Yesterday morning, I was not in a good mood.  The turbine engine fans blowing in the kitchen and the girls' bedroom were really starting to get to me (thankfully, as of this afternoon, they are gone),  and living in two rooms of our house was becoming claustrophic.  Our house feels small when we can use all 1025 square feet of it - when we're reduced to living in 500 square feet, it's a bit smothering.  It didn't seem to bother Abigail too much, but Gracie, well Gracie has been a bitter pill all week.  The practical, loving side of me says, "Oh my poor baby..she hasn't had anywhere to do her homework and we can't find any of her clothes and she's just totally out of sorts."  The head-spinning part of me says, "WHY CAN'T SHE JUST GET READY FOR SCHOOL?  WHY CAN'T SHE JUST WRITE THE ONE SENTENCE (ONE, PEOPLE, ONE - THREE WORDS JUST THREE WORDS) TO FINISH HER HOMEWORK?  WHY DOES SHE HAVE TO WHINE AND COMPLAIN ALL THE TIME?"  Yesterday, head-spinning part of my personality was definitely winning out.  I was irritable and whiny and complaining (see where Gracie gets it?)


But, somehow, against the odds, I got Gracie to school on time.  I dropped her off in car line and pulled away from the curb to head out of the parking lot.  Can I tell you something about the driving in car line?  Well, sometimes it resembles a demolition derby, a demolition derby held in the middle of a blizzard hurricane (and yeah, I know you think that sounds like it can't happen, but that's what The Perfect Storm was...course they didn't call it a blizzard hurricane because weather forecasters are a lot cooler and smarter than me and have fancy names for things).  The morning car line is far worse than the afternoon car line.  There are a couple of reasons for this:  1)There are multiple drop-off spots in the line in the morning.  So, you've got people dropping off kids whose classes are on one wing of the school early in the line and people whose kids are in the other wing dropping off farther down the line and then everyone tries to merge at the far end of the line and as anyone who's ever driven in Atlanta where I-85, I-65, and I-how many stinking interstates can you merge at one spot knows that merging is never seamless and 2)People are in a hurry in the mornings.  Now, I don't know if they are in a hurry because they want to make the most of their time away from their kids (I've so been there...not judging at all) or if they're on their way to work or if, like me, they NEEEEEEEEEED to get to the closest Circle K and get their hands on a cold Diet Dr. Pepper so they don't completely lose their cool.  Whatever the reason, all the drivers seem a little more curt in the mornings.

Yesterday, as I was driving down the car line after I had dropped Gracie off, a guy in a pickup truck decided he was in a really big hurry and was going to merge, regardless of the fact that I was in the spot he was trying to occupy.  There wasn't anyone behind me yet, but apparently the two seconds that he gaind by cutting me off and causing me to slam on my brakes were worth it.  I grumbled under my breath, thinking "how rude!" 

The truck was plastered with all kinds of signs advertising his business.  There was a phone number and even a website in huge white decals.  As I followed him out of the parking lot on to the main road, I thought to myself, "I will NEVER, EVER use that company!"  I was thinking that people should really tell their employees that if they're going to drive around with all that advertising on their vehicle, they should be on their best behavior when they're in their vehicle so people don't form bad opionions about their company based on their driving.  Now, I know it's petty...the business advertised didn't have anything to do with driving or even automobiles, but why would I want to go to a business where the employees are rude.   When you're driving around with ads on your car, you and your car become representatives of the company being advertised - simple as that.  As I set behind him at the stop light, I was feeling really self-righteous about this....yeah, mister, you may have gotten your space in car line, but you've lost me as a customer for life.

And then, as I was sitting at that light waiting for it to turn green,  a soft voice whispered inside my head,

"You know, Daphne, you should heed your own advice....particularly when you're wearing your church t-shirt or wearing that beautiful silver cross...you should always remember who you represent..."