I’m sitting in the guest room of my Granny’s house in Cheney, Washington. This is the house I’ve visited every year since I was two years old—where I built my first snowman, where I learned to play racquetball, where I fished for rainbow trout and bass at Chapman Lake, where I first went to college and first dropped out of college. Where I ate Granny’s goulash and gingerbread and pecan pie. It’s basically like my little comfort womb. Which is a good thing considering how I feel right now (see post title).
First, let’s focus on the positive:
-The three and a half hour drive from Portland to Seattle was uneventful; the kids slept and kept quiet the entire time.
Addie, Pep, and Zoe
-We got to see new and old family in Seattle who helped us celebrate Louie’s birth, our recent nuptials (“nuptials”…hehehe), and Zach’s birthday.
Goofing around with Aunt L
-Zach’s mom and boyfriend baby-sat Addie while we stayed at a hotel in the U-district to get a little break. Delicious sushi was had. Life was easy again for 3.7 seconds.
Seattle foliage
-Once again, the kids were great on the five-hour drive from Seattle to Spokane. The Road-Trip Gods must have taken pity on us after the first leg up to Portland. However, they saw it fit to punish us a different way…
The negative:
-I, the California driver who forgot she was in Washington, land of slow and excessively polite drivers, was issued a FIVE HUNDRED FIFTY DOLLAR ticket. (*head slam to steering wheel. repeat ad infinitum.) It wasn’t even for speeding. I was cited for “aggressive driving in the second degree”. That sh*t sounds mean! I mean, I wasn’t driving like I was in Grand Theft Auto or anything. The state trooper said that I drove up behind a car too quickly before he switched to the slower lane, and then I “sped past him”. WHAT?! That’s just standard driving in Silicon Valley, buddy! (I know…we’re not in California anymore, Toto) Apparently, there's a new focus in this area we were driving to give out more of these “aggressive driving” tickets. I still have a feeling that I was doubly screwed because the officer noted that I was from California and knew that I wouldn’t contest the ticket since I would have to show up to the Ritzville County Court (aka: Bumblef*ck County Court). Either way, I know I was speeding and, ok, maaaaaaybe I was a little aggressive. So I fully accept my consequences, but not without a little WAAAAAH, THIS SUCKS. Ok, I’m done now.
-I feel like I’m turning into that mom who is constantly making excuses for her toddler’s recent maniacal behavior, like, “oh, she’s tired…she must be hungry…she had a bad nap…she…she…she…I swear my child isn’t Satan’s spawn!” I don’t know. I guess I feel self-conscious and put pressure on myself for our family to behave perfectly in front of everyone. Family will love you unconditionally, but they can also judge unconditionally (as my mother jokes, “Who else will tell you when you’re overweight/slow/have big ears/etc… if not your family?”). My fretting over whether Addie is a persnickety child is probably compounded by the fact that my parents insist I was the most angelic child to ever grace the Earth. Comments like, “you were never this loud”, “you were potty-trained by Addie’s age”, and “you always did as you were told”, make me feel I’m doing something wrong. I guess all I’m meaning to say with this ramble is, parenting: it’s hard.
don't do this, don't do that.
That’s really it for the negative.** Louie has been a piece of cake (he’s asleep sprawled out on the bed next to me as I write this). I’m very tired all the time, but that’s to be expected. At least we’re on the last stop of our trip which means we’ll be back to our old routine very soon. We just have one last hurdle: in two days we’ll be making the seventeen-hour drive (not counting any stops) back home.
I’m not even going to think about that right now though. I’m just going to snuggle in bed with mah bebeh and wait for the rest of my family to wake up so we can have a fun today.
**Edited to add: How could I forget this one? When we were in Seattle, Zach looks at the car’s gas meter and realizes it’s below Empty. We check the “Remaining Gas” digital reader and it says “0 miles left”…basically, “you guys are screeeeeeeeewed.” We take the next exit and just as we’re ONE block away from the gas station, our car dies in the middle of a busy street. Awesome.
