Not My Best Monday

Accidents really have a way of putting a damper on another wise stellar day.  I was excited for Miss M's Balcony Girls/Girl Scout troop meeting, I'd gotten the house ready for the meeting and it had been a perfect fall Monday.  I'd been to the gym to work out, ran a few errands and even had time to work on my Bible study.

I'd arrived at the Jr. High a little early, anxious to meet the girls before the bus and drive them to my house for our first meeting of the year.  The first parking stall I'd chosen didn't seem right; I thought if I exited the car others would be stuck behind me.  Listening to the radio and planning in my head the next few hours of the day, I did not see the Stop Sign in the middle of the road ahead.

Now to give you a little background.  It's a short stop sign and it's not always there. Really.  I ran smack into it. My lovely ten month old Honda Minivan (that I'd just washed and vacuumed that very day) ran over a five foot stop sign and it was now wedged under my car.  I tried backing up. Nothing. Going forward. Nothing.

I ran into the building as cars loaded with parents watched, and said I needed help ASAP to get the stop sign out from under my car.  You see not only was the sign stuck, I was stuck in the middle of the road.  Blocking traffic with just seconds to spare before the bell rang.

The Assistant Principal came out and said," Mrs. B let's see what we can do;" and between the off duty police officer and himself they directed me to backup and get out of the way of oncoming traffic.  By now, the bell had rung and hundreds of 5th and 6th graders are piling out of the building and snapping pictures of my car and laughing.  I'm holding it together, but worried about the Girl Scouts, my car and how I would ever explain this to P.

The principal comes over to offer his condolences, er help, and then it becomes evident that we'll need to jack the car up to get the pole out.  In the course of the next fifteen minutes, the asst. principal jacks up my car, my husband arrives ( Miss M had frantically called him from my cell phone, poor guy thought from her screaming that I'd been impaled by a stop sign), and it's still stuck.

By now, most of the kids have been picked up sans my little group of girls and the entire staff has been notified of my "situation."  The Junior High Football Coaches arrive and offer to lift the car up just a little bit more so my husband can pull it out. It appears that the base of the sign is just caught up under the undercarriage with no significant damage underneath.  One big grunt and the car is up and the sign it out.  Hurrah!

The damage to my car really is very little, just a small dent on the hood and I'm thankful to say the damage to my ego really isn't as bad as it could have been.  A friend saw me in my moment of stress and offered help and a hug, the staff at the school jumped into my rescue, and my husband said there was no need to apologize, I'd beat myself up enough already with the whole school watching.

All in all, it was a good lesson for my Girl Scouts, to stay calm in a crisis, to ask for help and receive it openly and to really pay attention where you are going and not get distracted.  Accidents can really mess up your day if you let them or they can be just a little glitch on your day.