I'll Have a Green Mowhawk

For several weeks I've been contemplating what to do with Angela's hair. School pictures are tomorrow so I decided I better get this done! I really wanted to go super-short into a shaggy pixie cut, but decided I'd better not.

She needed something that would be easy for her to care for, as she can comb it, but she can't pull it back by herself. She also needed to be able to keep it out of her food!!! I'm tired of lunch coming home in her hair, and I don't think it's fair to school staff to have to deal with the hair. They have enough to do. And again, independence is getting to be more and more my focus these days.

For those who don't know Angela, here are some interesting facts about her. Angela is not thoughtful or introspective. Angela does not take her time in any way/shape/form with anything. Angela is spontaneous, humorous, and...well..you just NEVER KNOW what's going to come out of her mouth!

So we walk into the kids hair place, and while I'm looking at the hair books Angela hops up into the chair. The girl who's going to do her hair says, "So, what are we going to do with you today?"

Angela replies with, "Ummm....I'll have a green mowhawk please!"

I look up just in time to see the stylist look at me with a "She doesn't REALLY get to do that, does she?"

Now, I know I've been talking about independence, making decisions for herself, and all kinds of really honorable sounding stuff, but I'm sorry...green mowhawks aren't gonna fly! I made a face to the stylist that said, " ARE YOU CRAZY?" and told her to just do a simple wedge.

So here's Angela's new do. Too bad she couldn't have the mowhawk!

Keeping up!

It's hard to keep up to the "blog a day" thing when you go out of town! There are no wi-fi hotspots up in the north woods of Minnesota. LOL

Dean and I had a really nice weekend. Angela went to her dad's so we took all 3 dogs up to a relatives property that backs up to Itasca State Park. 400 acres with a private lake and miles and miles of trails. We caught our limit (40) of Jumbo perch. Couldn't even put your line in the water without getting a bite! PERFECT!

We were also able to stop in and check on my dad who is SUPPOSED to be off his feet to let his fractured tibia heal, but clearly isn't able to follow doctor's orders! When Mom comes home from Kenya he's gonna be in trouble.

This afternoon I'm taking Angela to get her hair cut for tomorrow's school pictures, then to the hospital to pick her her new orthodics, THEN to get some new shoes to fit the orthodics. Yes, we're STILL trying to recover from the semi fire back in August, but I think the orthodics are the last thing on the list, other than recovering the actual money lost. I'm loosing hope that I'll ever see it.

Finish it Friday

Yep, that's right! It's Finish it Friday. You know that one pesky project that's been haunting you? Today (well, really this whole weekend) I'm pushing you to finish it. At my house it's the half-stripped kitchen wallpaper. As soon as it's done I can paint and finish this darn remodeling project that started back in....ready? MARCH! Yep, we put new floors in, which quicky snowballed into removing a wall, adding a new railing, ceramic tile, paint, and lots of other stuff like that. Now Dean wants to put on an addition BEFORE the two HUGE family reunions we have in June and July. Yeah, right! I can say this though, we work well under pressure.

This next week will also be my last chance to get any major projects done, as I have a litter of puppies due and then lots of stuff comes to a screeching halt.

Mondays' theme will be Make it Monday. You can make something on the stove (but it has to be something you've never made before) or make something with a child, or make something for yourself, or make someone else make you something! LOL Have a great weekend, and don't play too hard!

When the Mom Gets Sick

When the mom get's sick, life doesn't stop. I have been sick all week with a bad cold. It's nothing serious, just a cold. But all I really want to do is SLEEP, so yesterday I was looking forward to putting Angela on the bus and crawling my aching, sniffling, itchy-eyed body back to bed.

But Angela had other plans.

When I told her it was time to get up she didn't move. This is highly unusual, as she LOVES going to school. Instead of popping out of bed like she normally does, she hollered, "Fine!...B****!"

