$120.00....

Yes,

I am now $120.00,

Poorer.

What did I spend $120.00 for you ask?

Something wonderful?

perhaps some vintage china?
(oh, how I love vintage china...with pretty florals);

or was it a piece of jewelry,

a purse...you know the ones,

just can't live without it.

NO,

I went to the County Court House this week to pay $120.00 for...

...a traffic ticket,  a speeding violation  

boooo :(

The day I got ticketed was

SERIOUSLY , 
THE  SINGLE  MOST  BAZAAR  DAY

of my Entire life.

Let me tell you about it...

...It was before Christmas,

We had talked about going to get our Christmas tree...

(when the kids were growing up we'd always gone to the tree farm and picked out a fresh tree.
That tree farm is closed now and the kids are grown
but we've yet to get an artificial tree)

...then in the late afternoon we would be picking up my husband's parents and driving 1 1/2 hours to visit daughter #1 and see another chorale program.

We thoroughly enjoyed the Boar's Head Festival where her chorale choir sang the week prior.

See that post here.

I got rather a late start to my day;

 daughter #2 had made blueberry pancakes for breakfast,

so I hung around to have some with her, 

 fill the dishwasher, etc., etc.

About 11:00 I was all set to go to the laundrymat.

(I've been going to the laundromat for awhile now,

ever since my machines, one at a time, decided to break.

But I sort of enjoyed getting all the laundry done at once, using all the machines necessary.

So I told my husband not to have our machines repaired.

 It's such a liberating feeling to get it all done for the week

 in 1-2 hours

instead of putsying along doing a load or two every day

and 

without the nagging feeling of having forgotten

to put the last load in the dryer.

I was allllways doing that!)

So...

all ready to leave the house,

aaand,

I can't find the car keys.

Bummer!

So when I finally did find them

I was anxious and rearing to go. 

 I realized I hit the gas peddle a little toooo hard when

I noticed the driver of another car at an intersection looking in my direction rather strangely.

First I wondered if I had a flat tire or something. 

 I looked around to see if I could see what he was looking at.

 Then I noticed red lights flashing in my rearview mirror.

Yes, I was ticketed for speeding,

I just accepted that

and dropped it to the car floor

to deal with another day.

So on to do the laundry.

All goes well,

but I'm on a bit of a tight schedule.

To load the car more quickly with fewer trips
I carried 2  full baskets of clean folded laundry at once,

one basket in each arm,

I walk out the door to my car.

Something is wrong,

my body is going forward

and my leg is being pulled backward.

Somehow, the heel of the backless shoe I was wearing

got stuck under the door.

It was closing, with my foot attached.

HOW does that happen!?!

I fell,  but not completely to the ground.

Trying to keep some hint of dignity,

not wanting to look like a total klutz,

I managed, somehow, to catch myself

and didn't spill any of the clean laundry

(well maybe one towel).

Whew!!

Next, on to our local ShopKo...

I had seen an ad in the morning newspaper
for a Gigantic tub of 100+ cookie cutters there.
Daughter #2 is sooo into making cut-out sugar cookies right now, I decided to add this to her Christmas list.
But it was going to have to be a quick little shopping trip.  So I hurried on over

went straight in and out...

Well, actually...

 I had a little trouble finding the cookie cutters

 but as luck would have it 

 I bumped into a co-worker and she

 told me where she'd seen the

jumbo sized container filled with cookie cutters....

Not in the Kitchenwares

where you would expect to find

COOKIE CUTTERS, hel-lo,

they were in the Christmas aisle?!

I'm happy,

I've scored this extra little Christmas gift.

I know daughter #2 is going to LOVE her cookie cutters,

she'd actually been looking for a Betty Crocker

cookie cutter and this gigantic container was filled with

Betty Crocker cookie cutters.  Yaay!!

Now I just have to get home and get ready to go to daughter #1's program.

I back out of my parking space,

but wait, I no longer seem to be moving

do I depress the accelerator more, or 

have I backed onto something,

someONE!?  Oh Dear,

did I just hear a muffled crunch

Panic attack !

Wagging my head back and forth I see the car behind me now.

Another woman was backing out her space in the row behind me,

neither of us had seen the other so we collided!

Thankfully, there was no real damage

 just a black scuff from my bumper under her taillight

not even a dent.

She said she wasn't going to worry about it and

"have a Merry Christmas"!

OMG, What Else Can Go Wrong?!?

We decide we don't have enough time to get a tree.

Instead, we decide to leave earlier so we can go out to eat with daughter #1 before her program.

It would take 1 1/2 hours to drive there.

We picked up the grandparents,

filled up with gas,

had a 20 minute traffic delay.

Unknown to me daughter #1 asked

daughter #2, (the beauty consultant of the family)

to bring along her hair shears.

Daughter #1's choir was going to have a

photo taken before the program and her bangs were in her eyes. Drama, drama...

At this point, we were questioning whether we should take time to eat,

maybe we should just wait until after the program.

