Story of the Day 9/ 4/ 2009

I was cooking , this morning.
If you call boiling eggs, cooking.

Of course, I can’t even do that right. I forgot to turn on the burner. Fortunately, someone else noticed this omission, about 15 minutes later.

It was at Etz, our synagogue, helping Susan get things ready for her daughter’s Bat Mitzvah. Susan has 4 children, but only one of them is a daughter. However, she is such a tall, beautiful, funny and sometimes exasperating young woman that I think Susan figures one daughter is enough. Of course, I don’t’ find her exasperating, but Susan does.

Susan’s friends, or at least, the friends that weren’t’ stuck working on Friday morning, were there cooking. Most of them, luckily, were displaying slightly more advanced cooking skills than I was.

One friend , who trudged in a little later than expected had…well, news to share.
This friend is also the mother of Aaron’s best friend, Ethan. Yeah, the cool guy with the earring and the Volvo.

Except, he no longer has a Volvo.

Yesterday, Ethan was involved in a major accident with a car filled with girls. I mean, the other car was filled with girls. Teenage girls. Filled as in there were 6 of them in a small car that has 5 seat belts.

And they were not just dumb enough to overcrowd the car and ride around with at least one of them unbelted; they were dumb enough to pull out into the multilane street from an apartment complex . Without looking.

Ethan, fortunately, was in Volvo with an airbag. And, of course, he does what any intelligent macho teenage guy does in that situation, he pulled out his cell phone and called his mom. Who told him to call 911 and then she headed out to where he was- getting there only after a slew of emergency vehicles, including the firemen who had to cut the girls out of their car.

Okay, so that is not exactly what happened. He called his mother and announced to her that his car had been totaled. Of course, his mother asked him the only important question, “Are you hurt.”

“No.”

Then she asked him the second most important question, “Where are you?”

And THEN she told him to call 911.

The end result was a nasty “rug burn” on Ethan’s arm from the air bag, less closet space ( Ethan had been using his car as a portable closet- with at least 6 pairs of shoes and numerous snazzy outfits- because you never know when you will need to change to fit the moment), and the order from his mom that he is going to show up at synagogue, this Shabbat and bench Gomel- that is the prayer we are grateful for surviving a disaster.

Oh yes, and Susan, I think, finding her daughter to be less exasperating than usual (despite the pressures of the Bat Mitzvah preparations.)

As a matter of fact, I went home and hugged my kid, too- well, the only one in Indianapolis…and I warned Stacie that I will be hugging Ethan, when I see him tomorrow.

Oh yes, and Ethan’s mom has also given him strict instructions that he is to start searching Craigslist for another Volvo. With an airbag.

Ethan’s mother has this to add:

(At the scene of the accident ) Ethan turned to me after saying "Wow, I didn't even know I had an airbag!" and told me that if he hadn't been wearing his seatbelt he would have gone through the windshield. Now that was a "teachable" moment - not the kind you hope for, but one that has more impact than your Mother just telling you to wear your seatbelt!