Two long weeks have gone by and now that I look back it seems like a blink of an eye went by. I'm so HAPPY!!! to have the kids back home again! Edith and Eleanor are both looking good, man I missed them so much! My anxiety level has been slashed in half! WooHoo!! Love having them home!
Well I had all of these things on a list, of stuff to get done while I had the time and freedom. Here are some of the things on the list.
-paint the living room
-split lots of wood
-steam clean the carpets
-organize kids clothes and donate last fall and winters clothes that will no longer fit this year
-trail walk on the conservation land I was introduced to in the spring
-see a movie
-have a party
The list is also in order of priority. And how much of this list was accomplished, you ask?
-Paint the living room- Yea!!
-Split lots of wood- Not one piece :(
-Steam clean the carpets- the carpets are lucky they even got vacuumed :(
-Organize kids clothes- Nope :(
-Trail walk conservation areas- Once, today with Joe. But it was a new trail here in Littleton so that's cool :)
-See a movie- Yup! Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was a good movie but not nearly as exciting as the rest of the day (stayed tuned for that story)
-Have a party- Yup! It was wonderful to see Dave and Lynn, Mike and Viki, Katie and Tim not to mention John and Natalie and Jimmie and Irving.
So I got the fun stuff done and not the work. Blah.
I did get some things done that weren't on my list.
-Visit Salem MA- Yup. Jimmie had friends from MD up for a visit and they invited me to come to Salem with them. I had a great time and ate the most delicious portabello sandwich ever! Mmmmmm...
-I got a caterer and a Dj for the reception- phew!
-And I took a HPT which resulted in a positive outcome. ;)
-Had Mom and Harry up for 4 nights- They're so fun. We love to play pass the pigs with them. They also brought up a farm fresh ham from Buckey, which was absolutely delicious. Oh yea!
Ok and here is the crazy day I had the day I saw The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Well, Jimmie wanted to see planet of the apes and so did I so we made a plan to go together. I drove to his place because it's closer to the theater but we planned on taking one of Jimmies cars from there. I get there and he was getting the Porsche ready to go. "you want to take the Porsche?" asks Jimmie. "Um, Ya I wanna take the Porsche" said I. So we take the top off and fold it up, throw it in the back. "You want to drive?" asks Jimmie. "Um, Ya I wanna drive!" I say. -Now, I have to confess I was a little nervous about driving Jimmies Porsche because it's a 6 speed and because no manual transmission drives exactly like another and I didn't want to look like a fool feeling this one out but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Not to mention Jimmies been having some nerve pain in his left foot which makes clutching tough for him right now. Anyway back to the story. I get in start it up and slowly pull out of the drive way. I take a couple of turns in the direction of Route 2 and I'm getting the hang of things and feeling more comfortable. I merge on to Rt 2 taking things conservatively, this is his baby and I don't want to get reckless or anything. I start to feel the car out a little more and I'm getting more comfortable. I move into the passing lane and overtake another vehicle or two, still taking it pretty easy though. I normally drive like a maniac in the minivan so this seems like nothing. At this point I'm exiting Rt 2 and entering 495. But things start to get weird. The car is loosing power. So I down shift thinking I must be in the wrong gear, I'm still learning the gates on the shifterand all, but it's not helping. Jimmie tries giving me some helpful advise saying I'm in the wrong gear and what not. But still it just keeps losing power. We are just leaving the 495 on ramp trying to merge when we lose all power and stall out and can go no further. I coasted the car to the edge, but there is no breakdown lane here only a merging lane. Not just for traffic entering 495 but for exiting traffic as well. Not the best place to breakdown, but when things stop they just stop.
This is when we realize there is no gas in the Porsche. Phew!! I'm filled with glee inside because it's not me driving poorly that ruined his vintage 1983 911 it's Jimmies fault for not making sure there was gas in the car before we set out on this little adventure. (it's actually John's fault because he was the last on to drive the car and didn't tell Jimmie it was low) I digress. Anyway, we call AAA and tell them we need gas. They call it in and tell us help is on the way and that they will let the police know where we are since it's really not a great place to be. About 15 minutes after we hang up with AAA an officer pulls up behind us to let us know that we are in a really bad spot and can we move? "Um yeah we can totally move but the view is awesome here and the thrill of wondering if we will get plowed by a giant truck entering the highway has me staying put!!" Ok so I didn't say that but it crossed my mind. The officer tells us he is going to push us to the breakdown lane where we can continue to wait for AAA in a safer spot. And so it was. The gas came about ten minutes after that and we were on our way to the movies again. Of course at this point we have missed the 12:40 showing but at least there is a 1:30 that we can still make. So we get to the theater and I pull into a spot and turn the key off and remove it from the starter. But wait, the engine is still running?? and Holy crap there are large plumes of white smoke pouring from the engine and the exhaust. Ayeyeaye!! We let the smoke die down and the engine (which finally stopped running) cool off. We decided nothing can be done at this point, lets not worry about it. We'll see the movie and figure out where to go after that.
So we see the movie. It was a good story and the visuals are really pretty great but it was just not the Mark Wahlberg version, which happens to be my fave. I would see this one again though.
After the movie we return to the little vintage demon car and try our luck yet again. And again the white plumes start to envelope surrounding vehicles and reduce the air quality within the parking garage. I turned off the engine, this time it actually stopped running when I turned the key, but at this point we know we are not driving it home. Back on the phone to AAA. It is 3:45 and I tell Jimmie "I have to be home by 4:30 because I have a dress fitting at 5". "You're never going to make it!" he says "It's already quarter to 4". Oh man. So I call the dress shop and let them know what the situation is, thinking they will automatically try to reschedule me. Nope. They aren't giving up. "Call us when the tow truck gets there and we will work something out." WOW!! Seriously, that's awesome because I was pretty excited about the fitting and I didn't really want to reschedule.
Jimmie and I decide to grab a bite to eat from the food court in the mall thinking there is no way a flatbed will be there anytime soon. We are in the food court have our order placed and are just waiting for the food when the flatbed guy calls and says he's at the car where are we? WHAT?? It's only been like 10 minutes, wow that was fast! "Phew", I might still be able to make it to the fitting, this is great.
Jimmie is having the car taken to Acton, which is also the town he lives in and where my van is parked, in his driveway. But we are going right by the dress shop and my house. I don't have time to drop the car and wait for a ride to Jimmies to get my van and then come all the way back to Litleton, grab the shoes and get to the bridal shop. So I ask the tow guy if he can let me out at the Littleton Common. It would actually be faster for me to walk home from there and then walk to the bridal shop then to stay with Jimmie and the car. He obliges my request and I hoof it home. Luckily on my way down Goldsmith St my knight in midnight blue armor sees my plight and dashes in to save me. "What the heck are you doing walking down the road? And where is the van?" Joe asks as I jump into the passengers seat. I start spewing the story to him. He rushes me home to grab the shoes and dashes me off the the bridal shop. I was only 5 minutes late!! Can you even believe that, 5 minutes! Man that was crazy! So things turned out ok for me. But poor Jimmie. He needs some major work done on that vintage little cutie before he can get it back on the road again.
And that is the crazy story of how things went trying to go and see The Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
