Freak Out. Crack Up.

Last Friday turned out to be quite a busy day. I asked Nola if she wanted to come along on a few errands with Riley and me. She agreed to accompany us, so we picked her up around 9am.

Our first stop was the bank, where I needed to deposit a few checks. I had just slid the first check into the machine when I realized I hadn’t endorsed any of them. Oops. Luckily, I was able to cancel the transaction and the machine returned the check to me. I set to work on endorsing, but when I glanced back at the machine, I noticed my ATM card was nowhere to be seen. Oops again. I had left it there too long and the machine ate it. Permanently. So, what was supposed to be a two-minute trip turned into a twenty minute stop, during which I had to go into the bank and sit down with one of the employees to order myself a new ATM card. But I did finally get my deposit completed.

Our next stop was better, just a quick return of something to Lakeside Camera. Then we headed to Bed, Bath, and Beyond, where Mom found what she needed and I found most of what I needed. Riley got something, too, but only because he started sobbing after I told him he couldn’t have a scary-looking bright yellow LSU backrest pillow. Nola appeased him by spotting a Cars game rug set, which finally quieted him down. Good Lord.

When we went to check out, there was only one station open and the line of people was hugely long. So we went to Customer Service instead, and that’s where Riley really lost it. For no good reason. The nice lady in line behind us tried her best to distract him with a fun app on her iPhone, but Riley was having none of it. I paid for my things first and took the screaming one outside. Nola soon followed, and we shook our heads in dismay as we pushed the unreasonable boy to the car.

Once Riley had finally calmed down (after Nola opened his game mat package and gave him the Mater and Lightning cars that came with it), we drove next door to Target to see if they had what I couldn’t find in BB&B. As I was parking, I realized I hadn’t used my two gift cards to pay for my BB&B purchases. Oops yet again. We went into Target, didn’t find what I needed, and drove back over to BB&B, where I waited in a fairly long line at Customer Service so I could have my receipt adjusted and use my gift cards.

At this point I was really frustrated. Mom suggested we take a break for lunch at a nearby restaurant, and I readily agreed. However, our lunch out was not the relaxing experience we all needed. Riley was being a bit of a pill, our food took forever to arrive, and when it did, Nola’s was not to her satisfaction. I made her send it back since she wouldn’t have enjoyed it the way it was, and it again took forever to come back out again.

We left the restaurant with thankfully only one more stop on our agenda (where, blessedly, we finally found the last thing on my list). But the day had just really gotten to me, so as we were leaving the restaurant parking lot, I suddenly felt the need to let out a much-needed, cathartic, yell of frustration. Not two seconds afterwards, Nola and I hear a little voice pipe up from the backseat.

“Mama’s freakin’ out.”

His timing and delivery could not have been more perfect, and Nola and I were soon laughing so hard that tears were streaming down our cheeks. I simply could not drive the car anymore, so I had to pull over to the side of the lot until I could control myself again. It was just what we needed to shake off the disastrous morning, and I came away with a great Riley story to share with y’all.

Thank goodness he’s funny. Life would be awfully boring if he wasn’t.