Why does this type of thing always happen to me???
It started out tamely enough. Alan and I have been switching off, taking one child out per week for some Mom or Dad time. This week it was my turn, and I was taking out 14 year old Emily. A nice, sedate evening, I thought, compared to my previous “kid-date,” with 9 year old Erin, which included feeding ducks in the park on a freezing cold night when all sane parents probably had their 9 year olds tucked into bed already.
I didn’t reckon on the fact that Emily was a child that I had raised. We did have a rather sedate dinner at Marie Callendars, despite the fact that I borrowed Alan’s Mustang and was sorely tempted to speed all the way there. On the way home, however, I mused aloud that I had read that the waves were supposed to be 18’ today. “MOM!” Emily shrieked. “You have to turn this car around! We have to go look!”
Never mind that temperatures were in the low 50s. Besides, I reasoned, we could stay in the Stang with the heater on. Down to Manhattan Pier we drove, but upon parking, I was informed in no uncertain terms that sitting in the car was not the way to experience 18’ waves. Okay, well, the waves were not anywhere near 18’, but still. So we got out of the car. I’m British, I reasoned, I can take a little cold. It was then that I was sadly reminded of how long it has been since I actually lived in Britain.
Emily found a scarf in the back seat, which I graciously allowed her to wear, hiding my envy rather well, I thought. Then I remembered Alan’s propensity for disaster preparedness. “Let’s look in the trunk!” I exclaimed. We popped it open and looted to our hearts’ content, finding a sweater, a jacket, another scarf and a baseball cap that said “World’s Greatest Dad.” I got the scarf and the jacket, she got the sweater and the ball cap. By the time we finished stashing our finds under and over the coats we were already wearing, we looked like a couple of snowmen. But we were warm, boy howdy, and ready to brave the Manhattan Pier.
Down to the end of the wind-swept pier we trudged, not really caring about the strange looks of passers-by, partly because we knew we were warmer than they were, and partly because our funny bones had kicked in and we were enjoying the situation with increasing hilarity.
The end of the pier was strangely calm, smelled like fish guts and something else quite nasty, but we enjoyed it just the same. However, you have to understand that I suffer from a strange sort of Pier-induced OCD. Every time I am at the end of a pier, I have an almost uncontrollable urge to throw something valuable, like my keys, into the water. This night I had to work double time, because I had my cell phone in the other hand. So this, coupled with the awful smell, the bracing wind and the fact that Emily and I, given any period of time alone together, will generally reach great heights of hilarity, contributed to the fact that by the time we left the end of the pier, we were quite giddy with success and marched back toward shore, chatting and giggling loudly, oblivious to our unshapely profiles. A man was walking up the pier towards us, but I thought he looked a little strange, so I avoided eye contact. Emily, however, looked right at him and caught him rolling his eyes at us. A few seconds after we passed him, something clicked in her brain and she burst out, “MOM! That was Kevin Costner!”
When we got home, she looked up a picture of him on the web and confirmed that yes, that man really had been Kevin Costner. And there I was, looking like Frosty the Snowman, accompanied by my equally well-padded daughter sporting a “World’s Greatest Dad” hat.
Why can’t I run into famous people on good hair days, or on those days when I fit into my skinny jeans? Or perhaps when I’m doing something amazingly talented and impressive? No, I run into them, inevitably, when I am behaving badly or just plain looking weird.
Still, the evening wasn’t a total loss. After our run-in with the Famous Person, we went down to the sand to lie on our backs and look at the stars (I think our bodies were numb enough not to feel the cold at that point). Just before we left, we saw a shooting star and exclaimed at length and quite poetically at its beauty. Well, okay, we said, “Oh my GOSH!” in unison and then asked each other repeatedly, “Did you SEE that???”
And when our parking meter had finally run out and we were forced to go home, we turned on the radio just in time to catch the beginning of the song “Lowriders,” which I hated when it first came out in the 70s, but which seemed at this point to be the perfect song to blast all the way up Manhattan Beach Blvd., windows rolled down, heater blasting, lamenting over our less-than-fortuitous brush with fame and consoling each other with the thought that we really didn’t put much of a premium on movie stars anyway.
