Why I Don’t Go Out at Night

Tonight Joe and I met up with one of his friends he has known from his high school days, T.  She is in town for a few days for work.  I drove the boys and I to Joe’s work, and then we went to pick up T from at her hotel.  We took two cars, since there isn’t enough room in my car for another passenger with the two car seats in the back. 

Let me back up for a moment and say, this almost didn’t happen, because as I was pulling into the driveway from picking up Ryan from preschool this afternoon, I heard this crunch noise as I was rolling the windows up.  I looked at the passenger-driver side window, as it came out of whatever holds it up, and slipped all the way down into the door.  How weird is that?  I didn’t want to be driving at night with no window- and I have to work tomorrow, and was worried about parking my car all day, with the window gone. 

I crammed my fingers in there, and was able to retrieve the window, but could not get it back on track.  So Joe told me to duct tape it after I called him at work.  I couldn’t just duct tape it, so I had to prop it up with a wire hanger and then duct tape it. Ghetto for sure, but fortunately it works, it holds the window in place, and our mechanic can fix it on Thursday.

So after “fixing” the window, we meet up with his friend who told us she is 12 weeks pregnant with her and her husband’s first baby!  We are so excited. She is due in March, just a few days after another one of my friends, E., is due with her first baby, and a few days before yet another friend, N., is due with her third baby.  March must be a good months for babies!

We had a nice dinner, and the boys and I left at eight.  We were in a town about 30 minutes from home- nothing major. In fact, I used to live on the outskirts of this town.  But that was 10 years ago, and it has been built up so much, I hardly recognize it anymore.  As I was driving, I saw the road I wanted to get back on, and took it.  As I was driving, I thought nothing looked familiar at all, and then I realized the sign had said east, and I wanted west.  I was totally going in the wrong direction.

Well no big deal- I saw the sign coming up for the major Interstate, and even though it was a few miles longer, I knew I could head north on the Interstate, and get back home.  So I follow the signs, for the lane going to the north.  Evidently they are doing construction on this road and the lanes don’t match up anymore with the road signs!

After seeing the bridge I was supposed to be on, heading north, I was still heading east.  Oy!  Next exit was 3 miles.  Now I let out a few choice cuss words, with Ryan asking me in the back what was wrong.  I was frustrated, but still knew where I was going, so I told him I had missed the turn.  I get to the next exit where I can turn around, and have never in my life been on this road, but it made a nice loop, and I was back on another Interstate, heading west, that would hook up with the main Interstate that would take me north.  I saw the sign telling me the lane to get in to merge up with the northbound Interstate. 

More ******* construction.  Once again, I was NOT in the northbound lane, I was still heading west.  Now I was really upset, and fired off a few more cuss words, with Ryan getting more worried. 

It is bad enough when you are flustered, but with kids, you can’t even vent, because they get stressed too.  I saw a turn off for the southbound direction of the main Interstate, and hallelujah- the lane actually lined up with what the sign said.  So, now I was going south, and needed to turn around so I would finally be going north. 

I exited at the first exit. I called Joe, because I was so flustered.  He told me to just relax and he said I was right where I needed to be.  I had to wait for two lights and then I was finally going northbound.  Thirty minutes after I had left the restaurant.  Twenty minutes after that, we were finally home! A trip that should have taken 30 minutes at the most had turned into almost an hour.    Ryan told Dad that we had a problem getting home- I’ll say.

I am just thankful the window stayed put and didn’t fall back down, or fall out on the highway. That would have been lovely.  It is not fun to be turned around, and flustered driving at night with two little kids.  Now I know why I don’t like to drive at night!