”…in proving foresight may be in vain;
The best laid schemes of Mice and Men oft go awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain…”
These few lines of the poem VERY much described my Saturday evening. I HAD to laugh about the evening because otherwise I would have been drowned in frustration.
It all started about three weeks ago when I started planning the evening. I had managed to get a hold of some half price tickets (8 of them prepaid) to a local Mystery Dinner Theater, and I thought it would be a fun way to celebrate my birthday and have a fun girl’s night out. I sent out emails to various female friends to join in the fun. Right away, I had eight, possibly nine gals going to the show with me.
As the day arrived closer and I sent out reminders, I had a couple of the gals drop out. I contacted a couple of other friends, and it looked as though I would have all the tickets taken. Then, one of the other gals had to leave early for the Thanksgiving Holiday and she dropped. I found a replacement for her ticket. Then, another friend made the mistake that it was taking place on a Friday night but this was all to take place on a Saturday night. But I was okay, I found someone to take her ticket. It was getting rather frustrating but it was still manageable.
I was getting so excited and really looking forward to celebrating my birthday in a new way. Then Saturday afternoon arrived; at 3 pm one of the gals called and she had a nasty cold. Then, 4pm arrived and another gal called that she had a migraine. I was okay with just having 6 of us going to the dinner theater. I wasn’t about to run around and locate 2 more people at the last minute to make sure all of the tickets were used.
At about 45 minutes before the doors opened to the show I went and picked up Mary, the Popette, from her place. The weather was a steady down pour and I ran to the door with umbrella in hand to escort her to my parked car. With both of us excitedly chatting and buckled in I started to drive to the interstate.
Three blocks before the interstate, disaster struck! The battery light came on in my car and the temperature gauge rose to the big red “H”. The car was getting very hard to steer. I pulled over to a 7-11 parking lot and wrestled with the steering wheel to get the car pulled into a stall. Then, the car just died! That was it! No More!
With heaviness in my throat, I looked at the Popette and let her know that we wouldn’t be making the show tonight. I started calling everyone to let them know to go on without me to the show. Two of the gals did make it to the show. One of the other gals turned around because the weather was getting nasty. The rain had turned to snow by this time. Another didn’t want to attend if I wasn’t there.
AAA was called and I called a cab for the Popette. The cab arrived, and the Popette gave me a present wrapped in an old yellow sock. She’s always wrapping presents in ways “normal” people would not think of. She told me to call me when I got home and to open it later. The tow driver came and got my car on the truck. I pointed out that there was a missing belt in the engine; must have broken. He agreed and asked me where I wanted to be towed. I chose the 2nd closest AAA approved garage because it was closer to my place and my work.
Car was dropped off at the garage which didn’t have Sunday hours (of course!). A key was put in the drop box, and then the tow driver dropped off a snow soaked me to my place. The good news of the night is that all the mileage for the tow and dropping me off were all within the 5 free miles I had on my AAA. Yeah! I got in my door peeled off a layer of wet and opened my birthday present from the Popette. The present contained —an “I Don’t Do Happy” pin, a sliver spoon with a can of instant Suisse Mocha coffee, and a raw potato. A potato? WTF? Oh, she keeps my life interesting... not that it's not interesting enough but I will admit she does supply a bit of comic relief that I needed!
No comments:
Post a Comment