But you know that the next three or four times I go to the Manhattan Beach pier, I’ll make sure my outfit is stunning.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The Best Camping Trip Ever
We blew a tire and had to change it just a few feet away from traffic. Emily got sick, then sicker, and the neighboring campsite refused to turn off their music even an hour after curfew, so she couldn’t sleep, which made her even sicker. We finally had to break camp at midnight and drive home, which made her even sicker (mountain roads and nausea – not a good combination). Ryan followed suit about 5 miles from home. And when Alan unhitched the trailer at 3:30 a.m., the small wheel on the hitch popped off, causing the hitch to slam to the ground, punching a hole in the asphalt.
On Sunday, as we stumbled through a sleep-deprived version of unpacking, I began calling the weekend the Worst Camping Trip Ever, but Alan pointed out that we should call it the Best Camping Trip Ever. Why? As my father used to say, (craning his neck to the right), “You can look at it this way,” (and then craning his neck to the left) “or you can look at it that way.”
The thing is, it could have been SO much worse. Not that we sit around thinking of worst-possible scenarios; it’s just that it easily could have been worse in many ways.
Alan and I make it a practice trust God with every detail of our lives, and when we find ourselves in crisis, we turn first to Him. And while some may say that we were just lucky the circumstances played themselves out the way they did, or that maybe we just encountered a few coincidences, I believe that God is actively involved in our lives, especially when we ask Him. It would be hypocritical to ask for His help and then dismiss it as serendipity.
For instance, when we blew the tire, we pulled over as far as we could on the shoulder, but it was the tire on the driver’s side, which meant Alan had to get down on his hands and knees just 2-3 feet from the right lane. Miracle Number One was that he had bought a collapsible traffic cone just the day before and stowed it in the trunk.
After I prayed, and right about the time Alan started jacking up the car, a traffic jam started just ahead of us. Traffic slowed to a crawl and stayed that way until he finished changing the tire. As soon as he was out of the way, it picked back up again.
Roger and Cathy Dreger were caravaning with us, and since they were ahead, they had to turn around and come back. As a result, they saw the reason for the traffic jam. A 4x4 truck had pulled over to the side of the road with some problem or another, and the girls riding inside it took the opportunity to work on their tans from the bed of the truck. In bikinis. Everyone was slowing down to take a look.
Miracle Number Three happened while Alan was changing the tire. The driver of a sedan wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice the brake lights ahead of him until the last minute, so he slammed his brakes on and swerved into the shoulder. The miracle is that traffic was stopped just PAST where we were at the time. If it had been ten feet back, the car would have swerved directly into Alan.
And so the camping trip continued, largely uneventful until late Saturday afternoon, when Emily began feeling ill. We waffled about whether it was wiser to pack up and go or whether it would be better for her to sleep through the night first. We chose to stay, not counting on our new camping neighbors, who started their family dinner and karaoke night at 9:30 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., we asked them politely to turn the music down, explaining the situation, but they didn't. By 11 p.m. Emily was getting sicker and we came to the conclusion that we really did need to leave, so Alan packed up the campground in the dark while I sat in the van and tended to the kids. At around 11:45 p.m., the neighbors finally turned down their radio, only to be overshadowed by the campers down the road who turned theirs up. At that point I almost lost it. And then, as I sat there rubbing Emily's feet and listening to the wind blowing through the trees, I suddenly thought of Paul and Silas singing praises to God after being thrown in jail. I thought, if they can do it, I can do it too. So I did. It was an amazing oasis of peace in the middle of a storm of chaos. And for a few minutes, while I was singing softly, the music was turned down. We found out from the Dregers that it was turned back up louder after we left.
Miracle Number Four happened on the drive home, when Ryan got sick – he had been asleep and therefore showed no symptoms of being ill, but the thought suddenly popped into my head that he was going to throw up, so I got the bowl ready. A few minutes later he coughed, so I flipped around in my seat and got the bowl in place just in time. TMI, I know, but if I hadn’t been ready, well... you know.
And the final miracle was when the wheel fell off the trailer. Alan had been pushing on the wheel with his foot to line it up in the right direction just seconds before it fell off. If it had fallen off then, the hitch would have punched a hole in his foot instead of the road. And at 3:30 a.m., who would have been around to help me pull the trailer off his foot?
So, all things considered, it was the best camping trip we ever had. Just like life, it wasn’t entirely comfortable, and it wasn’t what we’d expected, but it was a clear reminder to all of us that God protects us and provides for us in every situation. To quote Laura Story’s song, “Perfect Peace”:
And besides, during the time between the Blowing Out Of The Tire and the Throwing Up Of The Offspring, we had a really nice time camping with friends, paddling around a lake and enjoying some beautiful scenery.
