Thursday, September 29, 2011

Interesting Day

Bright & early Tuesday, very early, the phone rang.  The last time this happened was Thursday and Sarabeth called to say she'd been in an accident.  I don't like phone calls when I am tucked so cozily in my bed, dreaming happy thoughts.

This phone call was urgent, but not scary.  Ethan was sick and Christina had no one to watch him.  She could not skip out on her clinicals.  I said I would come, but at that moment I could not compute how long it would take me.  The drive normally takes 1 hour and 5 minutes if all is well.  If there is traffic or bad weather the leisurely drive becomes very long.  This estimation does not include actually getting out of bed, and becoming coherent enough to get myself together.  Five hours of sleep is not nearly enough for me.

Upon arriving, Ethan seemed to be doing quite well thanks to a dose of Tylenol.  Unfortunately, it was the last of it, so I figured in a bit, we'd go to the store and buy some more.  I told Ethan that we would go to Target and get him some more medicine, but I didn't no where the store was located.  He immediately picked up a picture of a Transformer.

"Ttttt..." and he pointed to his chest, "E...e...e..."  I understood.
"Ethan, grandma doesn't know where the Target store is.  I will look it up on the internet and see if I can find one.  IF I can find the store, and IF they have the Transformers Autobot Rachet, I will buy him for you."

I couldn't remember my daughters address, but was hoping the one I picked was the closest.  It's hard to google directions without an address.  When I tried with the street name, the directions claimed to take over an hour to get there.  That couldn't be right.  We got in the car and I hoped Ethan might know the way, haha.

At the end of his street, I thought I should turn right to get to the main road.  "Ethan, which way do I turn to get to Target?"  He immediately pointed to the left.  He again repeated his plea for, "T...t...t" and I assured him we'd look for Transformers.  We wound around a few roads, and at every turn, Ethan would sit up straighter in his seat and begin pointing.

One particular street was more like a highway, with the speed limit of 55.  No stores were visible and as I drove along, I thought there was no way this could be the right way.  We were headed to no-wheres-ville.  Up over a hill, Ethan sat up, jabbered something and pointed.  Sure enough, there was Target.

As I turned the car off, Ethan said something resembling "good job" and high-fived me.  What an exciting day!  We did find Autobot Rachet. I received another high-five.

I should have remembered the way home, but we came in on a one-way street.  Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I started to turn back the way we came.  I was immediately corrected with gestures and verbal cues.  Ethan had to direct me back to his house.  I was pretty excited about this.  He fooled me into believing he doesn't pay such close attention to details.