Perspective

It's been an interesting day.

I woke up, unprompted, at 5:30 a.m. Since my alarm was set for 6, it seemed pointless to try to go back to sleep. After praying for a few minutes, I went downstairs to let Jillian Michaels kick my tail with her DVD torture. (For the record, I was praying for people... not for mercy. Tomorrow I'll pay dearly for that oversight.)

I planned to eat lunch with Clay at school today because, the cafeteria was serving pizza. That cinched the deal for me. Tomorrow, I planned to eat with Spencer. The cafe menu? Spaghetti. Thursday was going to be Allison's day. Hamburgers. (The kid's say their school burgers are the best! But then again, they're pretty big on McDonald's burgers, too.)

Plans are made for scrapping, though, right?

Halfway to driving the kids to school, I realized I'd again forgotten to give Clay his allergy meds. I'm so glad we live only five minutes from their school.

Still, I had a van full of some mega dusty valances that needed an appointment with a dry cleaners, so I figured I'd get the allergy meds up to Clay after I dropped off the crusty curtains.

First though, I dropped off an application for a part-time position within the county school system. And because one detour deserves another, I decided that I was near the driver's license renewal place, so I better go get that done.

While I was there, some guy asked me if a pretty young lady near me was mine. As in, my daughter.

Now, she was pretty, so that was good. But she had a baby with her, too. Which just means he thinks I'm old enough to be a grandma.

And that's when it hit me. I AM old enough to be a grandma. Albeit a young one, but if I'd had a child at the same age that my mom had her first, and then my child did the same...

Yeah, I'm getting old.

But I didn't let that fester.

Because my new driver's license picture is awesome! Really. Probably the best I've ever had. (Wrinkles and gray hair don't show in those things.) Ask me if you can see it anytime and I'll flash it for you. The picture. Only. Because everything else is gray and wrinkled and no longer flash worthy. Not that I've ever had any flashing tendencies. Well, maybe when I was a baby. Don't all babies love to run around the house naked?! (It's because they aren't gray. And wrinkles without gray is a good thing. On babies.)

I had been home only a short time, basking in the glow of knowing I had no visible double chins on my new driver's license photo, when the phone rang. It was the school nurse.

"Allison fell and busted her chin on a desk. It looks like it might need some... (PAUSE)... attention," she said.

"Stitches?" I asked.

"Or glue," she replied.

I thanked the nurse for not using the dreaded "S" word within Allison's hearing, and said I'd be at the school in a minute. I grabbed Clay's Claritin on the way out the door.

At the school, I traded the nurse my wounded girl for my son's medicine and asked her to deliver a message to Clay that I'd need to rain check on our lunch date.

I have no idea what to do about stitches. That should be evident if you read about Clay's head wound, which I blogged about only two weeks ago. I called the kids' pediatrician, but they don't do stitches.

ER? I was really hoping not. Bruce called the urgent care clinic while I was running to the school and found out I could take her there.

To distract Allison on the way there, I showed her my old driver's license picture as compared to my new, dazzling photo. She was impressed, I could tell. She confirmed the new one was better by saying, "In your old one, you look like you just had a baby."

In fact I'd just had twins. Her and her brother.

Except it was actually two years before that picture was taken. (It wasn't a restful time in my life. Pictures don't lie.)

It seems we were a little too distracted, because as she handed me my driver's licenses back, I noticed two Tennessee Highway Patrol cars, facing opposite directions. Probably with radar guns.

I was going about 12 miles over the speed limit.

"I think I just got a ticket, honey," I said to Allison.

And though I hate to admit it, I fully planned to use my daughter's injury to plead my case with an officer.

I guess the THP had bigger fish to fry than a mini-van though, and we drove the rest of the way to the clinic going the appropriate speed limit. (I set the cruise control to be sure.)

No need for stitches, thankfully. My girlie's chin is glued. No shots, no needles, no trauma. For her or me.

AND... the best part... we got back to the school by lunch time. So I decided to go ahead and eat pizza with Allison. I'll eat lunch with Clay on either spaghetti or hamburger day.

After lunch, I headed to Wal-mart for groceries and a birthday pinata. I found all my groceries but didn't like Wal-mart's pinata selection. I don't know where else to look for one either since the nearby party supply place closed recently. I guess if I don't find one, I'll stuff an empty shoebox with candy and treats and wrap it with colored tissue paper and let the kids whack at that. (I'm serious. I'll do it. I'm not disillusioned one bit about my sorely lacking party throwing abilities.)

At the check-out lane, my cashier was a 78-year-old man.

Seventy. Eight. Years. Old.

I heard him tell the person in line in front of me when he asked.

I wouldn't have asked.

Actually, I was impressed. That man was better than some of the cashiers I've had at Wal-mart who are younger than me. That's not saying much though, considering that I'm old enough to be a grandma.

I called my mother-in-law on my cell on the way home from Wally World to let her know about Allison's glued chin, because she planned to pick up the kids after school today. And while juggling the phone with groceries and opening a door, I dropped my cell phone.

R.I.P.

I passed up a chance months ago to upgrade to a new cell phone. I like my old phone. I can work about half of the functions on my old phone. That's a record for me.

I put away groceries and then started watching for the kids to get off the bus. Yesterday was the first day I let the kids ride the bus home this year.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

"Hmmm, they're later today than yesterday," I thought.

Then I saw the bus. It stopped at the right spot. But then my neighbor's middle school son got off.

My kids did not.

Not that they normally ride the same bus.

Last year, the bus would run the middle school and high school students and then the same bus would repeat that route with the elementary kids.

I checked my watch, thinking I'd pulled the stem on accident and re-set it all wrong and sped it up an hour. Why not? The whole day had been odd so far.

Finally, I went outside and talked to my neighbor's son. Evidently his bus gets home only shortly before my kids bus does and they no longer ride the same bus. All because bus routes were cut and reassigned this year.

I'm pretty sure my neighbor's son now wants to avoid me at all cost.

I'm also pretty sure I don't need to be waking up at 5:30 again any time soon. Jillian can just wait until our regular appointment at 6!

I'm really tired right now and in an hour we're meeting our realtor to look at this house that we've half fallen in love with. A house that's pretty much completely unattainable for us right now without God's intervention with timing the sale of our current home, which isn't even on the market yet.

I believe in miracles though, so we're going. Every other house we've bought has been His doing so why not this one, too?

This day has been interesting.