You may or may not remember the Journey concert my family had planned for last night. Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick were at the "Tweeter" center in Camden, NJ.

...

Carrie came down to Newark to have lunch with me yesterday. She had a craving for sweet potato fries and seeing as how I have never turned such a fry down, we decided to go to Iron Hill Brewery on Main Street and share the appetizer of said fries. Delicious!

The concert began at 7 p.m. so we left the house accordingly. With Brian's skills we made excellent time and then hit the crazy backed up concert traffic. There they were, hundreds of vehicles blaring Journey music while inching forward every so often just to get to the parking area.

I don't do well in moving objects. And the inching forward and stopping was the worst. Brian pulled up onto the scary sidewalk and out came the fries. Chunky sweet potato disaster!

After the under cover cops assaulted the main selling t-shirts two cars ahead of us my stomach did even more flip flops and Brian turned around to get me to a rest area. When we got back out on the highway a car accident completely stopped traffic on whatever highway we were on. We proceeded to follow the cars on their mass exodus in reverse down the ON ramp. Yes, that's right. Riding backwards down hill does wonders for the belly.

Bless his heart Brian was doing everything he could to safely get us to a place where I could release all the grossness building up in my body.

We ended up at Cooper University Hospital and I used their urine coated public restroom. An hour later...I realized there was no way in the world we were going to be able to battle the traffic back to the concert.

So while apologizing profusely and crying on the way home Brian assured me it was okay and there was nothing I could do. Eventually Braeden piped in and told me to stop apologizing because I didn't mean to get sick. How blessed am I to have such wonderful guys in my life!?

Needless to say, we missed the concert. And yes I feel wretchedly guilty about it, but there will be other shows in our future and I need to just suck it up.

There you have it and now I am on the mend from the crazy Camden and backwards driving!

Labels: blessings, brae, brian, carrie, concerts, drama, driving, health

Remember the recent squirrel incident?

I have another one to top it.

This morning while waiting at the stop sign leaving our development, Braeden noticed an animal on the side of the road. At first glance I thought it was a dead cat and I told Brae to just look away and that sometimes people have accidents when they are driving.

He insisted the animal was alive and so then I was wondering do I need to check on it, does it need help?

Brae and I continue to stare at this animal. It was about 20 feet away from the Jeep I suppose ($1520 I have the Jeep back).

Sure enough the animal lifted its head. I panicked. I didn't want to drive by an animal in need. But then I realized it wasn't an injured cat, it was a raccoon. And each time a cart drove by, on the road I was attempting to turn onto, this raccoon was raising its head and showing its teeth at the cars. It was down close to the ground, maybe even on its stomach, but almost in a pounce mode.

I didn't think anything of it until I heard the traffic report on WJBR a couple minutes later. The reporter was laughing and he said, "I have never heard something like this dispatched before, but apparently there is a rabid raccoon harassing drivers off of route 72 this morning."

ROFL.

It's not funny. So close to home this could be dangerous for the animals, and I have a dog. However, the radio reporter said animal control was on the way.

Oy! Vey!

I haven't seen this reported anywhere for me to link to it, but I swear I'm not making it up. Just another morning drive to day care folks. =o)

Labels: driving, raccoon

If you find yourself driving West down Denny Road today please note the squirrel in the ditch kissing the dirt. Said squirrel is not digging up or burying anything, don't be fooled, it is indeed kissing the dirt.

Why?

Because the MORON of a squirrel ran out in front of my Jeep this morning nearly causing me to swerve off the road due to the feeling of heart failure and pure shock of seeing an animal dart into my path.

Squirrel you lived this morning, but sooner or later your time will come. If ever you come back to life as something which can read this post, I want you to know that I know you saw me coming. My headlights were on and my Jeep doesn't blend into the road. Why? Why did you do it? Were you feeling lucky? Was there some other rodent coaxing you from the other side. Were you darting across the street to save another beast? Tell me. WHY! Why would you try to give me a heart attack when I'm already half asleep and driving Brae to day care. Hmm? Did you think about that? Did you think about how your actions would affect those around you?

No. Don't answer me. I don't want to hear a word of it. This conversation is not only over, but it never happened.

The end.