I have to tell you Angela knows all the cuss words there are. (Thanks to her dad!) When she's in a bad mood (which seems to be all the time lately) she uses them constantly. On the advice of our behavioral specialists we're giving her ZERO attention for this. Do you know how hard it is to be in the middle of Target and have your child holler "B***" at you and do NOTHING ABOUT IT? It infuriates me, she knows this, and so she continues to do it. We've been doing the "zero attention for swearing" bit for MONTHS and it's useless. When I find something that works EVEN ONCE I'll let you know!

Back to yesterday morning.

So the kid is in bed, hollering swear words every 3 seconds just for the sake of having something to say. I am sitting at the kitchen table with the phone in my hands talking to her special ed teacher, "Angela won't be there today...She doesn't SEEM sick but we're going to the doctor anyway, because I want anticuss pills...Yes, I hope she's feeling better tomorrow too." I will not lie. I think I heard her teacher sigh in a "Oh what a relief" kind of way.

I dragged my sluggish body and Angela's swearing one to the doctor, where she tested positive for strep. Here I'd hoped that taking her tonsils out would have lessened this problem. Silly me. When we got home it was all I could do to make it to the couch, find a movie on cable for Angela to watch, and drift off into a cold formula induced sleep.

Angela, on the other hand, saw this as the ultimate opportunity to play doctor on me. She dragged out all her doctor paraphernalia, donned her Dr. Angela jacket and mask, and came at me. I was just hitting REM when my left eye open was pried open to look at them with her scope. "Yep! She awake Sophie!" she announced to her invisible nurse. I pulled the blanket over my head to ward off the attack, only to have her whack what she THOUGHT was my knee with her reflex hammer. "Angela, please go watch your movie and let Mom sleep. I bet I have ice cream here. Let me sleep for an hour and I'll get you some."

"Ok Mom! No problems!"

I hunkered down under my fleecie blanket and Angela threw her sleeping bag on top, tucking it T-I-G-H-T-L-Y under my chin to be sure it stayed there. I could feel the waves of exhaustion coming over me, and that heavy "I'm almost asleep" feeling when I heard the front door slam shut. I opened one eye....there's the TV, but no Angela in front of it. I listened, hoping to hear her clomping through the house. Instead, outside the back window I heard, "C'mom Dudley! Let's go for a walk!" We have a large pond in the back yard!

GOOD GRIEF!!!! CAN'T A MOM GET A NAP??????? The entire rest of the day went like this. When Dean came home he headed to the basement to call in his work orders. About and hour later I went to tell him something and found him out cold on the basement couch. Go figure....

What Are you Wearing?

So, what cause are you supporting today? Are you being an advocate or an observer? Today I'm wearing my "My kid has more chromosomes than your kid" t-shirt.

A couple months ago I was wearing my shirt while on vacation. As I stood in line in the women's bathroom a woman about 60-ish scrunched up her face in a puzzled expression as she stared at my shirt. "What does the extra chromosome do for your kid?" I told her that's what causes Down Syndrome. "THATS what does it? An extra chromosome? I had no idea! You just never know what you're gonna learn in the bathroom!"

I thought this is a great example of how the vast majority of people have no idea what DS is. They have seen people with it, but the have no idea it has a name. Or they know it has a name but don't know what causes it. (I once had a NURSE put in one of Angela's charts that her DS was caused by exposure to cat litter!!!!)

If you're looking for some cool DS related stuff, go to cafepress and have a look around.

Speaking of days of the week, what did you do yesterday for Try it Tuesday? DON'T LAUGH!. I have always wanted to try a mango. Now, I've had juices that mango in them, but I've never had the fruit itself. I see it in the grocery store but never buy one, cuz...well..what do you DO with them? I don't even know if you peel it, or eat the skin, or stick a straw in it! So yesterday I googled "How to Mango" and pulled up a page that shows how to cut it, what not to eat, etc. Man, gotta love Google! Angela and I came home and enjoyed trying something new together.

WELLIES!

Meet Prince Vince. His mom is having a contest for a pair of wellies. Go leave a comment and maybe you could win them?

Tomorrow is....

