In The Rain

Both Elise and I will admit that we have had a string of bad luck upon our arrival in DC....a trip to the Washington Monument that--though we got a few great shots of Sam holding a red white and blue popsicle--ended up with me forgetting to put in one of the white plastic discs that keeps the water from leaking out of Pete's bottle and Pete screaming his head off all the way home on the orange line....a nightmarish trip to Ikea that went until 9 at night.....and a trip to Tysons Corner where Sam threw up all over himself (again), where we ate dinner at Sbaro and got to go into only one store. This blog is here to remember the bad along with the good.

But I think the tide is starting to turn.

A day or two ago, I got off work early. It was misting, so Elise picked me up at work and we were going to drive to an indoor play gym she had heard of, so Sam could jump around and burn off a little energy. Pulling out of McDonalds, we hit a curb and got a flat tire. For some reason, a sense of calm descended over the car. We drove on the rim to the play gym. Elise, presciently, had brought a change of clothes. I switched out of my suit like Superman in a phone booth. We had no reason to believe Sam wasn't going to throw up or that either of us had remembered Pete's bottle or that we didn't have a spare, jack or lug wrench. But we didn't panic.

I say our luck is turning because we did have a spare, had the locks removed just prior to leaving Florida, had a jack and a lug wrench, a bottle for Pete, fries for Sam. The play gym closed, but Elise and Sam and Pete waited for me in Starbucks while I changed the flat. Elise had no reason to believe I knew how to change a flat, but she went along with the plan. 15 minutes later, I walked into Starbucks, grease under my fingernails and wet parking lot on my jeans. I had changed the flat and saved the day! :)

Something went wrong. Lots of things have gone wrong. But we fixed it and didn't panic and did the grocery shopping we had to do and ended up having a great night. Sam saw some kids taking tae kwon do and now runs around the house going "Hiyaaa!".