Whatcha gonna do?

Okay, so today I had a very good day with an old friend. Let me preface this by stating my sweet, baby, girl has left for Paris and left me at home childless. I would say this is the first time in nearly 21 years that I have been left without at least one child home for more than a couple of days! My heart is still beating and I am still breathing -- not dead yet. Anyway, it has been a pretty rough couple of days so I was so grateful that my dear friend from Utah came to visit.

Lena calls earlier in the day to make sure I am not going to flake out on our lunch (unfortunately, something I have been known to do), I tell her I have no intention of doing such a thing. Because she is driving in from the Bay Area, she offers to come and pick me up so we can have a little extra time to chat. She is supposed to be here 12...she calls around 11:40ish to tell me she is running a bit late...of course, that ol' Mormon Standard time!!! I laugh and tell her it is against the law to talk on your phone and drive in the state of California. WHAT?!?! We quickly hang up (Not really! I keep her on the line for a while until she starts to panic) Aside note here...I have this great picture of Lena getting a ticket outside of my house. She did not want to repeat that Kodak moment.. however, I would have LOVED it!!

Anyway, she gets here and we head off. I suggested Thai and she thought that sounded great! We talk of good times and laugh. We talk of not so good times, and end up laughing. We remember stupid things and laugh. We remember not to stupid things and end up laughing. We talk a bit of family and some issues we have, we are appalled at what the other has endured yet are willing to do anything we need for each other to make it better. The definition of a really, really good friend.

Okay..so here is the funny part of the story. We are going down a less traveled road in Stockton because frankly we are a bit lost. She probably found a couple of the worst roads in all of Stockton. We go down one road and she makes the car...well, she sort of makes the car fly! We laugh and I say, "Well, it's not your car!" (She had flown in from Utah and was using her brother-in-laws car). She commented that it had over 240,000, it had seen better days! We laugh. We stop at a gas station and have a three minute conversation about which side the tank filler upper is on. She finally gets the car filled up and we are headed back to my house.

Okay, so she drops me off and a little while later I get the following text, "Remember how we joked - its not my car, so....I am now sitting in a tow truck on the side of the freeway. Thought you'd get a good laugh. No pics, but still funny." I replied, "ROFLMAO!!!! What did you do? Shoulda got pics." She replied, "I know ROFL but what does the MAO stand for (funny here is that I am teaching her how to text, so I use these things as a lesson)? The radiator cracked-this time not my fault. Now just waiting for the tow truck to take it to my mom's house." I replied, "MAO = my @$$ off. The whole 'not my fault' thing cracks me up." She replied, "Glad you are laughing - just decided to get Quinn a radiator for his birthday gift. (Quinn would be the newborn baby of her sister, the reason for the trip). I replied, "'It's not my car'. LOL. Happy birthday, Quinn!!" She replied, "You are making me and my mom- she is waiting with me for the tow truck-laugh. So good to have someone to laugh with about the crazy stuff."

You may not be laughing...but as I sit here and write this, I have tears streaming down my cheeks! Thanks Lena for a great Monday!