Tomorrow is Wear it Wednesday. In Honor of Down Syndrome awareness month you could wear blue/yellow. Make yourself a ribbon and people will ask you what it's for. Tell them about DS. Explain that over 90% of babies with DS who are detected prenatally are terminated. (Does the term Genocide come to mind?) If you're a parent of a child who has DS tell them how you've changed for the better because of your child. Tell them.

If you have another cause, consider wearing something that represents it. Here's a couple examples of what's being recognized this month. Click here for a complete list.

October is...

"Talk About Prescriptions Month"
National Council on Patient Information and Education
http://www.talkaboutrx.org/

"Eye Injury Prevention Month"
American Academy of Ophthalmology
http://www.aao.org/eyemd

"Halloween Safety Month"
Prevent Blindness America
http://www.preventblindness.org/

"Healthy Lung Month"
American Lung Association
http://www.lungusa.org/

"Let's Talk Month"
Advocates for Youth
http://www.advocatesforyouth.org/

"Lupus Awareness Month"
Lupus Foundation of America, Inc.
http://www.lupus.org/

"National Celiac Disease Awareness Month"
Celiac Sprue Association
http://www.csaceliacs.org/

Try it Tuesday

Don't forget today is "Try it Tuesday", a day when you need to step out of your comfort zone and try something new. A new flavor at Starbucks perhaps, instead of your usual? Rock climbing? A new route home to/from work? Burger King instead of McDonalds? Taking a nap at 2:00 instead of 2:30? No nap at all? (Sorry, I'm focused on sleep today.) I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I thought about ballroom dancing but I can't find a lesson for today. If I call and find out how much it cost that would almost count.

So late last night I was hanging out online when I heard heavy breathing behind me. Then a voice, "Mom, I can't sleep."

I turned around to find this. Gee, I wonder why she couldn't sleep?

Pancakes 101

First pour the batter in the pan. Be very very careful, the pan is HOT!



Watch the bubbles. See 'em popp'in? That's when it's time to flip it over.



After you flip it over you have to wait again. Not very long though.


When that's done, you hafta put it on a plate. This is tricky. Don't drop it! (see my violet glasses? I luv'em...sometimes.)


A little butter


Alot of syrup, and it's ready to eat!

Manic Monday

Today is Manic Monday. This is a day when you attack a cleaning project that you've been putting off for far too long. My Manic Monday project was my office, and I actually started it yesterday. You see, my Mom was coming here today so I could give her a ride to the airport. There is NO WAY I was gonna have my office looking like it has for the past 2 months with MY MOTHER here! Nope, because I don't need any lectures.

Now, I'd love to say I stole these pictures off the "Clean Sweep". website, but I can't because that would be lying. No, instead this is a picture of my very own office. I debated all day long weather or not to post this picture, cuz it gives away a lot of secrets. Like the one where everyone says, "You always seem so together!" and I just smile and nod, while in my head I see myself running to close my office door if I hear a knock at the door.


So I cleaned and cleaned. And cleaned some more, and moved some furniture around, and this is the finished project.


And now for the challenge. Come up with a "Manic Monday" for your house next week, and post a picture of the before/afters. Maybe you have a drawer you've been meaning to clean out, or a mountain of laundry you're behind on, or a garage that you can't get a car into? (I have one of those too.)

Tomorrow is Try it Tuesday. Try something you've never had/done/gone before. Maybe you need to step out of your comfort zone and order something different at Starbucks? Maybe you want to try rock climbing? Whatever it is, I want to hear about it!

Violet

Here's a picture of Angela in her new glasses. It's hard to get the violet to not look so dark in pictures! LOL Angela is not too thrilled with these new glasses. I have to give her breaks like, "You can take them off now, but when we're done with dinner you need to put them back on." This allows her some control, but also gives her a time marker for the next step. It also means she actually WEARS them so her eyes can used to seeing with them. Her vision isn't actually that bad, but one eye turns all over and the lens keeps her eye centered where it's supposed to be.

Oh, and the lesson on the glasses is this: People have to learn to make decisions for themselves. If a child is never given the opportunity, they'll never develop the skills they need to be successful in life. Allowing Angela to pick out something SHE likes is one of the steps to independence. SHE has to wear them every day. SHE has to feel like she looks good in them, and HER idea of what looks good might not be the same as mine. I just hope I can keep her away from the piercings her brothers love so much!

