Thursday's Series of Unfortunate Events

I nanny on Thursdays from 7am-4pm. This past Thursday, I left the house at 6:30 with my coffee and my phone and drove through light snow to my employer's house. When I arrived, I realized that I had forgotten my purse. Shoot. I received a text from my employer while I was getting the kids ready for preschool. She asked me to take them out for lunch since the cleaners were coming; and let's face it, it's much easier to clean a house without three little hooligans running around and messing it up in a split second. I explained my forgotten wallet predicament to which she suggested that I take a check from her office and cash it at the bank. I loaded the munchkins in the vehicle and dropped them off at school. The needle on the gas gauge was holding steady on E.

I headed a mile or so down the road to my employer's bank to cash the check. No good. The teller explained to me that I could not cash the check without my ID. A verbal confirmation from my employer wouldn't cut it, either. She suggested that I try another bank (the one the check was from). I drove another mile to the second bank hoping I wouldn't run out of gas. I was denied yet again. Here I was in an empty gas-guzzler without a penny. Praying the whole way, I managed to drive back to my employer's house. The snow was falling more rapidly by the second. After telling my sob story to the cleaning lady who only speaks broken English, I decided that I would have to drive my car back to my house to get my wallet. It was the only way I would be able to put gas in the guzzler, pick the munchkins up from preschool, and be able to pay for their lunch. I had well over an hour to complete this task, so I figured I would be fine. I quickly brushed several inches of snow off my car. Then, I quickly brushed several inches of snow off my pants after a pretty epic wipeout. Since nobody else was there to laugh at my expense, I let out a few chuckles. Could the day really get worse? Don't ever ask that question. The answer is almost always, "yes."

I finally pulled into our driveway twenty minutes later than I had expected. The highway was getting pretty nasty, and I learned quickly that Spokane doesn't know the first thing about snow removal. They choose the "ignore it and hope the temperatures go up" option. I ran in the house, grabbed my purse, locked the door and jumped back in my car. "I still have fifty minutes," I thought, "I'm golden." haha. I slipped my shifter into reverse, pressed the gas, and didn't move an inch! The car was completely stuck in our slightly sloped driveway. Ten minutes and a twenty point turn later, I was inching my way back to my employer's house to switch vehicles, get gas, and pick up the kiddos. I had to call their preschool teacher because I was a good fifteen minutes late picking them up. Moral of the story: do not ever forget your wallet because you will not be able to cash a check, you will almost run out of gas, you will be forced to drive in terrible weather conditions, and you will take an epic fall in the snow.

I should also mention that it took an hour and a half for me to drive 15 miles home that afternoon. It was a good time. Fortunately, hubby came to the rescue and switched vehicles with me downtown so I wouldn't have to attempt the steep south hill in my little Malibu. Trust me, a car named after a warm sunny place is probably not going to be a beast in the snow. The Bronco, on the other hand, definitely is.