| Trevor and Brigette decided to travel here this weekend. It was a surprise for Carol, who thought they wouldn't be able to come for her graduation. It ended up being a surprise for lots of people. Trevor was apparently up until midnight most nights this week, fixing Brigette's car, which had been dead since Christmas. He got it all running beautifully by Wednesday night, but before they left on Thursday, something prompted him to re-up his expired AAA membership. Y'know...newly rebuilt engine...roadside assistance...just in case...apparently Brigette wasn't too keen on the spending of money but it wasn't like he had gone out and splurged on a new camera lens or something. Since there wasn't time for the card to arrive in the mail, he asked them to give him his membership number over the phone, and he wrote it down and put it in his wallet. They left early in the evening and figured on arriving around 5AM. I left the door unlocked so they could get in when they arrived and wouldn't have to call first. Meanwhile, I was trying to get the house ready for their arrival. This was easier said than done because Carol showed up at my house for, oh, THE ENTIRE AFTERNOON yesterday. I couldn't really come up with an excuse for my cleaning frenzy so I just didn't have a cleaning frenzy - I planted geraniums instead. When I got home last night I started getting the bed made and the bathroom clean, but everyone knows when there's a pressing deadline it's just so much more fun to loaf around and read stupid xanga surveys you took three years ago. It was 1AM by the time I got to bed. At that point I looked at the empty phone charger in my room and thought to myself, I should go get the phone. But I didn't know where the phone was, and I was really just much too tired to deal with finding it and putting it on the charger, so I went to sleep instead. I also have a phone hooked up to Grandma's line in my room. That rang at 4:30. I figured it was Trevor and Brigette calling to say they were arriving, but since Grandma knew the door was unlocked she could just tell them to come on in. I rolled over and went back to sleep - which lasted for about two more minutes, at which point her phone rang again, and it was my dad telling me that Trevor's car was broken down a little over an hour away and I had to go get them (he and Mom had gone away for an overnight because he had meetings somewhere.) Mystic was all kinds of confused at this point, because while we've been getting up early to run in the mornings, we've had a little schedule that we follow: The alarm rings, I hit snooze, the alarm rings again, I get up, I put on shorts and a T-shirt and sneakers and grab a plastic bag for waste management, and we go out the door. Mystic's job during this whole process is to whine and bark to express her excitement. This morning, there being no alarm, no sneakers, and no plastic bag, she didn't know quite what to make of it, so she just sort of followed me around. I was all kinds of confused, too - I'm not sure when in my life my night has started and ended with Mike Kellogg and Music Through the Night. I need more than three and a half hours of sleep, in case anyone was wondering! Long, boring part of the story short: I drove there. We waited around for over an hour for the tow truck. Brigette and I went to a nearby general store for breakfasty foods (Cheetos are NOT a balanced breakfast - yuck!) Trevor poked at the engine, muttered at the engine, and then sat on the bumper and ate granola bars with us. The tow truck came and towed them the precisely 57 miles home. (This was an important number because Dad had told us on the phone that where they were stopped was about 57 miles from the house. Dad: the walking GPS.) At this point EVERYONE was grateful for the AAA membership because without it, an emergency tow for that distance would've cost $300, and they would've had to pay it up front. Probably in cash. Now all Trevor has to do is figure out what's wrong and fix it. And get back to Ohio in one piece. |