Making Life Decisions

Originally written September 25, 2007

So, Angela is going back to wearing glasses. Not a huge surprise. What WAS a huge surprise was what happened when we went to pick out frames. Alright, knowing Angela I guess I shouldn't feel that surprised. Anyway, she wouldn't consider one single pair that I handed her to try on! Nope, she kept picking out these god-awful colored frames. I kept handing her more neutral things to which she'd say, "Mmmm I'm not into brown. I'm not into silver."

.....ummm....Where did "I'm not into..." come from?

Instead she kept pulling out every purple, red, and neon green frame she could find. There was one style I really liked on her, if only they weren't DARK VIOLET! I wanted to see what the brown ones like like so they ordered them for me to check out.

We went back today to try on the brown....they are very dark brown. With her dark brown hair, dark brown eyes, and dark brown frames....it was just too much brown. That didn't really matter though because Angela isn't "into brown" and only wanted the violet ones. With all the other frames, she'd look in the mirror quickly, then put the violet ones back on, then proceed to look at her reflection from all kinds of different angles....sideways left...sideways right...chin down...chin up...magnified...you name it, she tried it. She really enjoyed looking at herself in the mirror with the violet frames.

I know that this is a game God is playing with me. He knows this particular color is probably one of my least favorite in the entire rainbow. I KNOW that's why He has Angela so attracted to that color. Apparently I'm still getting lessons on how to not give into the control issues I have. I could see Him at work during the whole visit, like he was speaking in my ear saying, "It's not about YOU. It's about HER and what SHE likes."

GAH!

So we ordered the violet ones, and I'm hoping this will mean she actually wears them. In the meantime, I'm now shopping for lots of clothes with a particular shade of violet in them. I'll post a picture when we pick them up at the end of the week.

Speaking of clothes, we're having issues in this area. For kids who have DS, fit is often a problem, but now I'm having different issues. This issue is called, "I want to choose my own clothes, and you're not going to like what I choose."

Angela has about 15 t-shirts and about 4 pairs of pants. (read here to find out why) In the morning she gets in the shower, and I put her clothes for the day on her bed. When she's out of the shower and getting dressed I go get the dogs fed. She ALWAYS comes out with different clothes than what I put out. At the very least, a different shirt. Now, one smart thing I did was get rid of all the too-small t-shirts she had. (sometimes I'm slow about this, which causes problems when the favorite shirt that is now too small is still in the drawer.) I've also gotten rid of the really junky shirts, so at least she's choosing shirts that are wearable. But still....purple sparkly capri leggings with an orange shirt and all kinds of colors on the front doesn't look too good. Add red socks and the purply/silver shoes her dad bought her.

I sent a note to her teacher that said, "Angela is now choosing her own clothes" because I don't want to take the blame.

There is a store called Justice for Girls that my friend told me about. It has lots of "Hannah Montana" and "That's So Raven" type of clothing. I want to take Angela there and let her pick out her own outfits. At least then maybe she'll wear something that matches...one can only hope.

I never had this problem with four boys!

Kids-N-Guns

"Kids hunting for squirrels wing truck triver" Yep, that's one of the headlines in our local paper today. Apparently a two kids got hold of a .22 caliper rifle and decided to go squirrel hunting...NEXT TO THE HIGHWAY! Since the 11 and 12 year old don't have to sense to not shoot towards a highway and TRAFFIC, the truck driver was shot in the arm as he drove down the road.

Ummm...question. WHERE ARE THE PARENTS AND WHY DO THE KIDS HAVE ACCESS TO THE GUN? Why does it seem that whenever an incident like this happens you'll find parents saying something like, "Johnny had been taught how to use a gun. He went to gun safety classes! He's always been very responsible with it. We just don't understand how this happened."

I know how. Because Johnny is NOT responsible. If Johnny was responsible, when he and his friend thought up they idea Johnny would have said, "No, I'm not supposed to use the gun if Mom and Dad aren't home." If Johnny's parents were responsible they would have had the gun locked up in such a way that Johnny couldn't get his hands on it.

