Monday, December 19, 2011

The Consequence of Bad Planning

Yesterday was probably one of the worst road trips of my life. How so? I went along with my dear hubby's plan. We decided to stay until lunch and squeeze in a trip to Trader Joe's. Since there is no TJ's in Tally, a shopping spree at TJ's was one of my goals during our trip to Atlanta. One of my downfalls is to recalculate everything that happened in the past and learn from those mistakes. Unfortunately, my sweet husband is still unable to plan anything, as smart and gifted as he really is. And my mistake is to go along with a so-so plan even though I probably am right most of the time. Then, I blame others. Blahhhh.

So we of course run late after our trip to TJ's and leave at 4 instead of the planned goal of 2 p.m. at the latest. We had a dead headlight, which of course was discovered a few days prior. So we definitely needed to get back before dark. Don't get me wrong, I had a pleasant time with all the family and friends we spent time with. But, when it comes down to children's flexibility, especially my own precious little ones, there's only so much they can take being strapped down in a car seat.
Exhausted from the weekend and depressed I couldn't do more than I did, I was not looking forward to the 5 hour drive to Tally. The first couple hours went well considering the kids took a long nap. Then of course, as I predicted, after a dinner stop at Wendy's the children get antsy, whiny, screamy the rest of the trip. Need I say more?

Okay, I can handle that for a couple hours. I was frustrated that it was 7:30 and we had few more hours left and my husband failed again to hear what I just said, "I'll drive." He said, "I ordered Dr. Pepper." I say, "Okay, fine." Then we get to the car and he asks, "I thought you said you can drive." Uggghh.. Okay I did not need him to irk me by reinforcing the fact that he doesn't listen to me.
As I drive, he looks at navigation and then suddenly realizes that he doesn't quite remember how to get back to Tally. We used Google Maps, which of course isn't accurate all the time. How many times have I tried going somewhere and it directed me to the middle of no man's land? So now we're somewhat lost. At this point, we have been swapping the phone charger because both are below 10%. Okay, I can handle that. Then he realizes the charger isn't charging. So eventually our phones die.

Okay, I'm still not at the point of crying with frustration surprisingly.

As we discover all this in a matter of half an hour, our 11 month old is irrate and really upset. My husband thinks the baby is still hungry after eating so much at Wendy's. I can handle the crying and accept the fact that the kids will be upset, bored, and want to be home as much as I did. So hubby gives the baby a bottle and the little one is still upset. As I start to yell at hubby, we realize that poor boy is gagging and starting to vomit. Now, that was it.

My poor son is throwing up on himself, crying, gagging, and we are lost w/ dead phones. I broke down and cried. I couldn't believe it. We were in the middle of some small country town. Then I saw lights flashing a few yards down at a gas station. I was relieved to see some police cars there. I was hoping they could help us. I pulled over. I came out of the car to get to my babe and the two police cars that was parked drove closer to us and the vehicle next to them. I first thought they had pulled over another van.

I immediately spoke to the police man, "Hello, sir." I'm teary-eyed and tired. In shock at the same time that my youngest is covered in vomit. Police man says, "I need to see your license." I said, "What?" He repeats himself and says, "Your headlight is broken." I think I was upset in tone because of the whole situation, which might explain the cops attitude with me. I asked if I could change my son's clothes first. I opened the van door to show him. He said, "Yes, go ahead and take care of your baby."

After finding an extra set of clothes and passing it onto my husband, I asked the cop if he'd like my license now since we were still changing baby. He said, "Yes." I turn around to get to my purse and he says under his breath, "if you have one" and snickered. I pretended not to hear that and just kept it cool so I wouldn't get a ticket. I could interpret that in many ways. Is that my first encounter of racism? Or maybe not so harsh, maybe stereotyping? Well, I can profile him as a white cop with a full on southern accent to be racist. Or, just take it to mean that I looked underage to have a license or it's missing? Yeah, right.

I could understand the questions "Where are you from?...Where are you going?" I came across as a California woman and might have been a little standoffish to him because I was not at all intimidated by him. But, "if you have one?!" hahahaha wow. I love this country. I was born and raised in this country. I am a conservative Republican. But, I'm Filipino, too. Most people guess Asian or Hispanic. Did I meet one of the 6% in the South? When I say 6%, that is the supposed statistic of racists in this country, according to some of fav'd radio talk show hosts. I do not remember where we were. Anyway, I was fine and felt much better after the cop checked my license and I finished cleaning out my baby's car seat of regurgitated fries. He gave my license back, "You have a dead headlight. You need to repair it as soon as you can. Where do you need to go?" I answered and his demeanor was totally different. Was it because he realized I was a citizen? That could've been in question because I still had my California license and had to explain that we just moved to Florida, in addition to the fact that we were on our way from Georgia. Thankfully, there's technology today and he could scan my card and find out that I am truthful. He was eventually polite and told me how to get back to the main highway. He let us go. We got back home late but safely, thank You Lord. Although I was surprised by the incident, I still believe the Lord brought us to them to get directions back to Tally.

It was a rough last hour and I'm still processing everything.

In the end, I think I'm most upset with the fact the road trip was not planned well, which resulted in a traumatic experience. I for one blame myself and that is for going along with someone else's idea.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Welcome this Mama to the Blogosphere

Ever since I moved to Tallahassee, I thought maybe I can start a blog called, "From Cali..." and so on. That's where I am from. Well, most of my life. Born in North Carolina during my father's last year at grad-school and my parents moved back to the Philippines shortly afterwards. After 5 years or so, they moved to California's Manilla town, Daly City, San Francisco. Moved around Daly City a few times and the summer of '97 my parents got sick of the city life and moved to suburbia and settled down in Fairfield, nearby wine country. I moved to Berkeley to live with a lifelong spiritual companion and commuted to San Francisco to go to school or as I used to say sheepishly, "I went to a private art school." For some reason I felt it was insignificant, maybe since I lived with a bunch of genius people I felt inferior, although they never made me feel such.

Okay, ten years following, met an awesome man at a 2-year Bible school, got married, and the Lord gave us 3 beautiful children within a span of 5 years of marriage. It's been a major adjustment. Every other year I was either pregnant or packing to move. Cost of living is ridiculous in Cali, and we were done w/ moving every year for financial reasons. We were ready to settle down for a little bit and we prayed for about 3 years to see where the Lord would move us. My husband, Philip, applied for jobs and got plenty of offers everywhere in the country but we had a sense about Tallahassee. He got 3 offers here. Anyways, point is, we moved here and after a rough start, we got a house and can finally say, "We're home." Although I miss my family and friends tremendously, it's been a great experience here for us. Our closest friends moved here to raise their children alongside us and to primarily pursue the Lord together. The slower pace is perfect for us at this time in our life.

Our babysitter came for her first day today, which means it's my first day to figure out what I'm going to do next. My 4 year old daughter is in pre-school. The two younger boys have a steady schedule now, especially the 11 month old, finally! And Philip is finally open to the idea for me to work. Now, how do I get back to the swing of working? Someone tell me. In the meantime, I'll work on my portfolio, learn a little about web design, network, update my Pinterest boards and blog.