After.

By now, I've told this story to enough people that I am sick of it. But for those of you who have not gotten my late-night phone calls, taken a 3-mile run with me, been trapped in a car with me on the way to visit teach or stayed after a pack meeting to chat with me, I'll fill you in on how we went from being way pumped up to majorly deflated.

We strolled out of the Q with confidence, knowing that we wouldn't have a long walk to the car...you know, with the free parking pass and all. Up a couple stairs, and hey look--there's the car! Wow, I didn't realize it was this close! Wait. That can't be our car. Our car is perfect, beautiful, and less than six months old!!! No, this car with the front bumper hanging off has to belong to someone else.

Except that it was our car.

Let's make this long story short.

We had backed in to the parking spot. Some doofus was backing out of his spot and slammed into our car. And then proceeded to leave. That's right, folks. Hit-and-run.

Fortunately, as some guy was helping Glenn completely remove the bumper so that we could get home, a parking attendant walked up. Said he'd seen who did it and flagged him down, and that the perp was waiting down below. Awesome.


Waiting, waiting, and more waiting...and finally we exchanged info with the guy, who muttered some lame story about how he was sorry and that there was not place for him to pull over, so that's why he left.

Um, excuse me? You hit someone while backing out of your parking spot? You pull right back in, dude. You then wait for the person to come to their car, or you leave a flippin' note at very least. Seriously. And by the way -- stop talking. We're filing reports and writing your address down here. Just keep your mouth shut!

Finally...finally!...we were headed home, only to find out as soon as we got on the Innerbelt Bridge that something was dragging and we had to pull off on W. 14th so that Glenn could jerry-rig it together with bungy cords. And may I insert here that W. 14th street in Cleveland is not necessarily where you want to be at midnight.

The next morning I called the insurance company, and yada yada yada, the car's in the shop waiting for an adjuster to look at it and I have a snazzy 2010 Camry to drive around for who knows how long.

When all's said and done, it could have been a whole lot worse. No one was hurt, we got the jerk who did it, and there's nowhere all six of us have to go all at the same time in the next couple weeks. It's just a royal pain...that I have had to create time for in my usual impossible schedule. It's just dealing with the aftermath.

Can we just go back to the way things were before?

Before.

11:25 am. Monday. Just about to head out to work. I get a phone call from Glenn.

"I won tickets to the Cavs game tonight. In a suite. With a parking pass. My first question is...Do you want to come with me?"

Let me think about that for a minute. Um, YES!!!

"My second question is...can you call my parents to see if they can take the kids?"

With one phone call, it was a done deal.

Glenn's parents took the kids home from our CiCi's fundraiser, and Glenn and I headed downtown.

Every other time I have gone to a Cavs game, I took escalator after escalator to the upper reaches of the Q to get to my seats. Not this time. We got to take the elevators. And we went down.

I knew how exciting Cavs playoff games are, but to watch one from this close...
...well, let's just say that I was worried I might cry more than once.

I finally got to see my boy Shaq...
...and we even got to hang out before the game.

The suite was so cool...I didn't even have to leave it to use the restroom! There were hot dogs and hamburgers (which actually weren't all that great...good thing I had filled up on pizza and cinnamon rolls at CiCi's), popcorn and peanuts. And in the 3rd quarter, someone came around with a dessert cart.

Why, oh why couldn't I take more than one? Maybe because by the end I was forcing the last couple bites down just based on principle.

As we were cheering and screaming and celebrating the Cavs' victory (and our free chalupas), I couldn't help but think that this night may just have made my "best day" list. It was perfect in every way...


but one.

Lifesaver.

Never have I been more grateful my my children's latest obsession with Monopoly. I have spent all afternoon on the phone with insurance agents and rental car companies, but my future real estate tycoons haven't missed me at all. Watch out, Donald Trump!

I promise to be forthcoming
with the details you are craving,
just as soon as my stomach stops churning
every time I think about last night's events...

Detour.

Thought my next post would be about this:

But first I have to take care of this:

With a new lawn mower comes a new lawn mow-er.

Things I learned on our trip to Washington D.C.

• A road trip in a new van is awesome.

• The Duggars must have super-human parent powers. They have almost five times as many kids as we do, and they don't seem stressed out at all when they go on their big-city field trips.

• Once kids (read: Brooke) find all the items from the "Battle of the Smithsonian" movie, they're done.

• Despite the huge (and by huge, I mean HUGE) crowds, you can still find a nice British lady who offers to take a family picture that has no extra people in it.

• The National Gallery of Art is a great place to get in trouble, be it standing too close to a painting, or bouncing on the moving sidewalk from the west building to the east.
  
• When you have to stand way far back in order to get the entire Capitol Building in the picture, you can't really tell that not all children are looking at the camera.
• If you decide to cool off in a fountain near the capitol, a policeman on a bike will tell you to get out.
• Andrew was really looking forward to seeing the Supreme Court Building. (Apparently it came up in class.)
• It stinks when you have to stand on the Metro after a loooooong day of walking.
  
• I would not make a good paparazo. Especially when the object of desire is this: (Remember those crowds I talked about? Out of control in the Museum of Natural History.)

• Yes. She's still there.

• When kids take over the camera, they tell the true story...that even parents need to rest after all that walking.

• This was as close as we were going to get to the south side of the White House.

• All those crowds were worth it to see the cherry blossoms.

• Meerkats, otters, prairie dogs, and even giant pandas are funny.

• Cleveland has a pretty darn awesome zoo.

• There's a National Postal Museum. Go figure.

• Watching General Conference at the Washington D.C. temple on Easter is pretty cool.

• Sometimes when you pick a pizza place randomly from the GPS recommendations, it's some of the best pizza you've ever had.

• Things Andrew wants to be buried with: Nother one bainty, Footprint, his basketball hoop and basketball. Arlington National Cemetery provokes interesting discussions.

• This thing is enormous.

• When you're feet are killing you, when you don't think you can go another step, when you just want to stop but you have so much farther to go, the thing that makes the journey easier is doing it together.

Imagine...

...waking up each morning and eating a hot breakfast. Not one you made, no. One made for you. Eggs, potatoes, pancakes, french toast, chocolate chocolate chip muffins, cereal. Something different every day. With a full belly you're driven to a place where you can leisurely roam and explore and show your kids lots of new things. There are no deadlines or schedules, meetings or appointments. In fact, when you return home after a full day of adventure, the mess you left behind is gone. Vanished. In fact, the couple of dishes you used to make sack lunches (the only thing you did even remotely resembling work) are even put in the dishwasher for you. No early morning exercise, no worrying about calorie intake, no phone, and no internet.

Sound like a dream?

It was my reality for the past five days.

I'll share the whole thing with you soon.