Leave it up to me

Leave it up to me to wait until the last possible day to buy school supplies. And then make a 30 minute drive, just to discover I left my wallet at home. All I have it my checkbook. It's worth going into the store, and just trying.

School supply shopping is a beast in itself. The lists are always ridiculously long, and you can NEVER find all the items at the store. There are even some mystery items on the list, including a "7.5x11" red vinyl bag". I've never seen such a thing, and on top of that I can't imagine what it will be used for. After an agonizing 30 minutes gathering supplies, and never looking at any price tags, I make it to the cashier. She rings me all up, and I write the check. She needs to see my driver's license. I inform her I don't have my wallet, but I could call my husband to get his DL number. I'm not sure if it was my haggered look, or my 3 wild children, or the basket full of stuff she didn't want to think about returning to the shelves, but she accepted Joe's numbers.

Next on the list is the car wash. See, we are taking a small vacation to Branson this week(end), and carpooling with my in-laws. Even though a filthy car doesn't give me a second thought, I'm quite sure it gives my mother-in-law a nervous breakdown every time she has to get in it. Actually, I have proof of the concern it gives her. When we were talking about carpooling, she actually set the condition of a clean car "inside and out" . I can't remember the last time my car has been clean inside AND out. And my level of cleanliness doesn't match up with hers. So instead of spending 4 hours in the 100 degree weather to wash it myself, and since I waited until the last minute and didn't have time, I just zoomed over to the car wash. The first question I asked the attendant was whether they take checks. No they don't. Hmm... that sucks! But either he is flirting with me, or it really is ladies day, so he offers me a free car wash. Great. Except,... remember the requirement is "inside and out". I tell him "I need inside clean as well, and oh, please also treat the car with rain-x". The only help I have is whatever money might be in my kids' piggy banks. He agrees to give me a deal, and do the wash, inside, and rain-x for $18. So I pull out both Sterling and Ginger's banks, and start counting 1 dollar bills. Sterling's gives me $13. Ginger's another $2. He sees me counting out the bills, and kind of chuckles and tells me he'll make it happen. He must really want this sale! Did he not see that this car is filthy on the outside, and that I have 3 kids inside, which are most likely the cause of a filthy inside as well?

The automatic wash is exciting! The kids must thing we're in a ride at Disney World or something. After the auto wash, we sit down inside to watch them clean the car. It's quite an entertaining sight. What must be going through those poor workers head. I am practically giddy with the idea that they are doing the work, and not me. This is where it all makes sense that my car is "never" clean. As they are wiping down the car, they grab more and more towels. My car must hold the record for the amount of towels used. After the other crew cleans about 4 cars, my crews is still working on mine. And then they open the window gate in the back. They exchange exasperated glances when they see what's under there. My car is red. But the little lip under the window is a solid tan color. So the poor worker walks over to the towels, grabs another stack, and dunks them into a bucket of water. I guess their little spray bottle just won't do on this amount of dirt!

My car comes out victoriously clean, and simultaneously the storm clouds are gathering. After an unsuccessful trip into the Academy sports store (for Ginger's backpack), where they don't accept my check by just looking at my haggared face and 3 little kids, we hop on the freeway and flee from the storm clouds. It reminded me a little of that movie "Twister". We barely miss the rain (except for a few sprinkles), but then leave it up to me to count on the earlier rain to keep the dust down on our gravel road. Leave it up to me to drive on it anyways, and get the car dusty again. That was an amazing 30 minutes of cleanliness!