A Snow Saga

Last week was the snowiest I can remember in 34 years on this earth. While I'm sure it's a bit of selective memory on my part, I can state unequivocally that New Hampshire is currently covered with quite a bit of the white stuff.

Because Addie just got her license this past fall, I'm extremely overprotective about when and where and how (and who) she drives. Yeah, I'm the annoying mother that requires her to text me both before she leaves to go anywhere and as soon as she arrives at her destination. If she doesn't do those things, she loses her car. Period.

I also reserve the right to deem the roads unsafe for her to drive. Because of the snow, she wasn't allowed to drive herself to school at all last week. Today, because the roads were clear, Addie was back on the road.

Because she had mid-terms today, she got out of school at 12:15. Just before one, I got a text telling me that she arrived home. I was relieved and went about my business of proctoring my mid-terms (which my school had today, too).

And then my phone started ringing. Well, actually, it started vibrating because it was on silent. I saw it was Addie and pressed the "ignore" button, figuring that she'd already told me that she'd gotten home safely so it was probably one of those "I'm out of shampoo, can you pick some up for me?" kind of things. I assumed I'd get a voicemail notification, but instead the phone started vibrating again. The third time she called back, I finally answered it.

Addie was absolutely hysterical. Her car was stuck at the bottom of the driveway and she'd tried to move it and it was now stuck in a snowbank and she needed me to help her and so on. I tried to get her calmed down and told her I'd get her car taken care of when I got home and not to worry.

Belle's after-school care is located on the same street as my house, so I got a look at the car on my way by--I cringed when I looked in the driveway. It was bad. Bad enough, in fact, that I wasn't sure I'd be able to squeeze my car in far enough to move Addie's car. It was clearly not going to be a cool experience.

I called Addie as I was grabbing Belle and told her to start the car so I wouldn't freeze while I was trying to move it (temperatures were in the negative numbers today). I also asked her to come grab Belle from my car (our driveway is fairly long and extremely steep), which she readily agreed to do.

When I got home, I did my best to maneuver my car as far into the driveway as possible ... put the hazard lights on just in case, though. Addie was as good as her word and met Belle and I at the bottom of the driveway, grabbing Belle's paraphernalia and starting up the driveway as I went to get into her car.

Which was locked.

Yup, while starting the car so it could warm up, Addie had accidentally locked her keys in the car.

So she starts crying all over again while I go looking in the yellow pages for the police department. Turns out, by the way, that my town's police department does not accommodate people who lock their keys in their car, but the dispatcher kindly directed me to CarOpeners who, for $60, will come Slim Jim a locked car.

I didn't really have a choice in the matter.

So Mr. CarOpener comes after about twenty minutes, and he was great. His flashlight died in the midst of the great car break-in venture, so I got my flashlight from the house, which he was very appreciative of. He gets the door opened, and I get in the car and try to move it.

Nothing.

So the Slim Jim guy offered to try to extricate the car from its snowy prison, which was super nice of him. It took him a few minutes, but he eventually got the car up to the garage, which I don't know that I would have been able to do.

I did learn a couple of things from this, though.

The first is that I found out that Addie had gotten into the driveway just fine on her own. She was trying to help by backing her car into the garage so it would be out of the way and she got it stuck in the process. We did have a long conversation after my hands defrosted about how, if you are uncomfortable in a driving situation, to stop what you're doing and call someone who can help you. Oh, and that she just needs to get into the driveway--I'll put her car into the garage for her after I get home from work.

The second thing was how kind Mr. Slim Jim was. I mean, obviously I paid him sixty bucks to get the car unlocked, a process that took about two minutes. He had absolutely no obligation, however, to help me get the car out of the snowbank, never mind move it up to the garage.

There is so much simple human decency in the world, and I am always so grateful when I encounter someone that reminds me of this.

I Will be Positive if it Kills Me

In my new effort to be positive, I've been wracking my brain to try to come up with ten positive things that happened to me today. I'm trying to get my groove back, to say sayonara to the "Negative Nellie" that has been living my life for me of late.

It's funny, but when I went to make the list, I struggled. I understand why--it was not exactly what one would call a stellar day--but I think it's a start. Maybe.

Why, yes it is!

