Focus Switch

My alarm rang for half an hour before it woke me up Wednesday morning. That's how tired I was from Tuesday!

Tuesday, I worked until a little after 6 pm before I headed out the door to walk two blocks in almost freezing rain to the parking structure. Once safe from the elements, I called my daughter on my cell.

"You have two choices for dinner tonight," I announced.

"Well, I was kind of feeling like Chinese tonight," Anne answered. Knowing full well that I would not have energy to cook when I got home, she had already been contemplating what she might like for dinner. She added, "And I want to go to Kohl's to look at tops and buy some black shoes. I have a performance tomorrow.... What are my two choices?"

I mentally groaned. I was tired, it was raining and the cloud cover promised it would be a very dark night. I did not want to go shopping. I was so tired that I did not even really want to eat. If I were not responsible to feed my daughter, I would likely have skipped eating altogether and just gone home to bed. But now she was telling me she needed new shoes and a top before tomorrow morning? All I could think was, "Ugh."

"I can bring home fast food or we can go out," I told her. "I am really tired."

"Well," Anne thought aloud, "it would probably be faster if you would bring home Chinese and then we can go out shopping."

What was she thinking? I would have to go to the Chinese restaurant, order the food, wait for it then bring it home to eat. The restaurant is on the same side of the highway as Kohl's, but the opposite side of the highway as home. So I would have to double back to eat and get Anne before driving to Kohl's if I got the food first. I was way too tired for that. It might be faster for Anne if I got the food first, but neither way was not faster for me and, once fed, the only way Anne was going to get me to go shopping is if the store was somehow between me and my bed. Let's be reasonable here.

"It will not be faster for me to bring it home," I countered. "If you want Chinese, then we are going out."

"Okay."

"Make sure you have your debit card," I ordered. (This was for purposes of the impromptu shopping trip.)

"Okay."

It was just about 7:15 when we entered the restaurant. About 30 minutes later, we stood up to leave. But. . . where were my keys? I looked all around but could not find them, and I was so tired I could not remember what I did with them. Finding my keys nowhere in sight, in an otherwise empty restaurant, we decided to brave the now pouring rain to run and look in the car. It was the right decision. Before we even walked out through the glass doors, we saw my headlights were still on. That meant my keys were in the ignition.

"Oh, no," I thought. "I hope I can start the car."

I do not run because of my equilibrium, but I walk very fast when I see I left my keys in my car's ignition. My battery has already gone dead for that once this year and I do not relish the thought of having to replace a battery.

When I opened my car door on Tuesday night, I had so much adrenaline coursing through my veins from worry about my battery that it did not matter how tired I was. I jumped into the car (quickly closing the door against the rain behind me) to reach over and twist my key as fast as possible.

Before my hand could even touch my key, my ears told me I must be even more tired that I originally thought. Not only were my headlights on, but so was my radio. This means me ignition switch was still part way turned. When I stopped the car, I had not even turned my car all the way off.

I literally groaned, "Oh, nooo," when I heard my radio.

Anne opened her car miliseconds after I did. She did not hear my groan. She laughed when she heard the radio, "This is turning out to be a fun story! Let's see what happens next!"

A tired smile touched my lips as my focus switched from my car to my daughter. She is so funny sometimes. Anne may not consider me to be a "famous" author [yet], but she certainly does seem to be enjoying the idea that she plays a living role in my stories.