Story of the Evenening 8/19/2008

I waved good-bye to Esther, this morning.

She had very clear instructions to call me every now and then, so I didn’t worry (too much).
And she was good and kept to a schedule about it.
There was a call from her about 3 hours after she left, everything was fine, and another one, a couple of hours after that. She had missed her exit for the highway, or taken a different one, and could I run it on Google map.
Well, I couldn’t’. I tried, but it was too complicated for me, and by the time I had pulled the information up on mapquest- the tool of us old fogies who can’t comprehend googlemap, she had found a sign directing her to the correct highway.

She called again, before she ate the sandwich she had packed. And then it was quiet.
Of course, I was busy steering Sarah through the 47 lbs of homework (well, that is what the textbooks weighed). And it did require steering. She was so over tired that’s he literally fell asleep sitting-up.


But then, while I was making dinner, Aaron picked up the phone.
Something was wrong.
A speeding ticket.
She was only going 45.
Wait….but what was the speed limit?
And the cop kept her for 30 minutes.
And she was upset- which made the nasty mommy in me (known as the disciplinarian) remind her that this was a good lesson.
And she was lucky it wasn’t’ a car accident.

And then, she called again, because all the hotels were full.

Well, she did see a sign for an Econo Lodge, ad she was going to try to find it. But the other places she had stopped were full.
Why? Was this some special occasion?

I told her to call me from the Econo Lodge- whether or not she got a room.

But she didn’t.

A couple of hours later, Esther called from a different hotel.

“The Econo Lodge was no where near the highway. I kept driving and driving.
Then, when I found it, they had a room.
But when I walked in, I realized it was the same hotel I stayed at with daddy when he drove me out, freshman year.
And it was too sad to stay there without him.
So I walked right out and drove to this hotel.”

The new hotel was comforting.
Her room has a view of the college’s soccer field.
She can’t get lost.