Drama Drama Drama

What else would you do on your last day in LA, but spend hours in a tire store, missing a special birthday lunch....with Mexican food I might add.

Today was one of those day when I thought, "Really? Can I not just show up without drama one time?" Or as my American friend Jen would say..."Do I have to bring the crazy out all the time?"

My good friends Laura and Becky wanted to make today so special for me...
(Becky, me and Laura at a wedding last year)


(who I fondly refer to as my Grandma Friend Laura because if you knew Laura you would be SO surprised she is a grandma...my friends in Redding thought she was my age the first year I lived in LA. I would talk about her all the time and one day I said...Laura's grandson---and my friend said, "wait hold on how old is Laura? I thought she was your age this whole time.") Laura was my first friend at Mosaic and is still such a dear friend to me.

Since I was only in LA for a week or so and since my birthday is next Thursday she decided that today she would make a special birthday lunch--with her YUMMY AZ Mexican food and homemade salsa for me and invite some of our friends over. I took Amy and Scott's car over and one block away from Laura and Jesse's house a car was flying down there road and there was a car parked on the street as he went to pass me. I moved over a little, successfully missing the car, but unfortunately not missing the curb....

I popped the passenger tire and was GUTTED! I got up to Laura's a little shaken up, and so frustrated because the planner deep inside me knew that this was not going to be a quick ordeal. Laura called Tripple A and a tow truck got there super quick. He towed my car with me and Jesse following. It was right down the road and I thought, maybe this will be a quick experience. Now mind you, I have seen only 2 or 3 of the people that were coming over to see me at this point. But I thought, maybe this will be quick and we won't even have to heat up our lunch...it might still be hot. We wait forever at the tire place and the tow truck guy undoes our car. When the tire guy finally helps us he says, "oh sorry we have NO tire in stock that will fit this car..."

Awesome!

Jesse then hurries outside to the nice tow truck man and asks him if he will tow us to sears. Which, of course because we are in LA, is 20 minutes away. Awesome. But he agrees and we finally get to Sears and the guys there were not so friendly. I had one nice worker and that made it bearable. The guy said to me that he thought the rim was bent and it won't work to put a new tire on it. I asked him as nice as I possibly could if he would check anyway...while wanting to punch him in the face.

The nice worker had someone else check for me. They then wanted to see if they had a tire in stock. There was ONE...that is it, just one in the whole store....are we not in America, the land of the over abundance and self indulgent "we have too much of everything" culture? The worker then looks at me with apologetic eyes and shows me the price..YIKES is all I can say, but what do you do? Gotta have a new tire, especially because it is not my car, too.

Me and Jesse decide since my car is next in line to just wait. I get Jesse a water and me a Diet Coke (which I am so excited to buy because it is half the price of NZ so I feel like I am getting a deal...) I then talk to my friend Sam from NZ for awhile sitting in the tire store, ranting about how dumb this day is turning out. Really? Is there a whole house of people waiting for me and eating a yummy lunch while me and Jesse sit in Sears Auto Store? Yis, it's true.

Finally now at 3:30 it is almost done...I got to Laura's house at 12;25! Right then the not so nice worker says, "Um...some is on the phone for you." Of course there is, why would I not be receiving a call at Sears Auto Store right now. I just look at him like it is the most natural thing in the world and pick up their work phone like it is my cell phone. It is Laura wondering where we were. I explain the brief version and say we are on our way home. The only problem is that I need to get the car back to Scott by 5 at the latest to get to Hollywood for a movie screening we are going to. LA translation...I have to leave Laura's house by 4pm to make this happen.

I walk in to a house full of people, inhale lunch/dinner, open the presents that I didn't know they were going to get me, blow out the candles to the ice cream cake I definitely didn't expect and jump back in the car to get home.

I make it home and we make it to the theater just in time for the Movie Screening Amy is running at this cool az theater--The Egyptian on Hollywood Blvd. We screened the original "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" It was so fun, and the kids loved it. We made it home in time to catch some of the Emmy's and for Scott and some friends to watch the TV show they watch every Sunday night--The Wire.

What a day!!! Sometimes I just have to laugh that I think that I am going to be calm and unventful...nope...just not me....