Daughter #1 said she hadn't eaten much during the day and couldn't do the program without eating.

So we decide on Panera Bread. 

A good soup, sandwich and salad meal would be just right, and without a long wait.

Daughter #1 drove herself so she could eat and run.

She'd need to get to the church were the program was being held earlier for warm-ups and of course the photo.

We could linger a little longer

and still get a seat for the program.

Only somewhat familiar with the city and without the GPS, we drove to the church we had only driven past in previous visits. Now arriving from a different direction and being evening it appeared different somehow.

Daughter#2 voiced her opinion that

this could NOT be the right church- it should have a larger steeple.

We were on the right street though, so it had to be the right church.

Parking is always crazy in this town,

my husband dropped G & G,  daughter #2 and I  off at the church while he parked the car.

As we are making our way up the walk we meet a group of 3 or 4 young adults. 

They ask us which door to go in.

 We didn't know, 

it was the blind leading the blind at this point

but we found what seemed like an entrance door unlocked 

and went inside, commenting that

everything seemed pretty quiet and dark.

We expected a rush of people coming in and getting seated.

Inside we purchased the tickets and the woman at the ticket table tells us the program is already in progress, having started at 7:00 not 7:30.

WHAT !?

My husband comes in and we tiptoe in, all 5 of us, in the DARK to find a seat in a pew.

As we are sitting there, looking around,

we don't see any choir.

Hm,  Are they in the balcony?

Will they be singing later in the program?

We don't see daughter #1 anywhere.

Were there programs at 2 churches the same night?

Daughter #2 is insisting that this is not the right church.

Hoping to prove her wrong,

I made the decision  (ignoring my husbands frowns) to go back out to the ticket table and ask.

 In the back of my mind I was thinking

 "What If"

What if we sat through this entire program and the choir never sang. What if we sat through this program and didn't even realize it was the wrong program until the program was over.

What if daughter #1 sang in the choir and we were not there to hear it and she could not see us smiling at her.

So, I excused myself and found my way back out to the door (in the dark).

I asked the woman at the ticket table if this was the First United Church.

To my horror, she said No, Episcopal!!!!!

First Church is down the street another 1 - 2 blocks,

just on the other side of a large parking garage

or library or something or other

OMG!!!!

 this was the answer to the question I had asked earlier...

..."What Else Can Go Wrong"

I had to sneak back in and tell everyone

We were at the Wrong program

at the Wrong Church!!

I heard Grandma utter "Oh Lord"

and we all paraded out.

All 5 of us in the dark, Embarrasing?  Yea!

(but I still found it funny and couldn't help giggling to myself. This day was like being in a comedy movie.)

Daughter #2 and I hoofed it down the street

 she's complaining, "I knew it was the wrong church but no one pays any attention to me"

Hubby gets a refund,

($50.00....$10.00 per person same as the other program...must be the going rate for a church community Christmas program these days)

then he and G&G go get the car. 

We got there before the program started

(ya, this is the one that starts at 7:30)

 but could only find seats in the back.

Luckily the choirs were in the balcony in the front of the church.

We could see them fine.

Driving the 1 1/2 hours home we started coming into patchy fog and my father-in-law suddenly said

"Look at the temperature!".

It was the eeriest thing,

the digital display of the outside temperature seemed to be going wild 

climbing up several degrees

then jumping back down again .

I guess it made sense since we were driving through patches of fog

but watching those numbers jump up and down so rapidly

 driving through the dark and foggy night was like being in the Twilight Zone or the Bermuda Triangle.

Was Rod Serling going to be around the next curve?

I could expect almost anything at this point.

My daughter kept asking me throughout the day what I did and to whom did I do it

to have such a series of events happen.

Well, they say things happen in threes.

I thought I'd met that quota.

Until the next morning.....

...We were to light the Advent Candles during church worship service so we wanted to get there early to get any special instructions.

I grabbed my velvet strappy winter wedgies on the way out the bedroom door and slipped on a pair of flats to walk out to the car.

In the car I put on my dress shoes

 and realized one entire sole was loose. It was like the glue had dried up and they were just falling apart.

I was NOT going to wear my everyday flats with my dress during church service especially to walk up to the alter.

I was just hoping and praying and walking veeery carefully

(I still sounded like I was wearing flip flops however; with my shoe flopping loosely and becoming more detached with every step.)

All went smoothly, I didn't trip on the steps or anything.

Walking out to the car after church the whole top of my shoe broke away from the sole and it was left on the street.

 LOL

Good thing I had my flats in the car, I could still go out to brunch after church. 

Trouser flats with a velvet Christmas dress,

not the fashion statement I like to make

but it was a salad at Culvers 

so I didn't really mind so much.

Hoping in 2012 all your luck is Good Luck
and your days are Blessed with
good times with good friends and family.


At the suggestion of "A Few Pennies",
I'm sharing this Fun Post at
Six Sisters' Strut Your Stuff Saturday

Warm Hugs,