BulgingButtons

Not bad for a fat girl

Tag Archives: Driving


by Leave a comment

Why I Am Still Up

It’s nearly midnight and I have to be up early for work tomorrow morning. I teach kids, so walking around in a fog isn’t an option for me. I have to be “on” from the moment I walk in the door to the moment the last kid is gone for the day.

By the time I’m done, I’m tired, not to mention the fact that I resist going to bed just on principle, so I regularly stay up well past a reasonable bedtime. I’ve been a night owl for a long time, and the idea of an early-to-bed routine just doesn’t make sense to me. Honestly, though, I should embrace an early bedtime. By the time Friday rolls around I’ve accumulated so much sleep debt from the week that I can barely function.

Tonight I can still function, but I’m tired and ready for bed. Why, then, am I writing instead? Because the boy isn’t here.

Not in the same sense that he hasn’t been here since August. That’s different. He was in the dorm, and I could tell myself he was safe at his home away from home. Tonight is a completely different situation, at least from my point of view. Tonight he’s at a friend’s house and he’s taken my car, at night, for the first time.

Yes, he has his license. Yes, he’s responsible (3.83 GPA folks, woot, woot!). But he’s out. This is new territory. I know, it’s a little silly. By the time I was his age I had been out late in my parents’ car many many times. Not him.

My son has always gone at his own pace, which he rarely alters for anyone. His physical development left us wondering at times during his babyhood. Would he ever learn to crawl, then walk? How about talking? Would he master that? And shouldn’t he have learned how to ride a two-wheeler by age nine? Would he ever get the hang of it? Yes. To all of it.

It’s no wonder that he’s doing different things now than he did in high school. We all go through changes as we grow up and move from one stage of our lives to another. It’s normal. It’s important. And it’s something that I, as his mom, need to stop fighting and learn to live with. As I do, though, I think I’ll stay up for a while, at least this first time.


by 15 Comments

More Simple Things – Car Related

These are some of the things that, while not huge, make me happy. I try to be mindful of all the simple pleasures life has to offer, but there are simply too many!

1. Finding the perfect parking spot. It is a pleasure not to have to drive around a crowded parking lot or worse, a crowded parking ramp. Sometimes the perfect  spot is just waiting for me to arrive, and it makes me smile when that happens.

2. The HOV lane on a busy morning. I’m not a morning person, and budgeting my time is not my greatest strength (those of you who know me personally can stop snorting now). That being said, sometimes, very occasionally, we leave the house slightly later than we perhaps ought to. On those mornings, when the right three lanes are crawling, I’m grateful for the HOV (or carpool) lane on the left. It moves along swiftly so I can get my son to school, then myself to work, on time. Of course on the days I don’t have him I’m in the other three lanes with the rest of the suckers, so that leads me to the number 3.

3. Sharing part of my commute with my son. On most days we ride together to and from school, and I really enjoy and appreciate the time we get to spend together, one on one. We may not have a deep conversation, but that’s okay. Just being together is good.

4. I’m thankful each and every time my car starts and takes me from place to place safely. It has about 123,000 miles on it, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will get many more before it earns its retirement. Hey, it’s a terrific car, and it’s paid for!

5. Singing along to the car radio makes me happy. I don’t pick the songs, they just show up, and they sometimes surprise and delight me. I’m not shy about singing along, even though I have a lousy singing voice. I turn it up loud enough so I blend in (at least in my mind). If I’m going to be stuck in traffic, I might as well enjoy it.

 


by 4 Comments

Two Freeway Nightmares

I’ve just woken up from my second vivid dream, nightmare really, involving driving on the freeway. Ok, I’m listening. I will slow down. I will pay meticulous attention. mandatory-safety-sign-drive-with-care-042-1101-pI do not wish to live out either scenario, although the second is far preferable to the first.

Nightmare number 1: I’m driving along  on a familiar freeway, in the middle lane, going south. My attention is diverted for a split second. I look up and there is a man standing by the driver’s door of his stalled white pickup truck directly in front of me. I’m going too fast. I wake up.

Nightmare number 2: I’m riding with my mother on an unfamiliar freeway (impossible, she doesn’t drive on freeways). In the middle distance I notice cars are having trouble with a high point in the road. As we get to this spot the minivan ahead of us goes airborn. We see the bottom of the van looming in front of us. car-crashThey manage to land. Mom manages to stop without it hitting us. Both of us badly shaken, I talk her through pulling off to the side so nobody hits us. Nobody does. I tell her she saved our lives. The back of the minivan opens. There is a dog crate in the back and kids in the seats. I think everyone is ok. I wake up.

For me, this is the real stuff of nightmares. I don’t generally dream of monsters or aliens. Usually I have pleasant dreams, but sometimes I dream of the things I fear. I fear getting into a bad accident. I will be careful. I will listen to my dreams, even when they are awful.