I understand that hunters have guns around, especially this time of year. We have hunting rifles around too, but guess what? They're locked up, and the ammo is locked up somewhere else. Kids do stupid stuff, because that's just part of their nature. (I say this as memories come flooding back of having a "shootout" over a pond using bb guns, and my friend's little brother falling into the pond in what we thought was a fake injury. Turns out he wasn't faking. Good thing it was only a bb guy. But..you know...bb guys are "safe".)

Back to Johnny. Mom and dad, until your kid turns 18 it's up to you to keep him alive. Having guns around where your kid has access to them means you're not exactly doing your job. It's also your job to teach him right from wrong. Yeah, this time Johnny was just hunting for squirrels, but apparently the training he had wasn't enough because he didn't remember any of it. What if this particular Johnny had some kids at school he didn't particularly like? What if this particular Johnny was walking through a field looking for squirrel and tripped, shooting his friend?

There are all kinds of "what-if's" here. What if that trucker had been injured worse and his truck took several other cars with him? Sorry, but my daughter was just in a HUGE semi crash a month ago that was caused by someone else doing something intentionally. I don't have much understanding for something like this. I can't wait to hear what the parents have to say about this, because I have all kinds of images of the families developing in my mind, and I hope I'm wrong about them!

My Favorite Recipe

Last night I had THE BEST dessert! In fact, it was so good I ate the whole thing and didn't share with Angela OR any of the dogs! And NO, am not completely heartless! Shees! Later on I let Angela make a smaller cake all by herself!

Here's what you do:

Go to your local grocery store and buy flower, eggs, oil one Betty Crocker Warm Delights.

There are several different flavors available. My favorite is the Molten Carmel Cake, but the Molten Cocolate Cake is pretty darned good too if you're needing a chocolate fix.

For those of you who are watching your calorie count, they also have MINI versions of these! Really, it ends up about the size of half a cup cake.

These things are super easy to make, just add water, stir and toss it in the microwave. They're so easy that Angela can make them without ANY help. I've told her, "Honey, this is how we bake a cake." And because that's pretty much all the baking she's ever seen go on here, she believes me!

What does YOUR mom do?

The answers to this question will vary depending upon your age, and the age of your mother. My sister's mom (who is not my mom, interesting huh?) went roller skating several times a week till she was nearly 80. My best friend's mom does scrapbooking and is into yoga.

But I bet not many people have mothers like mine. My mom doesn't sew. She doesn't bake. (well, she does once in awhile, but not on a regular basis.) No, my mom does things like climb mountains in the jungles of the Congo to take pictures of the Gorillas. Yep, just like Jane Goodall, here's my mom trapesing around the jungle to observe the gorillas.

In a couple of days my mom leaves for three weeks in Kenya, East Africa to lead a photo safari. They'll be doing things like watching The Great Migration and photographing "The Big Five"

My mom is also a phenomenal artist! Here's a painting she did from a photograph she took while on her travels. Remember, this is a PAINTING!!!


As if that isn't enough, there is more that my mom does. My mom travels the world to places like Isreal, Turkey, South Africa, East Africa, and the Philippines just to name a few to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She runs an international women's ministry called Women of God, interdenominational ministry that trains women towards their calling. Mom has ministered in 18 countries, including ministering with a pastor alone in The Congo for a month. Not only does she preach the gospel, but she helps people along the way as well. Like helping a Maasai tribe establish a new well so they could have safe drinking water.

Mom with some of the Maasai leaders.


We try not to worry when Mom is in some of these places, but it's hard not to, especially when it seems every time she goes somewhere there is some type of uprising! Things like the Hutu/Tutsi conflict. My mom was in Rwanda, on a mountain photographing the gorillas when the park rangers came to find her. The borders were closing, she had to get out! A plane from the Missionary Aviation Fellowship was sent to get her. Just 10 minutes before the border was closed, which would have trapped them in the midst of a brutal war, she and three other people flew out on a four-seater plane. Or the time she was in Soweto during the end of Apartheid when things were very unstable in the area. Most people would have said it wasn't the place for a white woman to be hanging out!