On Sunday, as we stumbled through a sleep-deprived version of unpacking, I began calling the weekend the Worst Camping Trip Ever, but Alan pointed out that we should call it the Best Camping Trip Ever. Why? As my father used to say, (craning his neck to the right), “You can look at it this way,” (and then craning his neck to the left) “or you can look at it that way.”
The thing is, it could have been SO much worse. Not that we sit around thinking of worst-possible scenarios; it’s just that it easily could have been worse in many ways.
Alan and I make it a practice trust God with every detail of our lives, and when we find ourselves in crisis, we turn first to Him. And while some may say that we were just lucky the circumstances played themselves out the way they did, or that maybe we just encountered a few coincidences, I believe that God is actively involved in our lives, especially when we ask Him. It would be hypocritical to ask for His help and then dismiss it as serendipity.
For instance, when we blew the tire, we pulled over as far as we could on the shoulder, but it was the tire on the driver’s side, which meant Alan had to get down on his hands and knees just 2-3 feet from the right lane. Miracle Number One was that he had bought a collapsible traffic cone just the day before and stowed it in the trunk.Miracle Number Two occurred right after I started praying that God would protect him from the traffic – all it would take was a second of inattention on the part of a driver... we’ve all heard the horror stories.
After I prayed, and right about the time Alan started jacking up the car, a traffic jam started just ahead of us. Traffic slowed to a crawl and stayed that way until he finished changing the tire. As soon as he was out of the way, it picked back up again.
Roger and Cathy Dreger were caravaning with us, and since they were ahead, they had to turn around and come back. As a result, they saw the reason for the traffic jam. A 4x4 truck had pulled over to the side of the road with some problem or another, and the girls riding inside it took the opportunity to work on their tans from the bed of the truck. In bikinis. Everyone was slowing down to take a look.Miracle Number Three happened while Alan was changing the tire. The driver of a sedan wasn’t paying attention and didn’t notice the brake lights ahead of him until the last minute, so he slammed his brakes on and swerved into the shoulder. The miracle is that traffic was stopped just PAST where we were at the time. If it had been ten feet back, the car would have swerved directly into Alan.
And so the camping trip continued, largely uneventful until late Saturday afternoon, when Emily began feeling ill. We waffled about whether it was wiser to pack up and go or whether it would be better for her to sleep through the night first. We chose to stay, not counting on our new camping neighbors, who started their family dinner and karaoke night at 9:30 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., we asked them politely to turn the music down, explaining the situation, but they didn't. By 11 p.m. Emily was getting sicker and we came to the conclusion that we really did need to leave, so Alan packed up the campground in the dark while I sat in the van and tended to the kids. At around 11:45 p.m., the neighbors finally turned down their radio, only to be overshadowed by the campers down the road who turned theirs up. At that point I almost lost it. And then, as I sat there rubbing Emily's feet and listening to the wind blowing through the trees, I suddenly thought of Paul and Silas singing praises to God after being thrown in jail. I thought, if they can do it, I can do it too. So I did. It was an amazing oasis of peace in the middle of a storm of chaos. And for a few minutes, while I was singing softly, the music was turned down. We found out from the Dregers that it was turned back up louder after we left.
Miracle Number Four happened on the drive home, when Ryan got sick – he had been asleep and therefore showed no symptoms of being ill, but the thought suddenly popped into my head that he was going to throw up, so I got the bowl ready. A few minutes later he coughed, so I flipped around in my seat and got the bowl in place just in time. TMI, I know, but if I hadn’t been ready, well... you know.
And the final miracle was when the wheel fell off the trailer. Alan had been pushing on the wheel with his foot to line it up in the right direction just seconds before it fell off. If it had fallen off then, the hitch would have punched a hole in his foot instead of the road. And at 3:30 a.m., who would have been around to help me pull the trailer off his foot?So, all things considered, it was the best camping trip we ever had. Just like life, it wasn’t entirely comfortable, and it wasn’t what we’d expected, but it was a clear reminder to all of us that God protects us and provides for us in every situation. To quote Laura Story’s song, “Perfect Peace”:
Stay close by My side, and you'll never be alone
Keep your eyes on Me, and you’ll never be in need.
Though I may not calm the storm around you
You can hide in Me.
And besides, during the time between the Blowing Out Of The Tire and the Throwing Up Of The Offspring, we had a really nice time camping with friends, paddling around a lake and enjoying some beautiful scenery.
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