Yesterday I came home and my daughter came running up to me to say hi.

Immediately I noticed something was different about her. Part of her eyebrow was missing! About a quarter of an inch from the inside, on one eye only. She hadn't looked like that since she got into the Nair when she as about 2 years old!

But now she's 9, and what the...? I asked her if she'd done it with a razor, and she said no, she'd used tweezers from the drawer in the bathroom. I asked her why and she just shrugged.

My efforts to get to the bottom of it have been useless. I tried again later, asking what had motivated her to do it. She just shrugged. I asked if she had noticed that she'd gone to far, and she said no. I asked if she thought it looked good, and she again shrugged.

So finally I started complaining that we are just about to go on a short cruise with people I work with, and now my daughter's going to look funny.

She just said, "Sorr-eeee!"

Argh.

The other day a fireman cut in front of me.

He was just turning on his lights and no siren. I asked Josie, "Why are firemen always so cute?"

She said, "It's because they keep in good shape, Mom. Not like policemen. Don't even get me started!"

What?

Trying not to laugh, I said, "What do you mean?"

She said, "They eat a lot of doughnuts!!"

File under: Cute things the kids do

I was surprised to see how many people are up very early in the morning.

We told the driver which highway to take, and we were about to get onto it when suddenly the driver saw a sign for a different freeway to the right, so he decided to go that way instead. He said, "I think this goes there."

I must have been delirious, or maybe I was just so happy to be headed in the right direction, because I seemed to get into a pretty good mood. "Don't worry," I assured him after he realized his mistake, "this goes there too." And luckily he beleived our directions after that.

So we did get home after going about 20 minutes out of our way. We had planned to leave it at a nearby dealership, but when we got there the entrance was blocked and there was only 2-hour parking on the street. Plus we didn't actually know how we were going to get home from there, so we asked the driver to take us the rest of the way up the hill and just park it at our house.

And I don't think the driver really wanted to, but he felt a little bad about taking us so far astray, and so he drove us all the way home.

HOME! I was finally (FINALLY!) home! I was SO happy to get there, even if it was about 6 in the morning. And I don't think I was even tired anymore, because it took us a little while to calm down and unwind, and we finally went to bed at 7 am.

Funny, that's when I usually get up!

This turned out to be the day I stayed up all night.

And all I wanted to do was get home and spend some time with my hubby before he had to go to work!

When we left the airport, it was probably around 3:30am. It was raining, but not many people were on the road. We came through downtown, which looked misty, and got into the left lane of the 110 so we could exit to the 5 north. We came around a turn and suddenly there was something in the road! At first I thought it was a street sign. You could barely see it because of the mist and the darkness.

K swerved right to avoid it, but we still hit it and I think we drove over it, because after that our right tire was history and we were bouncing along on our rim and the bottom of the van!

As soon as it happened, I was bummed about two things. First, I knew we weren't getting home anytime soon, and second, that might be "it" for my van. My dad had been telling me to get rid of my collision coverage on it because the van wasn't worth much.

But it was worth a lot to me, and I was bummed to see it get so damaged. K had pulled back over to the left, and we got out and looked at it. K was upset, and kept saying, "Man! This van is MESSED UP!" and "What was that thing?" I immediately started calling AAA, and was told they'd be there in 20 minutes.

Oddly enough, the police showed up right after it happened. We told them about the pole we hit, and I advised them to put out some cones or something as other people might hit it too! Well, they seemed to be doing something else (maybe reporting back to dispatch) and sure enough, other people started coming along and hitting it too!

I guess it turned out to be a street light. Every person that hit it seemed to knock it further and further out into traffic. Three people pulled up behind us because they'd hit it too. The guy behind us hit his grill, which seemed oddly high. The third guy looked hispanic, and he just sat there looking stunned. His front bumper was bent forward at an angle, sort of like an "L". I tried asking him if he was OK, but he didn't respond - he just sat there. Later I saw him just drive away.

At first I was afraid to get hit by other cars on the highway, but then I realized that the pole was sort of blocking for us, because people had to drive clear to the right lane to miss it. The flares the police put out helped too.

The flares made a bright barrier, but cars were still having accidents as one person would swerve to miss it and hit someone else. There were quite a few accidents that night because of that light pole. No wonder we didn't see it - it was dark because the street light fell down!

One of the cops that showed up first was pretty cute, but he kept saying the most negative things! I heard him telling the guy behind us that he shouldn't report it to his insurance agency because they'll blame him for hitting the pole! Later I went up to the guy behind us myself and told him that what the cop had said didn't sound right. So we exchanged names so we could be witnesses for each other and about all the other people that didn't miss the pole either! Also that cop told us that our car was driveable - I think he just wanted us to leave! I thought he was crazy, because the rim was even bent!

Finally another police car came, and they pulled the pole off the road I guess, and the flares started burning a little low. All the other cars drove away, and we were the only ones left (waiting for a tow.) Those last poor cops trying to clear the highway were dealing with a bunch of boneheads that night, though, because one driver just stopped and looked at him, like, "Am I supposed to stop here?" and the cop shined his flashlight on him and yelled, "Drive!"

They made their way to us and finally told us to drive off to the nearest exit. So I guess the first cop was right about that. Unfortunately. I'd eagerly watched every car and truck that came through, but the only tow truck was already carrying a car and wasn't the company name the dispatcher gave me. I had my phone in my pocket, but somehow standing out in the rain I didn't hear it, so I had to call AAA back and request another tow truck. The first company claimed we weren't there or something - I never really understood.

Anyway, we ended up right by a bunch of little apartment buildings. The "new" AAA guy showed up pretty quickly, but spent a long time in his vehicle after he showed up. I finally started to get mad - why would nobody hurry up or help us tonight? I asked what he was doing and he said, "Just a MINUTE, Ma'm!" and I finally cried a little bit. K said I looked so sad with my mascara running down my face.

But I guess I got it out of my system, because I didn't get any madder when it took him 45 minutes to figure out he couldn't tow our van because the axle was jacked - he then called for a flatbed. This guy also showed up pretty quickly, and helped the first guy get our van onto the flatbed. Then we climbed aboard the tow truck for our ride home.

It probably was about 5am by then.

My trip was fine until I came home!

I had lots of fun seeing my family in Denver and looking at potential properties. It's always fun to look, I think. It was hard to squeeze in the work (my regular work) I did there, but I managed to get some other things done, too.

Friday I went out to lunch with Mom mi hermanas. I love Vietnames noodle bowls they have there, and I haven't found anything similar in LA. Yum! Mom didn't like her food much. Driving home M was following us, and I needed to tell her something, so I stuck my arm out the window and waved my open cell phone, so she'd know to answer it! When I called she said, "I got your message!" I packed and worked online and pretty soon it was time for dinner and then time to go!

I'd booked a late flight, but getting in at 11:20 pm wasn't TOO bad. Well, when I got to the airport, the flight had already been delayed to LEAVE at 11:20. For some reason we had to wait for a pilot from Chicago, and they were running late. The plane didn't leave until 1:30am, and I arrived in LA at 3:00am!

It wouldn't have been so boring if even one of my family had been there. I hunkered down and read nearly half of the new Michal Connelly book (it's good, but he's one of my favorite authors.)

There was a bunch of us waiting, some had it worse than I did. One lady was somehow bumped from her flight to Burbank, but her bags were still going there! A lot of them seemed to have been on a previous flight together.

Everyone on the plane was really tired by the time we boarded, so the lights went out and I cuddled under my coat (it was cold on that plane!) I'd been planning to request a free drink for all the delay, but I was too tired. I think I slept, but it was the kind of sleep where you're mind's so active that you think you're not sleeping. But you have to be because the time goes by pretty quickly.

We finally landed and stumbled toward the baggage claim area. It seemed like it took forever for our bags to come out. I was gettng really annoyed with United that night.

K was right there and we hugged and said hi, and a cop was right there to start writing him a ticket! So he had to go around the airport about 3 times (because the bags took so long), and I was really getting annoyed with the ticket cops because, for crying out loud, it was 3:00 IN THE FREAKING MORNING!! Give a person a break, already!

That seemed so late, but it turned out to be just the start of our adventure that morning.