And how do you not worry about your mom when she comes home with pictures like this? These are REAL wild animals people!!!


So that's my mom. What does YOUR mom do for fun?

slipping away

I know I have Adult ADD, or brain rot, or something serious like that. How do I know this? All you have to do is walk around my house and you'll see evidence of it scattered all over the place.

For the past week the plan has been to clean the office, and I fully intend to have it done before the mighty hunters return. Today I started by taking a box of what's left of my nutrisystem meals to the outside garbage. While I was out there Zurri and Rubee were being very cute.

Watching Rubee and Zurri play reminded me that I needed to get some pictures of Rubee as I haven't updated my pregnancy tracker page in a couple of weeks. Here's some pictures I took while I was out there. I did a video too but didn't feel like waiting for it to upload.

Rubee found a catapillar


She likes to share, so she brought it a toy.


She showed it to Zurri


Rubee is due with puppies on the 15th. She's hardly acting like it, running around chasing Zurri and the squirrels.


So then I played fetch with Zurri for a few minutes. Her buddy Dudley is gone and she clearly needed to burn some steam. That's when I made the video I'm not posting.

I came in the house, and started emptying the dishwasher. I went to put a pan away and when I opened that cabinet the shelf fell and everything came tumbling out. Oh yeah..look! Here's the pans I once set asside to throw away but then we put new floors in an had to move the cabinets and somehow they got put back in here. I ran them down to the garbage quick! Zurri met me at the door with a leave on her head. I needed a picture of THAT!



Then I came into the office to upload the pictures. (yes, the dishwasher is still sitting open 1/2 empty and the pan cabinet has pans spilled on the floor from the collapsed shelf. I'll get to it in a minute.) As I was uploading the pictures and thinking of how my days disappear I could feel this blog coming on.

Then the phone rang. It was Angela's school OT who I kind of have a beef with. Well its not really with HER, but with the services school says she can now provide, and how Angela has lost a full year of skills since this started. We talked for a few minutes and while I was talking to her I fed the dogs.

When I opened the fridge to get the yogurt out (the dogs get plain, unflavored yogurt in their food. It's good for their coats) I got annoyed with the crammed full refrigerator. I grabbed a garbage bag and started tossing stuff in to bring out to the garbage. HA!!! You think I got sucked into taking more pictures of the dogs, don't you? WRONG! I came right back in here, but only becuase HELLO! I'm still on the phone with the OT and I needed to reference some papers AND it's hard to take pictures while maintaining an intelligent conversation with a school professional type person.

When I hung up I definitely felt the need to blog. I'll be picking Angela up from school in a little bit, so I guess I'll work on the office later tonight, after she's in bed.

Just a haircut

I want to get Angela's hair cut. Something short and sassy, but still feminine enough that she won't be mistaken for a boy. I went to Stellure.com and did a one month membership that allowed me to upload a photo and select hairstyles to view with Angela's face super imposed in them. (It was interesting, but not worth the $20.)

Part of the process of using this program is establishing certain points on the face that become landmarks the computer uses for making a digital rendition of the subject. Zoomed in on Angela's eye I mapped out the exact corners, the center of her pupil, the arch of her brow line, her perfect eye brows. As I marked the bridge of her nose, I discovered she finally has one!

I tried on some funky hairstyles, then decided to mess around with my face. As I mapped out my eye, I re-discovered that Angela and I have exactly the same eyes. I was reminded of a time when I was a little girl around 11 or 12 years old. I was at a friend's house and her little sister (then about 6 or so) asked me, "Are you chinese? You have Chinese eyes." Well, I'm very much german caucasion, but I definetly have almond shaped eyes. These eyes match my daughter's and my mothers. Nobody else in our family has these eyes.

As I matched Angela's nose it reminded me of a nose I'd seen before. I pulled out a picture of my son Noah at about 9 years old, and one of me at 10. Sure enough, all three of us have the same nose.

