What a Night

Man oh man, last night was a doozy.

First off, we volunteered last night. That was actually great. We had two children with us, and they started off a bit jumpy and distracted, but by the end they were great. It's really interesting, I mentioned a while back that a new child had joined the shelter and that there was some tension surrounding the entrance into the group. Now, that tension is not completely gone by any means, but it's beginning to break down here and there. And some of that, I think, is due to the example of the volunteers. We talked about it at our meeting last week, and you can really see people's efforts to promote cooperation, acceptance, and sharing working, at least on a moment to moment level. Additionally, these kids are amazing in their ability to show you little lessons, like all I need is a little reminder to be nice. It's that basic, there's a lot of effort in being rude, or grumpy, or angry, and all we need is a little reminder to let it go. These kids are much better at letting it go than adults! Also, they are so creative, thinking up things like songs, things to draw, stories, that would take me hours, years to come up with. Amazing! And it's hard, because when I'm there, a lot of the time I get caught up in their energy, and rambuctiousness, and the challenge of keeping up, or trying to guide the activity that I miss these little lessons. That is why I am so glad I have this blog to reflect on it.

And, I could have used a little reminder afterwards. We went to the airport to pick up the woman that Noreen works for. She was flying in from the west coast, late at night, and she doesn't have anyone else to help her out, so Noreen had agreed to pick her up. I was dragged along, begrudgingly, but what was I gonna do. In the end, I wouldn't want Noreen to have to do it alone. So the flight is a late one, that gets delayed an hour and a half, ugh! Then we drive around the airport continuously. This is before we found out about the delay because of course the web site said it was on time before we left. Finally, we stop, Noreen checks the monitor, and we bite the bullet and park the car. Inside, there's construction(jack-hammers) and alarms going off(brain peircing kind), so not fun. Of course, do I suck it up, put on a smile, and soldier on, of course not. This does not help, Noreen or me. This is where I needed the lesson reminder.

Finally, we get in the car to leave, I'm so relieved, that I actually got happy and was fine. The drive home was pretty uneventful, until 2 minutes from her house. I stop at a red light. Wait. The light turns green. Pause. I start to turn left. HOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKK!!!!!!!!! And a huge GMC ENVOY blows through the opposing red light and almost smashes into my wife and her boss. I don't know if the driver was drunk, road raging, self-important, or all three, but the car was at least 15-20 miles over the limit and 2 inches from our car. I'm very grateful I've been running so much, and I'm in such good shape. Otherwise, I don't think given that time of night and with that level of fatigue that my reflexes would have been so good. The other driver's action was so absurd that a taxi driver who witnessed it said it was crazy, a TAXI driver, in BOSTON! Ugh, we got the license number, as the driver did stop at the next light(go figure). I don't know if I can do anything with it, since we don't have any witnesses beyond the occupants of the car, anybody know about that? Mostly, I'm very, very, very grateful that no one was hurt, and also that the car is ok(but that's very, very, very secondary). Needless to say, we were all a bit shook up. I have a history of bad accidents, one my fault, that leaves me on edge about such things. And, Noreen and I had some trouble going to sleep. But, the whole thing did put the night in perspective, I'd much rather spend the night at the airport than the hospital. It brought me back to the kids a bit, sometimes you just need a little reminder to enjoy what you have, maybe that's what someone was trying to tell me. I'm going to try to remember that one for awhile, especially on my run tonight, and more afterwards when I'm with my wife and dogs at home.

Everybody have a good one.