Mestee Blogger

My sister and I both had to work on Monday. We were both in Londonderry for her birthday celebration on Sunday night and would be returning to Londonderry Monday night and staying over for the Fourth of July. I should also mention that we literally work across the street from each other in Needham, so it only made sense that we would carpool together from my parents' house on Monday morning. Right?

Sarah was concerned that we wouldn't get out of work at the same time, leaving the other person waiting around for a while. I told her that I didn't mind waiting if she had to work a little late, so she agreed to drive in together.

Part of this plan involved leaving my car with my Dad, who had agreed to take the car to the shop to get my air conditioning fixed while I was working. Just before we pulled onto the highway, Sarah's cell started ringing.

"I'm pretty sure we didn't forget anything," I told Sarah, before she reached towards the back seat to grab her phone. Just as we pulled onto the on ramp, I realized that I had accidentally remembered to bring something: my car keys. Sarah and I immediately realized that it was 7 miles to the next exit, where we would have to turn around, making both of us very late for work. My parents had another plan. They told us that my Mom was on her way, following us to exit 3. All we had to do was pull off the highway, leave the keys in a phone booth at the Exxon station at exit 3, then continue on our way to Needham. My Mom would be 10 minutes behind and grab the keys when she got there. There was one problem: the Exxon station at exit 3 appeared to no longer exist.

My Dad, knowing that Sarah and I are occasionally clueless behind the wheel, questioned me several times regarding the fact that the Exxon was no longer there. He decided to come up with Plan B:

"Okay, just drive under 93 and you'll see a..."

"Uh, Dad, Sarah just got back on the highway."

"Oh! What the hell?! This is a nightmare!"

At this point, I realized a few things were wrong.

1)My Dad generally doesn't yell.
2)His most common use of the word "hell" is when quoting my grandfather.
3)With his optimistic disposition, he rarely describes any scenario as a "nightmare".

In that one statement, he had broken all of these rules, which meant that not only was I sitting shotgun next to my sister who was mad at me for making her late to work, but I was talking on the phone with my Dad who had temporarily lost his cool with regards to our inability to follow instructions.

We ended up pulling off of exit 2, where I buried my car keys in some grass under a bench in front of the Holiday Inn for my Mom to pick up. Oh, like your family has never done this. Okay, they probably haven't. Thanks to Sarah's stunt driving, we both made it to work on time, my car got fixed, and my Dad was happy again...until I hit him off the top of the head with a water bottle the next day. I suppose a "Head's up!" would have been in order before tossing it to him grenade-style.
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