Yesterday started out perfectly innocent and nice for me. The sun was shining when I woke up, it was supposed to be a beautiful day, the boys were happy, and I was not feeling terrible. I had grand plans to take Cameron to school in the morning, then go run some errands with Harrison before spending the rest of the morning at the park. I also planned to be very productive during the boys' nap time. I feel like the boys and the house have been very neglected while I have been sick, so I was really looking forward to spending some quality time with Harrison as well as getting some things done around the house. Well, as soon as we walked out the door in the morning, everything seemed to fall apart. First of all, as soon as I pulled out of our garage, I noticed that our street was closed in one direction. No problem I thought…I just turned the other way and went out the opposite direction. However, as soon as I got around the corner down for our house, I was greeted with another road closed barrier. We were too late to walk or grab a bus to school and our bike trailer is broken, so I began to panic a bit. Why was our road closed anyway?? Luckily, a neighbor of ours pulled out of the garage shortly after I did to head to work, so we discussed the situation and came up with a strategy. We couldn't see any reason why our street or all the streets around us were closed, so we decided we would tag team the barriers and slip through so we could get out. By this time, another neighbor came along (a local) and informed us that all the roads were closed because they were having a street market of sorts on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This neighbor said that we could get out and back in if we lived in the area, but that people would probably be upset. So he helped us moved the barriers and I was able to get Cameron to school just in time!
After dropping Cameron off at school, Harrison and I went on our way to run errands. We went to a home improvement store for some gardening supplies and then to the grocery store. It's been quite a while since I have actually done proper grocery shopping. Smells really bother me at the moment, so I've been spending as little time in stores as possible. Anyways, we clearly really needed groceries. So after spending a good amount of time in the store stocking up, we proceeded to the checkout. Ten minutes and €100.00 later, the groceries bagged and in my cart, with five people behind me in line, I discovered that I did not have any way to pay for my things. This particular store only takes cash, which I did not have, or a chip card (not a credit card), which I did not have. I do have a chip card, but it was not in my wallet at that moment!!! It felt like all the blood drained from my body and I began to panic. I did not know how to have a conversation about not being able to pay in Dutch (or I at least lost all the Dutch that I do know), so I began, as calmly as I could, freaking out in English. The lady at the register very calmly responded to me in English, acting as if this happened more often than you would think, and called the manager over. I couldn't even bring myself to look at the growing line behind me, but I'm sure they were annoyed. The manager took my groceries and said she would keep them at the customer service desk until I could come back with money to pay. I was still panicked and extremely embarrassed, but she told to go to a hospital nearby to get some money from an ATM.
I left the store and called Cole to tell him what was going on and that I would not be able to get Cameron from school because I was trying to get money to pay for my groceries. I felt terrible because I knew he had plans for lunch and that these shenanigans would make him late. Thank goodness for a patient husband who puts up with my crazy!! He told me to take care of the grocery situation and he would go get Cameron. I hung up and headed to the hospital, thinking about the cheese, chicken, milk and other perishables that were just sitting in my cart at the store. Then, it dawned on me that, although I knew physically where the hospital was, that it was a big hospital with many buildings. How was I supposed to quickly find an ATM on the huge hospital premises? By the grace of God, I was able to find where to park and literally walk straight to an ATM to get money for the groceries. As an added bonus, I was able to get everything done quickly enough that I didn't have an pay for parking at the hospital! You might be wondering about Harrison during all this. Well, he was happily along for the ride, but was a very curious participant. He kept asking the same questions over and over…"Where are we going mommy?" "Why are we going to the hospital mommy?" "Why did you forget to bring money mommy?" After a while, I begged him to let me answer his questions later so I could figure out what I needed to do. He seemed to understand my pleadings and waited until we had the money and were back in the car to start up again. Needless to say, a whole new set of questions came up when we arrived back at the same grocery store we had just left a mere 20 minutes earlier! To bring my humiliation full circle, I returned to the customer service desk to retrieve my groceries and pay.
After retrieving the groceries, I met up with Cole so I could get Cameron and go home. There was no time for the park at this point. We had an uneventful trip home until I got back to the above mentioned closed streets by my house. Because I live on one of the closed streets, I am allowed to drive through there to get home, but I was still stopped by an unhappy woman who was sure to tell me that I was not allowed to be doing what I was doing. By this time, I wanted to loose it on someone, but I just responded that I was going to my house and she begrudgingly let me go.
Nap time could not come fast enough once we got home. We had a quick lunch and then all headed to bed for a nice long nap. Once Cole was home, he was very sweet to take the boys out to enjoy the nice weather so I could relax a little more. At the end of the day, I was so thankful to fall into bed, have a good laugh with my extremely loving and understanding husband, and recognize and accept that it was just one of those days!
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