I mapped out Angela's mouth; the down-turned corners that are a marker of her extra genetic material. Except that they also mark her family, as I have the same downturned mouth. (I just have more creases in the corners of mine!)

I mapped out her ears, the right one being slightly over-curled, and both set low on her head. Funny...that's where mine sit too.

Examining Angela's features this way brought back memories of the day after Angela was born. I stood at her bedside in the NICU as the neonatologist went over her body, feature by feature, showing me what things pointed to Down Syndrome. "But she just looks like me." I said. Really...she just looked like me. I'm sure they thought, "oh that poor mom. She just doesn't want to see that something is wrong with her baby." But no....really....she just and still does, look just like me.

"Red"

Here's a picture of "Red". It's not a great shot. The chick on the bike is fat and tired looking, and the bike needs a bath.

Follow the Little Red Light

It's Wednesday night, and that means ride night with the West Bank Motorcycle Club. I'm not a member of this club, but Dean and I ride with them on occasion. Tonight was the last Weds night ride of the season, and since I had a sitter (rare for me) I was determined to join them. Besides, I'm in a Sis Riders mileage contest this month and haven't hardly ridden at all. Dean wasn't able to go tonight, so this would be the first time I'd ride with the group without him, and I was a little nervous. I have no idea why, as the vast majority of my riding is done alone, (almost 6,000 miles this summer!) but once in awhile the old shy me comes out and I have to stuff her back and pretend she doesn't exist.

I'm always anxious to head out for a ride, itching to get in the saddle and go, and tonight was no different. Nobody in the club had seen my new bike, so while Angela entertained herself by forcing the dogs to run the agility equipment again and again, I gave Red a bath, making her chrome all shiny and clean. About the time I finished the sitter called and said she was home and I could drop off Angela any time. I was thrilled that for once the day's timing was in my favor.

The club meets at a small bar in south Minneapolis. As I headed north on Cedar Ave. I could see the dark ominous clouds ahead. I could still see the skyscrapers though, so I knew it wasn't raining there yet. I figured I'd at least get to the bar, say hello to everyone and then head home, but as I got under the cloud system it really was just cloudy. Slightly on the chilly side, but I was dressed for it so it wasn't a big deal.

When I got to the bar I learned the ride was headed west to the Mound area. Hmmm...west..I looked at the pitch black sky to the west, watching the system flicker with lightning. "That west?" Crap! Ok, I can figure this out. When the ride heads out I'll head for home. Now, I've always hated having to leave an event early, only to to later hear about the fun stories of things I missed. I decided to stick with the group, and if things started looking worse I could always split off and head for home. It sure sounded like a good plan at the time.

We saddled up,all 40 + bikes, me keeping to the back of the group, making it easier to split of if need be. We headed west through city side streets, the sky ahead of us getting darker by the minute, and the lightning getting bigger. I decided it was time to make my move, except there was one small problem. I had NO CLUE where I was! Again, not a big deal. Soon enough we'd get to a highway and I'd be able to get my bearings. Just as I thought that thought, the ride captain pulled us over. "Ride's off. Those who live to the west will still go that direction. Everyone else, if you want to sign in (the club members have to sign in to get ride credit) do it now." It was only 7:00 and pitch black!

Everyone made quick decisions as to what they were going to do. The vast majority chose to head for home. One guy, Milo, said he was headed back to the bar we'd just left, so I planned to follow him. At least from the bar I could find my way home.

My friend Tracy was on my left. We're really just good acquaintances, but she's one of my favorite people in the club. She said she was headed back to the bar too. As the group headed out, bikes were splitting off in several directions. Tracy and I pulled up to the stop sign together, realizing we'd already lost Milo in the darkness. Tracy said she knew how to get us back so I was good to go. As we sat a stop light a few big drops started to fall. I looked at Tracy and said, "So this is great. I've never ridden in the rain before."

Tracy plastered a frozen smile on her face. "Oh...well I guess you're gonna learn huh?" But the look on her face said, "Oh shit. This is NOT good, and here I am...the babysitter."

A few minutes later the wind started picking up, and the rain started to fall for real. Tracy hollered "We can stay on the side streets or go on the freeway. What are you more comfortable with?"

