How to Waste a Friday Evening...

Five thirty rolls around on Friday evening and I bluntly remember that I did not go get that prescription refill that I needed to get...shit!

Quickly shower, gather up the boy and b-line it for Costco...on the other side of town... So, we find a nice parking place, turn off the engine and I go to grab my Costco card and realize that both my Costco card and debit card are NOT in my purse...could of gone and had a replacement membership card printed at customer service, but the only CC I am carrying is NOT the ONE CC that they accept at Costco...fuck. fuck. fuck.

Get back in the car, realize that the child has coloured all over his shorts with his pen...confiscate pen and paper...child starts screaming...threaten to drive home and send child to bed...child exit's screaming mode...drive back home...all the way across town, with a permanently furrowed brow!

Run into the house, grab Costco card, debit card and new pants for child...drive back across town...

So, we shop for fruit, get suckered into buying a case of spicy noodles that were being given out in free, yummy, samples, make our way through the checkout, and go feast on pizza and ice cream at the food court, where we ran into a friend's four gorgeous, teenage kiddos that I used to babysit when I was a teenager and they were all in diapers...am I that old already?

Picked up damn prescription, made our way out to the car and had an impromptu conversation with a total stranger that pulled in beside us as we were unloading our cart...total stranger was wondering why my five year old was in a booster seat...total stranger got the mini speech about the physics of seat belts:

"Children with 4-8 year-old-sized bodies are often (a) EJECTED from the vehicle and KILLED or (b) injured by a seat belt that fails to stay put on their pelvis and/or shoulder bones, causing crushing injuries to soft abdominal organs (and often spinal injuries) and/or injuries to the neck and face in a collision. Children in this body size category are the MOST LIKELY (4x more than any other age group) to be INJURED or KILLED in a car accidents. This is because they are so often in a SEAT BELT ONLY, which is designed for ADULT SIZED BODIES. BOOSTER SEATS SOLVE THIS PROBLEM and MAKE SEAT BELTS WORK the way they are supposed to."

...stranger thanked me for the information; he had wondered if it was worth buying a booster seat for his 3.5 year old who had nearly outgrown her car seat, and now knew why he should...blah.

We drove home and put away our groceries and I am now getting ready to pull an all nighter studying while the boy sleeps.

Lesson 1: Delaying making a doctor's appointment to get a damn prescription refill can lead to a waste of an entire evening and a quarter tank of gas!

Lesson 2: Not emptying pockets of pants before throwing them in the hamper, thus not returning cards to wallet, can lead to an impromptu trip home for said cards.

Lesson 3: All Nighters Suck...when they involve Calculus...

And, kids under 4'9" require booster seats when riding in cars.

The End.