It Finally Happened

I got pulled over.
And the officer was extremely rude.  I know, I know, he has to follow a certain script in order to protect himself and so on and so forth.  but really, he was rude.

I had never been pulled over before, so I didn't know what I was supposed to do.  I racked my brain for the driver's ed lesson about what to do when you desert everything driver's ed has taught you and actually have to interact with the police, but sadly, I couldn't recall it.
And, let's face it.  Driver's ed was a long time ago.

So I pulled into a Pizza Hut parking lot with the police car behind me, and immediately proceeded to get out of the car.  The police-man put up one finger, motioning to me that I should hold on.  I guess he was running my license plates or something.
When he got out of his car, I got out of mine.  I have since been informed that this was the wrong decision as it could be perceived as a threat.  But really, do I look threatening?

I proceeded to inform the policeman that I had never been pulled over, so didn't really know what to do.
He simply said "You should have your window rolled down."  Which statement I took to mean I should be inside of my car with the window rolled down.

So I got in the car and rolled down the window.
He then walked up to my window and mumbled "License and insurance, I'm officer so-and-so with the such-and-such police department."  Without a "thank you for your cooperation" or any acknowledgement that we had interacted at all before this exact moment in time.
At this point, all I'm capable of doing is trying not to cry.  I think, if he'd been a little nicer, I would have been more composed, but as it was . . .
I could tell he would have hated me if I'd started crying, so I didn't.

But I couldn't think straight.

I started searching for the insurance, but I was in my Dad's car, so I didn't know where it was.  I kept trying to explain to him why I was digging around so much in the glove compartment, but I think he got a little nervous . . .
He said (rather gruffly) "Ma'am, just give me your license."
So I did, and he immediately asked me if the address was correct.
Of course it wasn't.  So then he asked me how long I'd lived at my current address.

I couldn't remember.

I could not remember how long I'd lived here.  In fact, I couldn't even remember my address.
That is the kind of state I'd worked myself into.  How pitiful.

He then asked me if I was aware that I had thirty days, after moving to a new address, to inform the DPS of my new address.  I may or may not have told a white lie here.  I said no, I was not aware of that.
He just shook his head and said (with a large dramatic sigh beforehand, the only bit of personality he showed the whole entire time) "Ma'am, could you please find your insurance?"

Then, of course, I found the insurance as soon as I looked into the glove compartment.  So I handed it to him.  He took it silently, and I stared straight out of my windshield in a last-ditch effort to compose myself.
As in, the tears were about to pour out of my eyes and I didn't know how much longer I could contain them.

Then I heard him say "Standby."
I was not at all sure whether he was directing that command at me or someone else.  For a moment I thought he was calling in the backup officers and was about to arrest me for who-knows-what.

But I turned to face him, and he said to me, with the least possible amount of expression in his voice,
"Well ma'am, it's your lucky day.  I've been called to another call, so I'll have to leave."

Then, do not ask me why, I looked him in the eye and said "Oh, I'm sorry," complete with a sad look on my face and the tears which were welling up anyway.
Yes, I said that, as if it was my party and he had to leave early or something.

He looked at me like I was crazy (which he probably had a right to do) and said "Ma'am, please just slow down," his voice finally expressing the frustration he must have felt with me all along.

And I'm pretty sure we both drove away extremely glad to have that experience behind us.

And I went to the DPS and changed the address on my license.
Just in case I forget again.

Bizarre

So, a while back, I went on a picnic at the zoo with a few friends.

We were sitting at the picnic table just chatting, and I noticed the Hispanic family that was next to us.  They were  clearly having a good time, running around, playing, joking, and just loving each other like a family should.

Then they all got together to take a picture.  The mother and the children posed together, and the father had the camera.  Right before he snapped the picture, he told his family to say "queso."

At first I sort of laughed to myself thinking it was a funny joke.  But then I realized none of them were laughing.  They just said "queso" and took the picture.

It was crazy to think that this family actually thought that was the thing to do before you took a picture.
They just translated an American custom directly into their native language without questioning why we say "cheese."

Bizarre

Does This Kind of Stuff Happen to Other People?

What would you do if you were sitting at a stop light with your windows down and heard a voice say, "What's with the (insert make and model of your car here)?"

Well, if you were me, you'd know without a doubt that your car is the only one that could possibly be referenced, because only about six people in your small town even drive this car and none of them are at this stop-light at this exact moment, except you, of course.

So, you would turn to find a man in, of course, a white van with no markings and no windows past the front two.
(Is anyone else immediately terrified by this kind of vehicle?)
And the man would be literally leaning out his window toward your car and saying "No air conditioning?" while he actually could be driving ahead and not holding up traffic because he has a green light.

You, who are turning left, do not have a green light, and must stay right where you are and carry on a civil conversation with this man, so you say "Nope, no air conditioning."

He proceeds to say "I'm so sorry about that."
You just say "I'm fine" and glance significantly at the light just in case, in all this time that he's been sitting here, he hasn't noticed that the light is green.
He finally gets the message and drives on.

