Back to jumping in and out of my car!

On Friday, I happened to notice that the tags on my car expired the next day. I would’ve gone out to the DMV then and there to renew my tags, except that they were renovating the Eugene office and it was closed. I just didn’t have the time to go to the one in Springfield. So I was without a car over the weekend. On Monday, in late afternoon (as waiting at the DMV for HOURS usually goes), I had new tags on my car again. Yay! I could drive again!

And I was driving around last night to take care of a few things I couldn’t get done over the weekend. It felt GREAT to be driving again! (As much as I complain about having to constantly jump in and out of my car for some errand or another, I DO love to drive!)

But this morning, I was really starting to wonder if driving again was actually a good thing.

I had remarked on Facebook about how it was nice that I won’t have to deal with idiot drivers at the school parking lots for one day out of the week (yesterday). Well, as it happens, the first day I’m driving the kids to school again, I had to deal with one of them!

When I got to Jesse’s school this morning, I was in the parking lot behind another driver, who was giving someone room to pull out of their spot. I turned just to see a driver backing out of their spot – and almost right into my car!! I screamed and honked the horn at the same time. Thank God they stopped – if not, they would’ve hit the side of the car my son was sitting on!

The whole event was terrifying but, poor Jesse, he was scared to death. He sat there with his eyes and mouth open wide. We definitely gave each other a bigger hug than usual before he got out of the car and went into school!

Well, despite THAT incident, I kept driving today. I had more errands to run!

By the time it was dark and I thought I was in for the day, and just as I was about to relax for the night, I remembered that I promised I’d do something for Jennifer today. Hadn’t done it YET! I was tired from running around and it was already dark, but I decided to do this anyway. I told her I would do it, so I was going to do it! (Get a piece of her art she wants to enter in a contest scanned. A scanner is at the top of my Christmas list!) So I told her to help out with her brother, as her dad was in the bedroom sick, and I’d return shortly with her scan.

When I got to Office Depot, however, I noticed a big sign on the building: “Moving Sale.” Hmm, I thought, they’re moving? I hurried through the sprinkling of rain with Jen’s picture against my chest (didn’t want to get it wet!) and went inside to find a store stripped of practically almost everything. Wow, what a sight to see.

I also happened to notice the sign saying some Office Depot services were unavailable due to the pending move. I asked about the move and picked up a flyer with the new store location on it. And, unfortunately, scanning was not available because of the disassembling of equipment. (They are moving in 11 days!) I happened to notice a lot of stuff marked down and nodded in understanding. It was less stuff they’d have to pack if they could get rid of it! One of the items marked down was 500-sheet packages of paper. It was only $1.09!! Cool! I grabbed a couple (one for each of my kids) and paid for them. As I walked back out to the car, the drizzle was starting to turn into serious rain business. I clutched Jen’s art against my chest again and looked for my car.

Wow. I had the foresight to park all the way at the end of the parking lot!

I rolled my eyes and grumbled to myself Brilliant! as I hurried to my car. After I got in the car, I pondered what to do next in getting Jen’s picture scanned. I could go to the Kinko’s/Fed Ex store, but the last time I went there to get something scanned, the technician did a poor job because the scanned picture had the black bar faintly showing in the background. I really didn’t feel like driving downtown for a botched scan job! I would think of something.

I didn’t get Jen’s picture scanned, but at least I scored a sweet deal on paper. Nice way to end the day!


UPDATE:

The day after I posted this, I arrived at Jesse's school parking lot to find more school staff out there monitoring traffic (including the principal!) and more traffic cones set out. I felt A LOT safer driving through the parking lot because of these efforts! And it continued for the rest of the week, too. I am so relieved. It is a lot better now to get through all the traffic in dropping off and picking up of my son at the school. Also, on Thursday, Jesse forgot his jacket when school let out so we went back to the school and I instructed him to go through the special walking area they have set up on the parking lot that is just for people and it was safer for him to go this route to get to the school building from the parking lot. I just don't feel safe having him walk by himself through the parking lot when there are all these cars around. Well, he did this both ways and it was a lot safer for him. So from now on, I am going to try to park next to one of these two walking spaces and he can SAFELY walk to the school building without the danger of being hit by a car. I just hope drivers will remember to look behind them AND check their mirrors before pulling out of their parking spaces so they don't hit anyone behind them.