The Misadventures of Going to Town

I decided to go to town and everything just took sooo long and things kept going wrong. It's long so click the read more link to read about my eventful day! If you've already clicked it please ignore this part!




So yesterday was the first day of the semi-annual used book sale I attend. My car is still not working great, as the springs we bought for it were too short. I can get around town and take back roads, but I want to try not to use it unless I have to. So my parents let me borrow their car to get to down if I'd meet them at a spot near here that people often park at for these sorts of transfers and carpooling.

The book sale started at 10:00, and I had intended to leave around 9 or 9:30. However, Tommy had another bad night and kept me up most the night. What happens is sometime in the early morning he starts whining/moaning and if I let it go on too long it turns into crying. Sometimes he wants his pacifier, sometimes his bottle, other times I can't figure out what he wants. Then he'll settle down and go back to sleep. So I get back in bed and 20 minutes later he's whining or crying again. He'll do this for about 3 hours and then go back to sleep till 7 or 7:30. But usually after he's stopped with his every 20 minutes thing I have such a hard time falling back to sleep that I'm up for almost another hour after that. So around 7:00 he woke up for the day. So I grab Victor's 3DS and go to netflix to put on a movie and netflix wants our payment options updated! So I have to get my glasses on, transfer my mouse from my laptop to my desktop (since I'd left my desktop on all night it was fastest) and went to netflix and updated and by then I was so awake I didn't think I'd get back to sleep but I had to try; I was exhausted! I think I got a little sleep. I got up around 8ish. Tommy's newest game every morning is to scream and try to escape when I try to get him dressed. Changing his diaper and putting on clothes has become an olympics event that takes nearly 15 minutes. Then I stumbled through breakfast, had a soda cause I just had to have some caffeine. Got stuff out to the car, and, finally, around 10:30 I was on the road.

Get to the parking spot, transfer everything but Tommy to my parent's car, and then... we lock the keys in their car! My keys and theirs! So my mom had her bike, since she was going to bike home, and she took off to go to the house of a friend of hers to call home for the other pair of keys. Luckily Tommy napped for some of that time. Then I entertained him by giving him the gps, which has a touch screen. He loved that. He started throwing a fit when I took it away from him to move him to the other car.

So, 11:30 and I was on my way. I got behind a semi going slow for some time. I have anxiety when it comes to passing people. So there was no way I could pass a truck that big. Tommy needed a bottle anyway so I pulled over for a short bit to give him one.

There is one town to pass through before you get to the bigger town. This first town had road construction so bad. I was waiting for about a half hour before they let me through.

Then I got to town and... more construction! At least it wasn't as bad.

So I was hungry and I figured Tommy was hungry, so we stopped at McDonalds and they were packed. There was a line going almost out the door. Well, my next stop was the mall and there weren't any other fast food places to go to, really, so I waited. Half-way through my wait some guys were behind me and they started complaining about a sign they saw. The sign said they ask people to not stay more than 30 minutes. They were saying how rude and selfish that was. I would have argued with them by telling them that this McDonalds is about a 1/4 the size of a regular McDonalds and that people sometimes like to sit around talking for an hour or two, and that the parking lot is so small surrounding businesses have signs up saying McDonalds customers can't park there and that it's actually rude and selfish of customers to sit there forever (not like there's a playland or anything where you'd expect people to stay longer) and keep other customers from enjoying their food inside. But they sounded drugged out of their minds, I'm surprised they made it to the store without crashing their car. I fully expected to turn around and see teens or young 20s guys with pants hanging half off and all. You know, the sort of druggie you just can't argue with. I know, I've tried arguing with people on drugs before, it doesn't work. Well, I got my food and as I turned I took a look and... these guys were in their 30s at least, and I swear one of them was graying. smh

Anyway, yes, I gave my baby a mcchicken. He had about 1/3 of it. He didn't like the lettuce much but he ate the rest. I don't get to town often, so fast food is a treat. It's not like I regularly feed my baby fast food.

Tommy was well behaved at the booksale. But he did rub his head on the back of his stroller so bad his hair was standing up! He played with my keys, his pacifier, a comb I had, and his sippy cup. At one point a little girl came up to him and I didn't really know what to do. Tommy's not talking anyway. After an awkward pause I told her dad that he's not really talking yet and he pulled her away.

I have nothing funny to say about the thrift store, which is where I went next. But on my way back across town the main "back road" people take has a school and there was a schoolbus parked in the middle of the road, I dunno, loading kids or something I guess, so I had to scoot across and take a way I'm unfamiliar with, so I had to go slower than normal. And why is it some streets don't have stop signs? That's so dangerous. I think it was 7th avenue or something.-

So I went to the recycling center next to drop off some soda cans and the guy there was busy helping someone else with a bunch of batteries he was turning in. Took about 20 minutes. That's ok, I had to give Tommy another bottle (we did toddler formula yesterday since I couldn't take milk with me). And then I had to pull around to the office so I could go in and get the 4 dollars my cans were worth. Now, I was only going to be in the office for a few minutes. Some people would have left their baby out there since it was for so short a time. Almost took longer to get him out of the carseat and back into it than it took me to run in and get my money. But I've been traumatized.

