My morning was a bit of a mess. It has been raining since last night. Since it so rarely rains here, when it does, it can throw us for a loop. In Southern California, we don’t get sweet little rain showers, the skies open and pour down buckets of rain. There is even an Albert Hammond song (also preformed by Barry Manilow) called It Never Rains in Southern California. In the chorus of the song, it says, “Seems it never rains in southern California; Seems I’ve often heard that kind of talk before; It never rains in California; But girl, don’t they warn ya? It pours, man, it pours.”
We desperately need the rain. We have prayed for it. I know it’s a good thing. I know it. Still, when the rain actually arrives, it throws everything out of whack. This morning was a prime example. The dark clouds outside made it seem much earlier than it was when our alarms went off this morning, so everyone was having a slow start. This is the last week of school before Christmas break, so the kids are already suffering an ebb in motivation for anything involving school. This does not bode well for all of this week’s final exams.
Our oldest is in high school and has his first two exams today. I was so busy getting my youngest ready this morning that I didn’t see either of the boys before they left for school with their dad. Normally we try to have breakfast together and then, since our oldest starts school half an hour before the other two, David takes the two boys (our younger son likes to get to school early and hang out with friends) and then I take our daughter a little later (she does NOT like to get to school early). They needed to leave extra early this morning because of the rain.
People in Southern California have a reputation for not being able to drive in the rain. This reputation has been 100% earned and it is 100% accurate. Traffic in the rain is a nightmare, especially on the first day of rain. The storm drains are so filled with leaves and other debris after the Santa Ana winds that the streets start to flood. Until there is enough water to push through all of the mess, it can be tricky to safely maneuver through the lanes without hydroplaning. In other words, we need to drive slow and with caution, but Californian’s aren’t exactly known for driving either slowly or cautiously. But I digress.
Anyway, back to my morning. So the boys all left without saying goodbye. Then I realized as I was walking out the door that my daughter has a field trip to go to the church for a rehearsal for tonight’s Christmas program and she needed a sack lunch today. A sack lunch that I hadn’t packed. Then, as we were in a wild lunch packing frenzy, my oldest called from school. Remember when I said that I hadn’t seen him before he left this morning? Well, if I had, I would have seen that he had sweat pants on and I would have made him go upstairs and change. Sweatpants are not a part of the uniform. The high school has less stringent rules about what sort of pants are acceptable under the dress code, but they aren’t wear sweatpants to school lenient. Somehow my son convinced my husband that it was okay since it is finals week. Guess what? It is not okay. So as I’m already running late due to packing a lunch I hadn’t realized I needed to pack, I get a call that I need to take jeans to the high school so my son can take his final exam.
I called David in a panic. If I took my son’s pants to school first, my daughter would be late. She gets upset if she doesn’t arrive right on time, so I knew that wasn’t an option. I also knew that if I took her to school first, I would be really late getting pants to my son and he would miss a good chunk of his final exam. Of course, his first exam is the one which he desperately needs a good grade. David’s solution was to meet up somewhere along the way and he would take the jeans and I would take our daughter. The easiest spot for both of us was the empty bowling alley parking lot. When we got to the bowling alley, the rain was really coming down so we both just pulled down our driver’s side windows and I tossed him the jeans. It probably looked like a unorganized drug deal.
I got my daughter to school in time, David got the jeans to school. Thankfully our son’s teacher felt that taking the final exam on time was more important than teaching a lesson in following the school’s dress code, so David left the jeans in the office so he could change before the second exam. We received confirmation from him via text that all is good. Now, I’m off to take my daughter to the church for her Christmas performance rehearsal, then back to the high school to pick up my oldest (he gets out early during finals week), then back to the church to retrieve my daughter and then to the elementary school to pick up my younger son. Somewhere in there I can hopefully squeeze in some lunch. Phew. Needless to say, I am looking forward to the upcoming Christmas break. Thank you for letting me vent.
Palm tree photos by Nathan Dumlao.
What a morning!?!