so, today we got off to a late start...we spent the day in philadelphia with vacationing friends yesterday. someday it will be us on vacation. i keep holding onto that hope...us--on vacation--the whole thing just sounds so foreign, but i digress. anyway, the kids were exhausted this morning and poor little hadley didn't even get up until 11:45! so, we knocked out breakfast and lunch with one fell swoop and i thought, "hey, since we don't have to be back for lunch, we can go run all those errands that have been piling up!" so, i quickly got the kids ready and loaded them into the car with all of our stuff. here is (was) the itnerary:
1. get gas
2. post office to mail mindi's baby gift and parking ticket we got in philly yesterday. (that's a whole 'nother story...and i'll tell you! it was 8 pm, parking meters. NO sign posted anywhere about the meter hours. NO info on the meter itself. and as we drove looking for a space i noticed one thing in common on all the meters. they were ALL expired. so we figure, okay, it's 8 pm, obviously we don't need to pay to park at this hour. guess we were wrong. but it was only 20 bucks and our friends sprung for dinner, so oh well.)
3. car wash (had to print directions off of mapquest, because it was the only car was listed in the phone book that is self-service. all the rest are full-serve luxury car washes.
4. library
so, we set off to get gas which involves driving 5-6 miles NORTH on route 1 to find a good price on gas. (despite the fact that we are ultimately heading south). you see, the farther south we go, the higher prices get. oh, and there are no gas stations near the stores, etc. they are all along route 1. generally, i can go up to the next exit at which there are 3 gas stations, usually all different prices.
i kid you not, once on that corner, the prices varied by more than 10 cents a gallon! but i find upon arrival that stations 1 & 2 are sporting the same high price today and station 3, for some reason, has no prices displayed. so i continue on. another thing about driving route 1 is that you can't see a gas station coming because of all the trees and there are no signs, and you can't make any left turns, so unless you know exactly where one is, you're screwed. you just wave to it as you pass and check out the price. and aside from that one corner, there aren't that many, so you can drive several miles without seeing one. anyway, finally i see one in time to get off route 1 but the price sign is completely behind the trees AND i find that after i have exited, there is a barrier in the road so i can't even turn left into the gas station.
i drive up the road helplessly, gas tank DANGEROUSLY low, and am met with a solid barrier all the way up the road for about a mile or two, so i can't turn around. finally there is a light, but with a prominent NO U TURN sign. i make a left and turn around in someone's driveway. as i'm doing this, alexander coughs violently. "are you okay?" i ask. he shakes his head "no". "are you gonna throw up?" i ask, because if you know alexander at all, you know he is the pukingest kid ever. he shakes his head "no". "you sure?" "yes." so i finish turning around and PUKE! all over himself. nice. and we are 5-6 miles from home with NO GAS. so i tell him repeatedly all the way back to the gas station that he needs to tell me in a LOUD voice if he is going to throw up. if he even thinks he might possibly throw up, to TELL ME ASAP!
when we get to the gas station, it has 12 pumps. 6 of them are blocked off. we wait in line for the next car, which btw, takes FOREVER. so long, i have time to get out and clean xander off as best as i can with baby wipes and still have to wait about 5 minutes. then, i pull in and wait about 5 more minutes for the guy to even come take my card. remember, you can't pump your own gas here. it is so ANNOYING.
revised plan:
1. get gas CHECK
2. go home change alexander's clothes, clean up puke (he tells me he feels fine)
3. post office
4. car wash
5. library
once we get home, and i have him stripped down, he tells me he is NOT fine and thinks he might throw up again. anyone who knows him knows that this should be taken seriously. so right now, he is being forced to lay on a bed of towels in the hallway next to the bathroom door, just in case. maybe we can go to the post office later. maybe i'll take a nice leisurely trip to the car wash by myself later. (the luxury of self-service is that i can go whenever i want to -- new jersey hasn't caught onto that yet.) now, he is crying and telling me he's starving! or as he puts it "mom, i'm hungry to death, i really am." sorry buddy. rule #1 of puking is do not feed the puker until you're sure the puking has stopped.
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