Murphy- what have you done?

As I wrote this post in my head last night, it played out so differently. A long diatribe about the sadness of another baby chick leaving the nest. Tugging at my heartstrings, making me want to hold on and not let her go.
Well, all that is true. So true. However the events of the past 12 hours put all that in a whole new perspective…anyone know Murphy? The guy with the law? The guy who can’t catch a break? Well, you’re lookin’ at him errr her.
People have told me a long time that I could write a book about my life. That it could be a tragedy, a comedy, maybe even a musical! So much seems to happen in my life that is against the grain. Off kilter. A little amiss. Chaos I tell you.

Somehow my world (and my kids, family and friends by association) seems to spin on its own axis. Nothing quite turns out the way it is intended to- ever!
Now, this isn’t always a bad thing. Over the many years I have learned to kind of live with it. Make it work. If you have ever seen the movie Just my Luck In the beginning of the movie, Chris Pine’s character has lived a life of ‘bad luck’. A LOT of bad luck. But he has learned to roll with it, expect it even. And things are great until … in a Freaky Friday kind of lightening flash his luck changes with Lindsay Lohan’ s Character who has only good luck. And she is having a harder time adjusting of course.
I loved that movie and laughed to tears, mostly because I could relate to them in their time of the worst luck. And I know people like their characters in their times of great luck.
Things seem to fall down around me and all I can do is laugh at it. While I see people who cannot possibly know what it is like to be me. I’m not complaining I’m not intending to whine. I love my life and would not possibly have learned the lessons nor had the opportunity to teach my children those same lessons regarding such things as acceptance, tolerance, and appreciation had my life run differently.
So- this leads me to the events which have just taken place in the past 12 hours or so.
My daughter had a 9 am flight this morning to head out of the state for a summer employment opportunity she just couldn’t pass up. It didn’t make it easier that she will be making an obscene amount of money as she is terrified. My children, until my son enlisted in the military, had been on one flight in their entire lives. They flew to see their father who lives in Alaska once when my oldest was about 13 yrs old. They flew ‘solo’ with the help of a very friendly large scale airline and many helpful stewardesses’. This would be her first flight as an adult and alone. She packed the night before and had only the daily essentials to throw in after use. We awoke in plenty of time to get her to the airport the expected hour before take-off. We were girls on a mission… I was doing my best to console her as her nerves were kicking in.
The previous night while on my way home from work, I felt a lot of vibration in the front end of my car. I am as far from ‘car savvy’ as one can be. However, years and years of bad luck with cars… has taught me a thing or two about what can go wrong. The girls and I had to pick up a few last minute things for my travelling daughter, things that we had up until yesterday been able to share, blow dryer, toiletries, etc. While we were out, I decided I had better check the tires as I am aware of some ‘front end work’ that needs to be done when pig’s fly I get my savings built back up after my job-less hiatus. The work I need done is expensive. However without it being done, my tires wear unevenly and quickly. And as I inspected them last night, they were quite worn. All of the local tire shops were closed for the night. As the airport is a good 45 minutes from our house, I was concerned.
A friend of my daughters came over and helped us to change the tire to my spare and much better shape tire. He left, we went in and completed her packing and retired for the evening thinking our problems were solved.
Bright and early this morning, with suitcase in the back, we climbed in to head for the airport. As my daughter ran in to retrieve one last forgotten item, I started the car and rolled a few inches. But the car was not moving. And when I really gave it some power, and it moved, it sounded as if I were dragging an axle or something.
Turns out, the spare tires inner wheel does not fit my car. So, in my heels, dress pants and white shirt, I changed the tire for the second time. And we were on our way. Easy you say… right? Wrong.
A quick stop for some ATM cash and we were lucky enough to get behind a lone woman in her car, slow as a turtle and with too much precision, making an attempt to withdraw from her account, not once, or twice, but three separate transactions. (Weird) and so we waited.
After we completed our own transaction, we pulled back onto the road and on the one road we thought had no construction for the season… road block. There was only one alternate and so we took it, a small neighborhood road which was where they parked all the construction vehicles and we timed it just right that they were firing each one up and maneuvering them past us onto the ‘closed road’.
We again managed to get on the road but decided we had better put a little air into the tire which was very low on tread on the inside of the tire due to bad tire alignment…. I was a little nervous to drive on it the distance that we needed to however there were no tire stores open as early as her flight. We had to chance it. After filling the tire and checking the pressure, we attempted to leave the service station. One side was blocked from the closed road we had already encountered leaving only one side open to the street. We drove around the building and a semi truck was unloading supplies to the store and parked in such a way as to block the entire side of the store… U-turn and we were finally headed to the airport.
Not much else delayed us and we made it to the airport with time to spare for security delays. We got her boarding pass for the first leg of her trip and he suggested that we go ahead to the second airline counter for her second boarding pass to expedite her lay-over ticketing. So we proceeded to the next counter just in time to get behind a group of approx. Fifteen couples headed home to Canada. The airline was doing a great job and they were getting them through as quickly as they could however there were a few ‘speed bumps’. They were all elderly (and a bit hard of hearing), most of them only spoke French, and they clearly had not done this airport thing anymore than we had. With just about fifteen minutes to spare, we got her second boarding pass and directions through the next much larger airport.
She made it through security losing only some sunscreen and lotion. And she was gone. And I felt lonely.
The day continued on... working late to make up the time. Rushing home to get to tires before closing time, gas gage light came on while racing to get home was forced to stop for gas…
I made it to the tire store. Got the tires. Man asked me if I was having a great day because I was smiling..hmm well…. Haha. Because I am preparing to sell my car, I attempted to buy some used tires. None. Got the least expensive they had. But- there was one shining moment. He looked at the price wrong.. Quoted me wrong. Took it upon himself to give me the nicer tires, for cost. About $40 cheaper per tire. Not too bad.
And now- I am tired and if you made it this far- so are you….Boy tomorrow better be roses and sunshine.