Okay.  What would you do at this point?  I immediately looked around the inside of my car to make sure nothing was missing.  Am I too paranoid?  Is that crazy?
I mean, that poor man was probably just wanting to be nice and friendly.  But he was holding up a line of traffic at a green light . . . Just in order to be nice and friendly?
I don't know.  It was weird.  But every time I have an encounter like this, I leave it feeling like I am entirely too suspicious of people in general and need to have more faith in humanity . . . And work on my "I-am-a-strong-and-confident-woman-and-you-shouldn't-even-think-about-messing-with-me" look.

Some Questions

Why is it that running errands makes me feel ridiculously grown up?
I mean, I practically am grown up (although I discovered the other day that I can't rent a car) but really, I feel like even when I'm forty-five, I'll feel incredibly grown up when I have to "run to the grocery store" or "swing by the post office."
Actually, will there even be post offices when I'm forty-five?  I sure hope so.

Is anyone else obsessed with the numbers on their odometer?





Oh you're not?  Well, you have to admit that it was pretty cool that I caught both of these.
Or am I the only one excited about this?


Okay.  That's all.  Just some ramblings for you.

Why I Love Kids

I was laying here on my bed balancing my checkbook against my bank statement, and one of the littles who stays in my house frequently sat next to me for a little while and observed what I was doing.  She watched me from all angles, dramatically craning her neck around to get an exact image in her head of what I was doing, then left.
About five minutes later she came back with a piece of paper that had scribbles of various sizes, and the exact notations I use on my bank statement.
She showed it to me and said, "See, Esther. You gave me the idea."
Then, when she ran out of space to write anymore on that paper she went to get a new one with the words "I need to go get another bank account."
And she sat concentrating solely on that bank account for much longer than I concentrated on mine.

This

made me incredibly happy today.  I actually drove home in it with the windows down.  We needed this so much.
Thank you Jesus for answering our prayers!

About Two Weeks Ago

Christa and I road tripped it across the Muddy Mississippi and the Chattahoochee (and countless other rivers with less memorable names) and a few states to visit the lovely Wilson family.

Seriously some of my favorite people.

It was possibly the best vacation I've ever taken, mostly because we didn't have any sort of schedule, although we did have a list of things to do.  We slowly checked each item off our list, but didn't feel rushed or anything.  The lack of a rushed feeling may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that there was a small child in our company who required two naps a day in his own home, so that forced ("forced" here should be read as "allowed") us to have lots of rest time.  It was fantastic.

In fact, we had so much fun that we completely forgot the biggest goal for the trip.  We had spent months saying there was no way we would get this close to the East Coast and not see it.  Well, we realized when we stopped in Montgomery, AL for lunch that we hadn't even thought about going to the coast the whole time we were there.
We were just having too much fun!

And now, without further ado, let me present you with some pictures.

Two cheerful girls in a car.  Don't worry, we're at a stop light, I promise!



The Big River



The lovelies we visited . . . Hope Brett doesn't mind the term . . .



The first two things we met at Ft. Benning: a fantastic Sunset and some awesome Fireworks





I was quite impressed with the talents of the Georgian sky.
And then we went to the boardwalk in Columbus on the actual Fourth of July for a little festival action.
The view from the Boardwalk was so pretty, I couldn't resist capturing it.





We decided it was definitely a good plan to return for the fireworks, so we loaded up and went to a fancy restaurant and then found the perfect spot from which to watch the fireworks . . .



Or so we thought.



Turns out there was a giant building in our way because the fireworks were not, in fact, over the river as we thought they would be.  Plus, three of us were stuck elsewhere looking for funnel cakes.  So when the giant human stampede came past, we were rather separated and concerned about each other.
Oh, you mean I didn't mention the fact that about a hundred people came running past us during the fireworks screaming that there was a gun?
Well, they did.
Yeah, the second fireworks show definitely didn't out-do the first . . .
Although there was a beautiful old train running on a bridge above us as we walked back to the car . . .



And then, the next morning, we took a lovely walk around the base (well, not the whole thing because it is HUGE) and I found such lovely things as Rainbow Street and this community-ish tire swing.  I really couldn't find a single house with which the swing was connected!





Later that day we visited this FANTASTIC museum which I definitely want to go to again.  It was too dark inside to take many pictures, but it had several galleries, one dedicated to each major war the infantry has participated in.



In the entrance there is this statue, whose name I cannot remember. Joe, maybe?  Anyway, he's a famous real live infantryman and he's shouting "Follow Me!" which is the infantry's slogan or something.



That evening, Christa and I babysat this little cutie so his parents could go out on a little date . . . to Walmart (oh, and an Indian food place).





Then, the next day we watched some guys (and girls) jump out of planes.





And then we went to another museum.  This time the Civil War Naval Museum.  It was incredible!  I'm a little bit of a Civil War Buff, but I'd never really learned much about the Navy.  Man, the things they could do on the water back then were amazing!
We went on a real Ironclad



And Ransom read the information to us



With a little slapping of the signage for emphasis.