black and (A)broad

…and this past week, it’s been cats and dogs. I don’t want to complain, but I feel compelled to do so after the week I’ve had. There are still two more days left in the week, so there may be a second part to this post.

On Monday I missed an appointment. I could have sworn a friend and I were meeting in the cafe around the corner, which was where I was waiting for her. Of course I didn’t have my cell phone with me, so after 20 minutes I went home. I checked my Franklin and, sure enough, I was waiting in the wrong cafe. I called my friend and apologized profusely. We agreed to meet up fifteen minutes later, at her house. On my way to her house, my car stopped … in the middle of the street. So, there I was, in my big car, blocking the narrow Dutch side road a couple blocks from Paige’s daycare.

Of course, I still didn’t have my cell phone with me. What to do? I could stand there next to my car, subjecting myself to horns tooting in obvious aggravation and anonymous heads shaking in reproach and hoping some kind motorist would offer to push my car to the side. The problem with that scenario was that I had to pick Chloe up in half an hour, and I could have been waiting forever for that nice good-looking strong muscle-bound man to rescue this damsel from her distress.

In the immortal words of Bob Marley: “my feet is my only carriage” so I started walking. As I passed the daycare I thought, “Hey, why don’t you go inside and ask if you can make a phone call?” And that’s just what I started to do when, just in the nick of time, I saw Paige playing outside. I crouched down behind some bushes until I was sure she couldn’t see me before scurrying around the corner on my way home. Had she seen me, she’d have thought I was there to take her with me, and I couldn’t handle her crying when I left without her.

I got home, called hubby for the name and number of the garage and called them. The first question was, “What is your license plate number?” I had no idea. I mean, who memorizes their license plate number? “Sorry, Mame, but we can’t do anything without that and other details about the car.”

“But all that information’s in the car, which is stuck in the middle of the road.”

She continued to be sorry but couldn’t help me without those details. Another call to hubby - maybe he know the license plate number. He did. I guess people do actually memorize it. So I asked him to please call the garage because I didn’t feel like dealing with a whole lot of technical questions in Dutch. I could probably understand them, but I wouldn’t be able to find those technical words to answer back.

To make a long story short, I went back to my car, and a few seconds later a nice man offered to push it over to the side. A few minutes later, hubby pulled up. He’d left work to come help his wife (awwwww). About an hour and a half later, a mechanic from the garage came - without a tow truck - and, blah blah blah.

Monday’s and Tuesday’s are my busiest days. I’m taxiing both of them from school to gym class to swimming, etc., which I now had to do on my bike. That’s not even a big deal except it’s been raining like mad here since…you guessed it…Monday.

This morning it was pouring. I had another appointment in town immediately after I dropped off the kids. I made it on time - dripping wet, of course - but I made it. As I was taking off my rain gear I realized I’d forgotten the documents I was going to discuss at my appointment. So, on went the plastic pants and poncho and on my bike I hopped back home.

I got to pick up my car late this morning, and do you know what? It stopped raining.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 17:41 and is filed under Geen categorie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.