1. I had two pumpkin coffees from Dunkin' Donuts today. Mmmmmmmm.

2. There are people at work that understand my frustrations.

3. I got to work with the sixth grade teachers in conjunction with the literacy specialist to focus on how to improve student writing, and we had some great conversations.

4. I'm reading Helter Skelter again.

5. I'm not sleeping, but it's better than the alternative (I fell asleep with a lot of medicinal help Friday night, and I had horribly unspeakable nightmares that I could not wake up from--stupid Ambien).

6. I know what I need. It's not necessarily what I want, but it's what I need.

7. My car should be fixed tomorrow, and if not they will let me use a loaner. I am so grateful to my mother for letting me use her car while mine has been in the shop.

8. I figured out how to view pictures on my Droid. How scary is it when a "SmartPhone" is smarter than you are?

9. I taught Belle negative numbers. Stop laughing, those of you that know me in reality. I honest to goodness did ... if you ask the child, "What is 3-6," she'll reply, "Negative 3." I'm not going to lie and say she understands the concept behind it, but I think that's pretty impressive.

10. Addie was going to stay home sick today (she has a cold), but she dragged herself out of bed, got dressed, brushed her teeth, and so on in just under ten minutes. I was very impressed with her responsibility (she had driver's ed and a chemistry lab and stuff).

So that's ten good things ... the bads would be a much longer list, but I'm trying to change my attitude. Trying desperately.

Mind over matter, right?

The Gas Gauge Conundrum

I noticed something funny this morning on my lovely hour-long commute to work (where I'm spending my summer vacation because that line about teachers having all summer off is pure hogwash).

I filled my car up with gas last night because the little red light came on when I was going to the store to grab a dark chocolate Milky Way (for Addie, not for me ... I made do with Oreos out of the cupboard).

When I was maybe five minutes away from work, I looked at my gas gauge and noticed that it was still on F. It got me thinking about how there are a ton of little measurement lines on the gas gauge, yet for me, there are only four real gas status reports:

1. Full tank.
2. Half tank.
3. Almost on E.
4. Shit, the warning light's on.

I honestly don't think I notice when the little indicator is anywhere else other than those four places.

I'm kind of weird, aren't I ;-)?

Five Things I Have Recently Learned

1. Water is Extremely Important.
So we just got our water back on this afternoon. Evidently the underground hose/pipe thing had a crack in it and, when half of the side yard was being dug up as they made this discovery, it turns out our well was evidently not up to code, so that had to be remedied as well. I never realized all of the things you need water for … it’s not just if you’re thirsty or something. I mean, I’m just about out of clean underwear, and my children were peeing in cups and dumping them outside. It was crazy!
The yard:

The picture Andy texted me to rag me about the waterless situation:










2. It’s Not That That Hard to Change Brakes.
When I bought my car, I knew it would need the brakes replaced sooner rather than later. The dealership was pretty upfront about it, and replacing brakes is something Andy can do pretty easily so, considering the price cut on the car, it seemed like a good idea. Anyway, they got very squeaky a few weeks ago, so it turned out to be sooner. We did the brakes in Andy’s driveway, and I felt like pretty hot shit because I actually HELPED :-) I felt so non-girly!
My dirty hands (after removing one of the tires):

Andy fixing my brakes:










3. Catching up With Old Friends is So Much Fun!
One of my friends from high school is a hairdresser in L.A. She was in the area for Father’s Day, so she organized a mini-reunion. It was so much fun catching up with everyone! The coolest part was that none of the people that went were among my close high school friends, but we had a blast. I was in the hospital on a morphine drip during my ten year reunion, so I missed out on the “what the hell has everyone been up to?” thing. This kind of made up for it. Oh, and those Mango Martinis at Blue Latitudes … they are freaking amazing!











4. Some People Are Just Not Nice.
I don’t talk smack about my co-workers, but suffice it to say that one of them had me in tears a couple of days ago. Now, I admit that I cry easily, but what I’ve always loved so much about the school I work at is how nice everyone has always been—the kiddos, the staff, even the administration. There is now a person that is jealous or threatened or something, but anyway, it’s freaking harassment. I’m trying to come to terms with it and try to figure out the best way to move forward. Yuck!



5. The World is So Beautiful.
This is the most well-placed (and best timed) rainbow I’ve ever seen. It reminded me of what is really important, and so I’m sharing it with you.