I needed to turn left out of the recycle center, but the way the road is I didn't think I could do it, especially with my anxiety problems. So I knew there was a back way to a stop light I could take so I tried to take it and wound up at a dead end. Made a 5-point turn to get back going the other way. Found out was I was before the light so I got on the road, turned right at the light, turned around again, and then waited for the light so I could get going left.

I was thirsty and I don't think JoAnns has a fountain so I stopped at ShopKo to fill up my water bottle, and we wandered over to the Halloween stuff. Nothing spectacular. They had their Christmas aisles set up. ShopKo's always the first to do that. It's sickening. It's September, what is that doing up already? If you have Christmas year-round it starts to lose it's magic.

Then at JoAnns I found some fabric for an Ewok costume for Tommy and had it in my cart and went to get a number for the cutting table. They were on number 96. I pulled 101. Well, sometimes it doesn't take too long so I wandered the store. When I got back they were about finished with 97. So I left.

After that was Wendy's. I wanted a frosty. I went through the drive-though. The line took a little while. I mean, not a horrible wait time. I've seen much worse. I wouldn't even call it a bad wait time. But apparently it was too much for the person behind me because they zipped off. So when I got to the window I told the gal about it so she didn't try to charge the next person in line for their food and she told me she knew, she'd seen it. She looked so distressed. I could tell she was just having an awful day. I almost wanted to cry for her. A guy behind her (who I assume was one of the people cooking) hadn't been told, I guess, cause he heard me and was all "They did!?". I mean, now he's made all this food for people who won't be taking it and chances are it wound up being thrown away. All because some impatient jerks couldn't wait 2 minutes for their food.

The construction in town made it so I had to take a back way to get to the Wal-Mart, CostCo, Target, etc, shopping area. That was actually kinda neat, since I'd never been back behind the stores before.

So we got to Bed, Bath, and Beyond because I had a coupon. That visit was nondescript except some fat employee kept looking at me with dislike. I dunno why, I'd never seen her before. She was working and stuff and I kept out of her way, I think, at any rate I wasn't in her area long anyway. (it was where there's 2 islands, she was working at one island and I was checking out the 2nd) After I was in my car and driving off she was leaving the store and crossing the parking lot. She looked at me and then walked reeeaaaal slow the rest of her way across the lane. Whatever. Like I said I never seen her before, I have no idea what I ever did to her.

And then we went to Wal-Mart. I had to use the bathroom so I went to the big stall, since it had a baby seat on the wall for me to strap Tommy into. But the latch was snapped off! I wound up putting Tommy on my lap! Imagine wrestling with a 25lb bag of snakes while trying to get your pants up! Tommy was well behaved throughout the store, but by the end he was cranky. He always gets cranky in Wal-Mart. I think it's their carts.

I was going to stop at the Wendy's in the other town for something to eat, but I forgot they closed. Could have stopped at the McDonalds but I didn't think of it, dunno why. Anyway, the construction was awful for other reasons this time. I was the head of the line, which I hate since I'm always worried I'm not going the right way with all the cones everywhere. And it was starting to get dark. And I had to drive quite a ways on this bumpy, dirt, barely held together temporary road. And it looked like they'd sprayed water all over it or something cause it was super icy. I mean I was sliding all over, even going super slow. I almost stopped to put the car in 4 wheel drive, that's how bad it was. And the car behind me was riding up real close like I was going too slow for them or something.

Just after town I got behind someone going 50. The speed limit at night is 65. I have passing anxiety as it is, but with that car still behind me riding up on me like that there's no way I could pass. So I waited and the car behind me passed me and then the other car. 2-3 passing zones later I got the courage to pass. Took a good 5 minutes or so for me to stop shaking. I hate passing.

The rest of the drive was uneventful until closer to home when I got behind another slow person. I was so tired and didn't think I could handle passing someone else. Finally they took pity on me and pulled over.

I got to my car and transferred everything over. All my bags. Tommy and his carseat. Tommy was sleeping. Then I get in my car and... the battery was dead! I'd left my headlights on! For a few minutes or so I just sat there deciding what to do. I decided to drive my parent's car to their house for help, since I was out of cell service even if I did have a phone with me. I put Tommy back in the other car, but before I could get started someone stopped to ask if I needed help, so I asked for a jump. He didn't have cables. I searched the car but couldn't find cables, either, and I don't have any myself. So I said thanks anyway and got going. I reckon altogether with transferring Tommy back and forth and everything else I must have spent quite a while at my car before taking off. It was about 9:30 when I got to their house. Turns out they were sending my siblings out to find me! I feel very loved and appreciative, and a little guilty. I didn't mean to make people worry, but I am glad to have them watching out for me! We went and got my car started and went on home.

On the way home, out of the corner of my eye on the edge of my headlights I saw two short figures standing there alongside the road. Their arms were outstretched. And they were just standing there. Their proportions were off too, their heads were huge. For a moment I felt like I was in a horror movie, and they were aliens or some monsters. I was really freaked out and expected fog to start rolling in ominously at any moment while they slowly moved closer to me. And then I saw that they were wooden scarecrows someone had put next to their driveway to decorate for fall. ahahaha, what a way to end the day!

At least I got to eat my first Reese's pumpkin of the year!