
I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before or not, but Grace has an older half brother. It's not my child-it's her dad's because, obviously I'm barely old enough to have a 12-year-old, so it would be physically impossible for me to have a child older than that, much less a 17-year-old child. Well, said older brother that I couldn't possibly have mothered due to my youth had a wreck. It was a pretty bad one that required his being transported from the hospital in the town where he lives to a hospital in Ft. Worth. Being the loving and caring mother I am, I decided to keep Grace out of school yesterday and take her to visit her brother in the hospital in Ft. Worth.
I made my first mistake when I opted not to look up directions to the hospital on Mapquest. No, instead I decided that since I've driven by it so many times, I could count on my stellar sense of direction to lead me there. I'll wait while those who know me stop laughing. Choosing which highway and exit to take to get to your destination by saying, "I'll just follow the Ft . Worth skyline" is actually a really bad idea because there are a lot of highway and exit options along the Ft. Worth skyline and the exit that will actually lead you to the hospital is not clearly marked, dammit. Driving 70 miles an hour down the interstate screaming to your child, "Where are the blue hospital signs?"and "Oh my God, we're going to die!!" won't actually help you arrive at your destinaton, but it will lead them to mock you.
Had I looked up the actual address and procured directions to my destination, I may have also learned that the name of the hospital had changed since I last drove by it. That would've been good information to have because then I would've known that the building I flew by twice was indeed my destination even though the blurry letters on the side did not appear to spell out it's name. Yes, I know I should probably go ahead and make that appointment with the eye doctor. By the time we finally got there and parked I was drenched in sweat. I'm just thankful my hair held up through all that mess. Grace visited with her brother and we left the hospital in good spirits because he was being moved from the ICU into a regular room.
One would think heading home would've been easy. Yeah, not so much. Not because I didn't know where I was going. I actually did thanks to Grace's dad. But because of NASCAR. Damn you, NASCAR and all your travel trailer having fans. Damn you straight to the hell. Traffic was backed up for miles and miles. I don't do so good with merging which you have to do more than once between Ft. Worth and Denton. Trying to merge when traffic is bumper-to-bumper and a whole bunch of Dale Jr. fans (Nothing against Dale Jr. or his fans.That's just the only NASCAR driver name I could think of off the top of my head.) don't want to let you in because that will mean one more car standing between them and Texas Motor Speedway and a big smoker full of meat will give you the shakes. Doing it with your eyes closed doesn't actually make it any easier. But your child will, again, mock you.
I was never so happy to park my car in this driveway as I was last night. This trip reinforced something I've (and many others who know me) believed for a long time: I should not be allowed to drive in the city. As a matter of fact, I should not be allowed to drive in any town that has a population of more than about 50,000 people. Maybe less.
And, in case you're wondering, it feels kind of weird when you realize you're turning into your mother.