How Did I Live Without You?

from Ben's mom

We left Mike for the weekend so that I could earn a little extra cash. Things went relatively smoothly until we headed to Corvallis Saturday night. It started to pour shortly after we left Portland and the windshield wiper on the driver's side promptly began flipping all over the place and failing to clear the windshield. So I stopped on the side of busy I-5 in the pouring rain and kept trying to fix it, sans tools, to no avail. We finally limped into a rest area and waited for it to clear enough to go on to Corvallis. (My dad fixed it handily the next morning.)

Our return trip was equally exciting. I started off with plans to arrive home early. We stopped in Woodburn for a brief shopping trip in sales-tax free Oregon. Ben should have been ready to eat and I was happy to take advantage of the mother's lounge. Only when we went into the first store, he turned into a terror. Who is this child? I thought. He had to touch every single item his stroller came remotely close to and all with a lot of loud dialogue going on with me. So we left to try lunch. He wouldn't eat and so we went back to the store to make a purchase. Again, loud talking and grab, grab, grab. We tried eating once more. No go. And round and round. We left the store nearly 2 hours later, with just enough time to get to Olympia before Mike had to return his rental car.

We made a stop for gas in Wilsonville where the attendant asked me to unlock the gas tank. Huh? Our gas tank doesn't lock. Or so we thought. It turns out that we have some amazing anti-theft device where it locks if someone tries to get in it (or bumps it) when the vehicle is locked. When I finally figured this out, it was pouring rain, the trunk was loaded with stuff and it looked like I would have to tear the whole thing apart, and we were running late. So I decided to try to get home without gas. (Ha!) So Ben and I made our way through commuter traffic in Portland in the rain while I watched the "miles to go" counter while gripping the steering wheel. Then he started to cry. I started handing zweiback toast to him over the top of his car seat until I could feel a little hand pull on it. Then I kept my hand on his head with one hand so I could feel if he started to choke or not. But he wanted to really eat now--having skipped lunch for some unexplained reason. Frantic calls to Mike and my mom and finally logic kicked in and I gave up on returning the rental car on time. I stopped, fed Ben, and Mike drove to Centralia and met us at a gas station approprixately 20 miles after my gas light had come on.

It took him less than five minutes to calm me down, cheer up Ben (he started laughing when he saw him), take apart the right side of the trunk, find the lever and open the gas tank, and get the car ready to go again. HOW DID I EVER SURVIVE WITHOUT THIS MAN?

Then he took me home, and rented me a fun chick flick, gave me a foot rub, back rub and cuddled with me until it was all better.

All part of "the two shall become one" miracle, I guess.