"I don't care! Either way we're wet so whatever you want is fine."

That was the wrong answer. "Ok, well follow me. If you don't feel safe and want to pull over just do it and I'll pull over too."

A few seconds later the rain started POURING down. I want to use the term "Torrential rain". When you're on a motorcycle and it rains like that, you cannot see A THING! The raindrops hit your face so hard you're sure it's hail. It runs down your face and into your eyes, making you want to close them, except that closing them means certain death. As I followed Tracy, she turned onto the I-94 entrance ramp. Oh...My..GOD we're going on the FREEWAY?? Suddenly the ice cold water running down the crack of my ass didn't matter anymore.

I gripped the handlebars a little tighter and watched Tracy's tail light speed off ahead of me. I tried to speed up, afraid that soon I'd feel my rear wheel slipping underneath me. I could her Tracy's voice in my head, "If you don't feel safe and want to pull over..." Man, I really wanted to pull over!!! But yeah, this is the freeway, and it's pitch black and raining. Not a good idea. So I sped up a little bit. Just a little....

I don't know how fast or slow we were going. It could have been 10 miles an hour or 50, I have no clue because was afraid to take my eyes of that little red light that was Tracy. I couldn't see the lines in the road. In fact, I couldn't see the road at all, just shiny blackness. I was thinking how glad I was we were in the right lane when a saw Tracy's yellow blinker as she moved over to the center lane. THE CENTER LANE!!! OMG...I was pretty sure I was going to end up on the news. I knew that Tracy was riding on the left side of the lane, so if I stayed staggered I'd accomplish 2 things. 1) my tire would be in the tracks of the cars ahead of us, giving me better traction instead of hydroplaning and 2) would keep me in the center lane without getting in the way of any cars that might be next to me. There COULD BE cars next to me, but to find out would mean taking my eyes off that little red light.

We went through the small tunnel and as we came out the other end the rain hit us like a brick wall. I realized that I'd been holding my breath for quite some time...probably like 10 minutes or something. I couldn't see so I tried ducking way down to look near the base of my windshield, but that did nothing except expose the skin on my back to the rain, causing even more cold water to rush down my ass. I tried looking over the rim of my glasses but that was bad too. There just wasn't any good way to see at all. I wondered how Tracy could possibly see to lead us.

There's her turn signal. HALLELLUIAH! We're getting off the freeway! This was wonderful, but posed a new problem at the same time. It's called "stopping". Stopping on wet pavement (and really, this was standing water) can be tricky. I concentrated on slow/even braking. We made a couple of turns and there was the bar. I wanted to kiss the ground but realized that would look silly. I didn't know if I was shaking from being cold and wet or from the adrenaline coursing through my body. We went inside to the bathroom where I called Dean to let him know I was alive. I was jabbering away telling him about our ride when he said, "Are you drunk? You sound drunk. I thought you just got there."

"No, I an not DRUNK! A bit shaken up maybe, and having an adrenaline rush, but I haven't even had a POP!" Getting drunk sounded good about that time, but not a very good idea since, when the storm blew over I'd have to get myself home.

We stayed about an hour then headed our separate directions. As I rode home on the wet roads I realized how thankful I was that Tracy was there for me tonight. Would any of the other riders have been as patient with me? Would they have gotten us back only to give me a hard time about being a newby?

As my riding skills have grown over the summer, God has seen to it that I've learned things one step at a time. He's given me Dean who is a great teacher and forces me to learn things without being mean about it. He put Tracy in my path tonight because he knew she'd be patient, kind and safe, but still making me learn this new skill of riding in the rain. She gave me just enough encouragement to press on, yet reminded me to ride my own ride, and pull over if I didn't feel safe. I know that if I had pulled over she would have sat it out with me.

Tonight I'm thankful for good friends, a safe ride, an open garage door when I got home, a hot shower, and His protection. Oh, and I'm thankful for little red tail lights!

The best song EVER!!!!

My friend Krisina had this on her blog. It's too good not to share! Every mom should learn this.