So then I went to work, and I brought all my stuff to go to yoga after work before I went to SG's house for dinner, since the kids all were having dinner with their dads.  But, we've both been a little off lately with too much on our plates and so when he sent me a text asking if I wanted to meet him after work in the very same bar where we had our first not-date, and then go out to dinner, I texted back "Y E S !" 

It took way longer than usual to make my way home.  Both the freeways I drive on were backed up and I was cranky.  The ipod was on shuffle and by the time I got off the freeway (a couple of exits early, so I could take the back roads and get there faster) I was singing along to Elton John (Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me) and really looking forward to seeing SG.  Like, really REALLY looking forward to seeing him. 

And then this happened:

Wrecked july 09 002  

Was I distracted and rammed into the back of the car in front of me?  Amazingly, no.  I was in the right hand lane and this guy, well, let me just make a diagram!

The setup

So, as you can somewhat maybe make out, Mike couldn't see me and he turned left DIRECTLY in front of me.  I was sure that I was going to kill the guy in the passenger seat, and that was freaky and bad and all that.  Turns out I slammed into their car – here's the diagram of that whole thing:

The impact

By some miracle, I didn't hit the door, but rather the right front fender and tire.  The three of us, me and the guys in the other car, did that You OK? YEP, You OK? thing thru our windshields and then I backed up and we navigated into the country club parking lot. 

I called SG (but I didn't cry! It was a miracle because I've been crying for a week straight because I went to BlogHer and I am super emo and funky, but not for any bad reasons, just because I love the internet, but it is exhaustingly awesome to meet it in person.  I think.) and he came down to get me and made sure that we called the police.  I was afraid to look at the front of my car, especially since the guy I nearly killed handed me my lisence plate after he picked it up off the road.  Look at that screw, dude:

Wrecked july 09 004

As SG would say, It's all gnarled up!  I finally did look, though, and it's not nearly as bad as I figured.  The bumper is trashed, and I'm not 100% sure about all the internal organs on my poor baby van, but it certainly wasn't the crumpled mess I thought I'd see. 

I drove to SG's house, he drove me to the bar (the one where we had our first not-date, and we sat at the same table) and he bought me a B I G martini.  Then we went out to dinner, and sat at the same table in the window we always get when we go to that restaurant.  It was a really nice night, all things considered.  Today my neck hurts and my foot is all jacked up because I guess I slammed on the breaks hard enough to rearrange things in there (it's not broken) but I'm of course just happy to be here and to be ok and to not have "killed a guy with my van" on the list of Crappy Things Which Have Happened To Jen That Were Totally Not Her Fault. 

I got extra squeezes from SG last night, and tomorrow when I wake up the boys, I will come into their room and talk to them until they wake up.  Maybe I will just say, Good Morning, this is your wake up call

12 thoughts on “Good Morning, this is your wake-up call.

  1. Viellefemme

    Whew! All this while I was wandering around the farmer’s market buying a shrimp/rice bowl for dinner and eating bits of ripe fruit from plastic containers at various stands. I’m glad you are OK, glad Mike and his friend are OK and REALLY glad that SG was there for you. He’s good that way. 🙂 We like him. A lot. Really.

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  2. Laurie

    I’m glad you’re ok.

    I like the way you tell your stories. I liked passing by you at BlogHer, too – felt much the same way in the aftermath, have only been distracted by family vacation. Yours is one of the spots I want to pass by more frequently, through the year. I’d stopped reading, oh, everyone it seems like. I’m not going to do that anymore.

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