The Wonderful Smell of Gasoline
This is the real story of the day of the Spring Fling. I think that’s how I’ll describe it when I look back on March 23, 2012, when I’m old and my children aren’t at home anymore and I’m remembering things we did together.
First, let me tell you a little about the week leading up to the day of the Spring Fling dance at the elementary school.
It was a very busy week for me at work. I’m an accountant, and it was the end of our fiscal period and quarter, so that’s always a busy time. I also had more meetings than usual that took me away from regular work during the week, so I felt like I was constantly behind, even after staying late.
In addition to Monday night’s run to hip hop class for Jenny, I had a PTA Board Meeting on Tuesday night that went a bit too long and kept me away from my family for a second night. And I’d already agreed to volunteer at the school dance Friday night. So I probably shouldn’t have agreed to take Jenny to the midnight premiere of the Hunger Games movie Thursday night, especially because we had school and work the next day, but I did.
So, it’s finally Friday. The day of course started at midnight with the Hunger Games premiere. It was fun. I already talked about it here. I went to sleep around 3:15 and got up at 5:45 with the baby. So I think it’s understandable that I started my day a little tired.
I had a busy day at work, but I was very excited that an afternoon out of town meeting had been cancelled so I’d have no trouble getting home in plenty of time to help the girls get ready for the dance that started at 6:30. Right? Wrong. I got a call at 4:59 at work that required me to stay a bit late. I shouldn’t have answered, but once I did, it was too late. I called the family to let them know I would be late and they should go ahead and get ready.
I knew we could still make it in time to the dance if I timed everything just right. I got out of work at 5:40 and drove through McDonald’s for a healthy dinner on the way home so that everyone would be able to eat. I got home about 6:05, with dinner, and handed over the food. The girls were already ready, and their friends hadn’t arrived yet. Plenty of time to get to the dance at 6:30, right?
Actually I decided we should take a few extra minutes and leave at 6:30. I told them it would be cool to be fashionably late. I changed clothes, cleared out the back of the car so I could put up the third row seat to fit the friends we were bringing with us and got the baby changed. And we still had time to take a few pictures.
When we got in the car, I remembered that I was almost out of gas and decided to stop at the gas station because I’d hate to run out of gas with five kids in the car (or any other time really). I told the girls we were making a quick stop, and then we’d be on our way.
I have one of those gas caps that doesn’t attach anywhere when it’s off, so I always set it on top of my tire so the wind doesn’t blow it away. I was rushing a bit so we wouldn’t be too late. I unscrewed the gas cap and went ahead and started pumping the gas, then leaned down to set down the gas cap. It fell to the ground and busted into three pieces, but that’s okay. It does that sometimes. What doesn’t normally happen is this: I leaned down to pick up the pieces of the gas cap, and my fat butt hit the fuel dispenser, knocking it out of my car and since I’d of course locked it into dispensing position, spraying fuel all over the back of my clothes. Great. I decided to stop getting gas at that point. We certainly had enough to go to the gas station.
The girls managed not to see any of what was happening outside of the car because they were having a great time rocking to some loudJackson5 music. I hopped in and told them we needed to take one quick detour back to the house so I could change clothes again because I might smell a bit like gasoline. They agreed since the fumes were immediately filling the car. I rolled down the windows, turned up the music, and headed home.
I ran in the house (sort of – I never actually run), changed my clothes, and headed back out after a quick stop to tell Lee why I was there. I believe he knew since he could smell the gasoline. I suspect I probably still smelled a little like gasoline because of what got through to my skin, but no one said anything if I did.
Even though I felt like all of these things were a sign that I just needed to go home and sleep, we headed on to the dance, and we made it there at about 6:45, fashionably late. And everyone had a good time. And after the dance, and after sending Jenny off with a friend to see the Hunger Games again at 10:00 that night because she has endless energy, I finally got a good night’s sleep.
Linking up for Yeah Write #50:
Spring Fling
Last night was the Spring Fling dance at the elementary school. I’ll write more about the comedy of errors leading up to it later, but we did eventually make it there. Here’s a fun picture of the girls and their friends before the dance (and before the rain):
Here’s how Brinky spent the majority of the dance:
Looks like fun, right? You can understand why Reagan’s been so excited about spring, can’t you?
Smart Girls #iPPP
Both girls had the most awesome report cards yesterday – really the best they’ve ever had. Jenny had straight A’s – especially impressive for the second quarter of her first year in the academically gifted program. And she had the highest score in her grade on the reading end of quarter test. And Reagan had 4′s (above grade level) in the main subjects. Normally we don’t see 4′s so early in the year, so that was impressive, too. Lee and I were almost speechless because we were so impressed. We told them that the report cards were so good they could each pick dinner on separate nights this week. Reagan picked Olive Garden (to go – because we don’t actually like eating in restaurants with three kids) for last night’s celebration dinner. Don’t they look excited?
At least Jenny’s happy about it. I’m not sure what Reagan’s trying to say with that face. And Dr. Dre definitely thought Olive Garden was a good choice. We’ll be having Jenny’s choice, Bojangles, tonight since the month long fast food ban officially ended yesterday. And it was successful – the entire family had no fast food for the month of January!
Other things happening in our household the past few days:
Jenny was sick this weekend. She had a low grade fever and a sore throat and runny nose. The obvious way to get better was to lay in bed all day for two days watching Harry Potter movies, even though she clearly could have gone to school on Monday. She put the sign above on her door (and yes, it’s covering a Katy Perry poster). Reagan pointed out that she spelled medicine wrong because she’s cool like that.
A piece of Reagan’s school artwork (the leave a bit above her head) was selected to be placed on display locally at a gallery at a college. Apparently there are 200 pieces of art selected out of all the elementary school art in the whole county (there are 25,000 students), so she was excited. We went to the artist recognition ceremony, and while we both acknowledged that it was a little boring, it was cool to see her art on display and to be recognized.
And Brinky’s exciting news this week? He discovered Just Dance on the Wii and he really can’t believe it. I couldn’t even get a decent picture of him dancing, especially with my phone, because he was moving too fast. Jenny and I were playing the game for a bit last night, and we quit, but didn’t turn off the Wii because that’s how we do. And Brinky found the Wii remote and pushed buttons until he managed to get a song started. And he danced. For a pretty long time. It was incredibly cute. But if you’re wondering, he didn’t wear himself out enough to actually sleep well. He was up from 1:00 to 2:30 in the night because that’s what he’s like.
Linking up with KLZ and Liz for #iPPP:
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