Saturday, July 29, 2006

The Early Bird Catches the Parking Lot

Can I get any more boring? Let me answer for you: NO. The
highlight of my day was taking my 11-year-old son to town to
meet his girlfriend at 7:30 a.m. for a trip to Six Flags. Poor
child. He has been sleeping until 10:30. But he got up early,
forgot his swimwear in a Wal*Mart bag on the kitchen table,
and was almost pleasant for such an early hour.

I rescued the swimwear, and off we went. We waited. The phone
rang. It was Girlfriend. "We just got up. We'll be there in about
15-20 minutes." Ahem. They live past school. It takes me 25
minutes to get to school. The phone rang again. Girlfriend's mom.
"We will be leaving here in 15-20 minutes. We'll be there in
about 45 minutes."

While the boy mourned his lost sleep, we headed to the bank,
because hey, PowerBall is 155 million tonight! We got back to
the Save-A-Lot parking lot, a highly-recommended meeting place,
and waited. We waited. I told #1 son, "You know, they are
probably cooking bacon and eggs right about now." The phone
rang. Girlfriend's mom. "We are just now leaving to go pick up
Girlfriend's girlfriend's brother. It will be about 25-30 minutes."

We left the parking lot again, to go pick up a package at the
post office. Only the post office didn't open for another 20
minutes. We went back. I went in Save-A-Lot, hoping to buy
a cheap styrofoam cooler for some milk and butter that was on
my shopping list. No coolers. I bought a bag of ice, and wrapped
it and and the cold stuff in a blanket in a Save-A-Lot cast-off box.
Because that's how you save a lot. You box your own groceries
and they don't have to dispose of their cardboard. Anyhoo, I
might have forgotten to mention that there was a heat alert today,
and the heat index was expected to go over 105 degrees. Thank
the Gummi Mary, I always carry a flannel blanket in the car.

We waited. I asked about this 'brother' they were picking up, and
discovered that originally, #1 son was going with Girlfriend and
her 2 best female friends and her sister. Hmm...then this 'brother'
had to invade my boy's harem. Anyhoo, they finally arrived, and
said they stay until the park closes at 10:00. They plan to bring #1
son home. We are about an hour and a half from Six Flags. It will
take 30 minutes more to bring him home and get back to town IF
they don't get lost. I have a feeling they will call me to meet them in
town to pick him up. Which is OK, because I stay up late anyway.

But I would like to have my extra hour and a half of sleep from
this morning. Geez! Have they never heard of an alarm clock?
Though I am annoyed, they have not pissed me off, because they
did volunteer to take my annoying boy, and did not want him to
pay for his ticket or anything. I did send him with money, and tell
him to offer to pay. He gave them a hot tip on getting the tickets
at Schnuck's, he says. He saw a commercial for adults pay kids'
price and kids get in free. They might have already known about
it, but that is where they got the tickets. And we don't have a
Schnuck's around here.

Soooo...I am worried to have him out of my sight for so long, but
it sure has been peaceful around the house today.

No comments: