Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Runaway Schedule

Sometimes your schedule seems to have a mind of its own. When that happens to us our life often becomes a series of “drive-by” experiences. This last weekend was one of those times. We were planning on leaving for a road trip on Monday so, instead of packing our bags, we mistakenly packed our schedule.

Friday morning (June 19), we rise, breakfast and leave for Oceanside beach to celebrate Rachel Bushrow’s 13th birthday. We love the beach and we love Rachel so there is no question about attendance. No problem, we’ll pack later. After a day at the beach, we return home to clean up and pack. Or so I thought. I forgot about a long planned trip to Tommy’s in LA with Dino (friend and brother-in-law). I’m pretty tired at this point, but this would be Joseph’s first Tommy-burger….OK so Tommy’s is a go. 10pm, Joseph, Dino, Lee (long time Dino friend) and I leave to fill ourselves with indigestible joy. After a midnight return to home, a couple of Tums to take the edge off, it was time for a short nap and up again on Saturday.

No time to pack on Saturday. Since we would be busy on Sunday, Julie and the kids prepared breakfast in bed for me to have an early father’s day celebration. They gave me sausage, fruit, coffee and juice. The fruit was just the thing to help my internal organs try to process the aftermath of the Tommy burger. Oh yea, our friends from Tennessee are visiting and this is the only time we will be able to see them. After a flurry of phone calls we decide to meet in Cerritos. Then after another flurry of phone calls they decide to come to our house. ...time to transition into pre-guest mode (vacuuming, dusting, dishes, sweeping, food check, etc.). Our guests arrive with more guests. The party grows and is a lot of fun but we need to leave. We have tickets for a production of “Sound of Music” featuring my little sister Cassie. She is mother abbes and the show starts at 2:00pm. The daughter of another friend, Janie Green, is also in the production. It’s 1:30 and the pizza arrives. Decision time!








Well we leave the party at our house to go to the play. We are sorry we can’t spend more time with our friends but Cassie does not disappoint. During the production, I was thinking that Cassie’s acting was really good. Then, she sang, “Climb Every Mountain” and absolutely nailed it. This isn’t just brother/relative bias, when that last note was released the house erupted. Cassie, you were simply remarkable!! That’s my sister people!! Yea baby!
















OK, so back to the 21st century, where was I? Oh yea, afterwards we went to the Joseph house to celebrate the Cassie talent, oddly enough, without Cassie…go figure. After some good food, comedy and family sarcasm, we returned home to pack. I was too tired to pack and Julie came to me and said, “What do you think about letting the girls sleep in tomorrow?” “I wish we could but we are visiting a supporting church and I’m giving the message. We’ll pack tomorrow.”

Well Sunday morning comes quick. We get ready go to church, have a good time at church and return home. Let’s pack, oh wait…we planned to go to Chuck and Lois’s house to celebrate father’s day and we still need to burn Chuck’s DVD (his father’s day gift). I sit down to burn the DVD and realize the DVD burner is not working. Two hours later, the CD is ready and we leave for Fullerton. We enjoy some more good food and family comedy and return home at 11:00pm. No we have to pack because we leave tomorrow morning. OK, so this time we have to stay up late and pack. Will we make it and if we do, will we be able to drive? Did I mention that Julie has a doctor’s appointment at 8:00am?