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Friday, May 10, 2013

This MOTHER is hitting the road..........






Although my little road trip is first and foremost to take care of a little bit of business, I've managed to figure out how to make it MOTHERS' DAY worthy!
Thank you Jesus! 
You see, this year would mark the first year in the history of me being a mom when neither one of my children would be with me.   My son the doctor was in town last weekend for a wedding and my daughter--the almost-college graduate--is getting ready for finals and doing all those things almost-college grads do on their very last college girl weekend.   As much as I understood all of that, it made me sad and I was worried about it.  I mean....I don't even have a mother to spend the day with.  No kids.  No mother.   I was feeling a little low....
But, fate had other plans.  Thank you Jesus!
You see, last weekend on my son's trip home, he ran into a bit of an issue with his car in some little podunk town outside of Zanesville OH.  There he was--stuck in a little town--he and his dog--trying to find a garage, trying to get a rental car and trying to figure out how in the hell he was going to get to Pittsburgh. Fortunately, he got a tow truck and they took the car to a garage....a garage that wasn't opening again until Monday morning.   The rental car was a whole other story....they could get him one on Monday.  But, that wasn't going to do.  He needed to get to that wedding....
MOM to the rescue.
I jumped in my vehicle and I high tailed it down to that little podunk town to pick up my son the doctor and my sweet grand dog.  It was not such a fun drive.  And, I might have got lost a time or two...even with my GPS talking me through.....
This is not the THANK YOU JESUS part by the way....
Then, once they got in the car....I turned right around and headed back to Pittsburgh PA.
Five and half hours after my journey began, my son and my grand dog were where they needed to be, I was back home....and it was midnight.
Come Sunday, we had to figure out how to get my son the doctor back home.....
Thankfully, there was an extra car in the driveway just for this moment.
Problem solved. 
That was sort of a THANK YOU JESUS moment.
(I didn't realize Carmen would need that car on Monday!)
Yep, oh shit.  
Okay.....now.....fast forward to Monday when my son had to deal with the mechanic in that podunk little town.  Appears the mechanic decided to take Monday off.
He was not reachable on Tuesday either. 
By Wednesday mid day, everyone got involved in the ruckus--Carmen (who was traveling) was on yelling at me over the phone then he was yelling at our son over the phone, my son the doctor was stressed and pissed and disgusted and was telling me all about it  and I was beginning to wonder what the hell was going on. 
Did I mention that I was at work dealing with surveys and spreadsheets and other wicked things?
So, yeah, I could have used a martini or two. 
Thankfully, by late Wednesday afternoon, the mechanic surfaced.......only to let my son know that the engine of his vehicle was a goner.   
Okay then. 
He needed a new car.  Whatever.
Of course, while all of this was going on, my almost-college graduate was dealing with a situation to do with the sorority house.....apparently someone forgot to pay the electricity bill (thankfully it was not my daughter!).   Yeah, it was lights out. 
Naturally, she was not too happy.
Nor was I.
In fact, I was livid and upset and disgusted and I was worried that this situation would impact her studying and her finals and I knew she was stressed to the max over those things....she didn't need this too.
As a mother of action, I decided I needed to figure out what to do.....all the while fielding calls from my husband who wanted to talk about if we were going over to his mother's on Mothers' Day and if not--WHY? , putting up with texts from my daughter about how upset she was and dealing with texts and calls from assorted sorority girl mothers..........
Yeah, too bad I was out of gin.  
Without going into too many details (because there are a lot of details!), by late yesterday morning the electricity issue was resolved.......
So, yeah, it turned into a THANK YOU JESUS moment.....
Okay....now where was I?
Oh yeah....
The car that was in that Ohio town that is as big as a postage stamp is registered to me.
Yeah, I own it.
We gave it to our son when he left for grad school 6 years ago.
The mechanic offered my son $200 for it.....I guess it's not worth much.....
In order to turn it over to the mechanic......I needed to go down there to complete the transaction.
And, oh, by the way....did I mention that this mechanic is only open till noon on Fridays?
Oh, and before I forget.....we also had to deal with the fact that my son had a car that Carmen was going to need on Monday......because his other car was out at the plant......and he had to turn in his rental car and then drive to another part of Ohio on Monday morning. 
So, anyway, Carmen was in New York with a rental car.  I was in Pittsburgh with my car but I had to go to that podunk town 2.5 hours away to clean out all the shit from my son's car and transfer the title over to this mechanic who doesn't work much.  And, did I mention I had to find a notary?
And, you know....I had run out of gin.  
To recap:  We had 4 cars to deal with.  Thankfully, one car was incapcitated in some podunk town in Ohio.   We had 2 drivers with 3 cars that needed to get back to Pittsburgh.  1 of those cars needed to be returned to a rental place.  One car was sitting in a driveway somewhere else in Ohio.  And, I had my car.   One car was in New York, one car was in another part of Ohio and of course, my car was with me in Pittsburgh....but I had to use it to drive to that little podunk town.  
Did you follow that?
Whatever.  It doesn't matter.  I knew what was going on and I had to figure out how to solve all these problems.
Yes, this is when the BIG THANK YOU JESUS moments start (I know, hard to believe, huh?)...... 
Thankfully, I'm a mother and I know how to solve problems.....
Problems are my middle name.
The solution is extremely complex so I won't bother you with all those details.
What I will tell you is that I took today off, I am driving to deal with the mechanic and the car and then I'm driving to stay with my son for a few days.
THANK YOU JESUS!
So, I will be with at least one of my children on Mothers' Day.
Again, THANK YOU JESUS!
My daughter is not living in darkness so I feel blessed right now.  I'm still pretty pissed about the sorority girl who didn't pay the bill but......whattayagonnado? 
 Can I get another THANK YOU JESUS?
And, did I mention that this is my last weekend of being an empty nester mother?
IS THAT A THANK YOU JESUS?
Yeah, might as well be.


Happy Mothers' Day!  









2 comments:

Jody V said...

OH MY GOD!! I'm laughing my ass off over here! I'm sorry you had to deal with all this but WOW...you rocked it! Drink up sister...Drink up!

Happy Mother's Day!

Jody

Anonymous said...

yup, OMG!! what a week!! I dont know how you do it, that would push me over the edge!! But THANK YOU JESUS for giving Judi a level head!! have a wonderful mothers day with your son.

love
Jill from NY (too bad i didnt know Carmen was going to be in my state, LOL)