Monday – after work I decided I needed to go to Wal-Mart to get my oil changed. We live very close to one Wal-Mart that I really don’t like at all (HATE), so I made the decision to check out the new Wal-Mart across the mountain from where I live (if you live in the Pacific Northwest? Change the word “mountain” to “hill”) in the rich people part of town. On my way up and over the mountain, a storm popped up out of nowhere and I about had an anxiety attack right then and there. I was on a steep grade highway and I couldn’t even see the car in front of me. It was TERRIFYING. If, of course by “terrifying” I mean “Scared the shit out of me and made me cry a little bit.”
When I finally got to the Wal-Mart, they had too long of a wait to get to my car before close time. I was royally peeved at no one in particular so I decided to wait out the rest of the storm walking around Wal-Mart and grabbing something to eat since I was so hungry I wanted to puke.
(Why is that? That when you get really hungry you want to vomit? Seems like a bad instinct. I should talk to Mother Nature about having that changed.)
As we were walking around (it’s so FANCY in the rich people Wal-Mart) the damn POWER went out. This didn’t phase me too much because they obviously had a generator powering some basic lights, so it wasn’t completely dark. It was actually kinda neat. Until I realized that I could not buy the sandwich I chose because the cash registers weren’t working. DAMN IT.
We saw the rain had stopped and just got in the car to head back down the mountain and towards home. NikkiZ started screaming immediately since she likens car rides to cruel torture sessions and she kept screaming all the way down the mountain.
Keep in mind I was still starving to death.
We were going to pass Bruegger’s on the way home, so I made the decision to stop there and grab a bagel and a soda and give NikkiZ a break since she was screaming so hard she was making herself gag. We pulled into the parking lot, I got her out of the car (at which time she IMMEDIATELY stopped crying and started laughing – evil child) and headed towards Bagel Bliss. As we walked up to the store I noticed something was odd, and then it hit me. Damn power was out there too. And there was a sign on the door “Closed Until Power Is Turned Back On.”
DAMN IT.
So, I let NikkiZ take a break for awhile hanging out at the tables outside of Bruegger’s. She was in a good mood and I hated to ruin it by putting her back in the car. Even though my hunger had reached the point of “Hmmm…baby would taste good right now” I thought maybe we could wait out the power issue and play until we could get some food. That’s when I took all of these pictures of the various expressions NikkiZ was trying out when I’d say “Smile!”
The power never came back on. Well, I’m sure it did eventually – but we gave up and headed home before ever getting our bagel-fix. There were cops at every intersection on the way home directing rush-hour traffic, which made the drive that much MORE AWESOME. I got home? And MrZ was all, “Hmmm. Didn’t even rain a drop here.”
I have never heard of a baby that hates a car. How weird.
Did MrZ have dinner ready when you got there?
Heh. I shouldn’t laugh but… heh…
Rich Walmarts are the only Walmarts to go to, power or no.
What!? Has NikkiZ always had such hatred for cars? My 2.5 month old SCREAMS bloody murder 99% of the time he is in the damn car. I’m learning to get used to it but it still shoots my nerves to hell. I thought he was the only child EVER to not like the car. I also thought/figured/hoped it would just be a newborn thing that he would outgrow any day now. Nooooo Zoot!!! Say it aint so! He HAS to outgrow this!
Forget wanting to shoot the WalMart crew or Mother Nature…
Shoot Mr. Z for making a stupid comment like that when you were starving…
How is it that no one has said anything about her TEETH? Look at those two beauties up there! I’m so impressed that you got a picture of them. I can’t get a picture of Jalyn’s top teeth for the life of me. But I have lots of pictures of her top lip.
Darn free will. Who said these kids were allowed to make up their own minds about what they will and will not cooperate with?
My son hates the car too. We shove the paci in and that usually works for a while, but still every car ride is miserable. And I hate those days when it seems everything just keeps going wrong, but at least you have a cute little girl that makes you smile when it does.
Oh lordy do I love her face in that last pic. It’s all, “But WHY, Mom? WHY do we have to get back in the car?”
She is so cute.
Dude. That sucks. I like it when the power goes out at home, and at work, because it gives me an excuse to do ntohing.
But when I want to do things? And when I’m so hungry I’m giong to vomit?
I think I would have eaten the sandwich anyway and given them more than enough cash for it.
Except knowing me, I wouldn’t actually have cash on me. And the power would be out, so I wouldn’t be able to use the ATM.
So, yeah, that sucks.
Whenever the power goes out at home, I suddenly experience short-term memory loss. I want to heat up some soup, then I remember the microwave’s off. I want to watch some T.V. and am halted by my remote control’s inability to function. I hate it!
My son is also not a big fan of the car, so it makes me want to scream when people say, “Really? My 3 kids all just fell right asleep when I put them in the car!” Yeah, well, mine’s abnormal, and thanks ever so much for pointing that out.
Anyway. . . I’ve found 2 things that help, a LOT:
– the paci, as another commenter already mentioned
– a portable DVD player that fastens to the back of the passenger’s seat, right where my boy can see it. Oh, and Teletubbies videos to go with it. Trust me, this got us through a grand total of 9 peaceful hours of driving over the weekend (during which my son only slept 2 hours). Those Teletubbies are magical. And this was a miraculous improvement over our beach trip last year, when my son–at 5 months–screamed bloody murder for a great deal of the trip, requiring us to stop and get him out of the car seat every hour, or less, turning a 3.5 hour drive into 5 hours. Good times.