Labels: craziness, driving, squirrel

Yesterday was Jada's birthday. As you may or may not know, Jada is my brother's lovely girlfriend. Later this month is their two year anniversary. =o)

Yesterday also happened to be a terrible day for driving due to an inch of ice out on the roads. Even 495 ended up getting shut down going into Pennsylvania. Knowing how my Jeep is a magnet for crazy drivers you should also know another wipeout occurred directly in front of me on my ride to pick up Braeden yesterday afternoon. This time a silver Mustang spun out 10 feet in front of me and ended up facing the wrong way in the shoulder. How I didn't hit him is beyond me, but I'm glad my guardian angels were working overtime, as were the drivers.

Back to Jada. My brother is a hopelessly hopeful romantic. He is such the Casanova or Don Juan of our time. He made reservations a month in advance for some fancy place in Philly to take Jada for her birthday. With the weather he ended up needing to cancel those reservations. Thanks to good sense and fair warning they stayed in for the night.

At first Gregory was irritated. This is his girlfriend and it was her birthday and he wanted her to have a fabulous time. So naturally he did what all guys do and he got busy in the kitchen. (Note: Very few guys actually do this, I was being sarcastic).

He made all of Jada's favorite foods. He had three pots going on the stove, the oven filled with food and had several courses to bring down to her in the basement apartment. He even called and told her that her driver would be on his way ten minutes of 7 p.m. to take her to a lavish dinner. He lit candles, used linen napkins, placed roses around the room and everything.

(Note: I don't live there, this is all what my Mom told me she witnessed).

He made decadent desserts with her favorite fruits and chocolate, including homemade applesauce sprinkled with cinnamon. Some kind of champagne glass with chocolate, pudding, whipped cream and other deliciousness, too.

Now if that isn't love, I don't know what is...to make the best of a bad weather day and sweep his lady off her feet in spite of it all. I hope they had a wonderful night. Happy Birthday, Jada!

As for the weather, of course this morning I was sliding around outside in an attempt to start my car early and defrost it a bit. I put ice out but I don't know if it made a difference or not. Bah. The temperature is rising and I surmise the ice will be gone by the time I leave. However, there is a flood warning until tomorrow morning. =o)

The photo is from my wedding, that is Jada and my brother Greg after she caught the bouquet.

Labels: driving, Gregory, Jada, romantic

On the mornings when I drop Brae off for day care and then head to work I am always greeted with the wonderful aroma of chocolate as I near Pleasant Valley Road. Somewhere in the Pencader complex of business warehouses is a Cocoa warehouse. I'm serious! And I don't know what they are up to in the wee hours of the morning, but somehow a delicious chocolate scent fills the air. It's calming.

I imagine that I'm driving near Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and that if I look really closely I'll see an Oompa Loompa sprinkling cocoa out in front of a huge wind fan. Man how awesome would it be if inside those plain warehouses there was really a huge candy land, a chocolate lake, peppermint stick branches and a glass elevator.

There are other times when I'm driving back to work after having gone home during lunch break. And on these drives I use Sunset Lake Boulevard, also known as Route 72. After crossing the intersection for Old Baltimore Pike, I pass a small Church on the right. For the past few weeks it has had an interesting message on the white sign outside the Church doors. "Git Er Done For Jesus." One of these days I will remember to bring my camera and snap a picture. I laugh and shake my head every time I see it. Amazing. I bet Jesus laughs, too.

I think I prefer the imaginary chocolate factory ride.

Labels: driving

My theory on black birds is that they initiate each other into some sort of black bird cult. The senior birds plot out the best highways and they bring the freshman birds to the shoulder and as traffic comes there way they push the freshman birds out into the road. If the birds can safely make it across the street then they are part of the club.

Don't act like I'm crazy, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You're driving down the road and this bird shoots out directly in front of you car. You see it on the side as you're driving up and right before you near it the darn thing darts out in front of you. All its bird buddies hold their breath to see if your toast or not.

Let me tell you. I know I'm in a vehicle, but I flinch. There are some birds that get so near my windshield I actually jump in my seat. That is not good when you are the driver...it's just as bad as sneezing!

Well this morning on my way to work I came across a suicidal squirrel. I was going west and another car was coming east in the opposite lane. We both saw the squirrel. We slowed. It ran out in front of me, looked at my car and then stopped on the yellow lines in the middle of the road. The oncoming eastward car looked at the squirrel and it darted out in front of the car! I'm telling you, it stopped and waited on the yellow lines in the middle of the road until the other car drew closer. It survived this mad dash.

I'm sure it wasn't an initiation of any sort because this was completely different than the birds. This squirrel didn't run, it meandered. The birds fly full speed to get out of the way of the traffic they don't stop to spell the roses half way through the test.

I shook my head. The other driver shook her head. We continued our separate ways.

Labels: driving