Reflections Of A White Wife Gone Black: friends

It's no secret that I was REALLY looking forward to getting my ass to Detroit for a weekend of fun and excitement. Finally Friday came. We were preparing to leave when we were hit with a crisis... We suddenly had no sitter for our youngest son for Saturday.
No way! This can NOT happen. Not this weekend!

After a frantic 2-1/2 hour search, we had a replacement and were free to hit the road. Fortunately, the weatherman kept his promise and the roads were clear. The 2 hour drive to the border seemed to fly by. When we got to the customs check, there were only a few cars lined up ahead of us. We figured 20 minutes at the most and we'd be through. Not tonight. As soon as we pulled up to the kiosk, the guard told us that we were selected for a random search and had to pull over into the holding area. We've crossed the border a hundred times and been through this before. No biggie. It's only a half hour. But why tonight? Don't they know I have someplace to be 3 hours ago?

We were cleared to go and got back in the car. Click. Click. Why won't this damn thing start?! Half an hour with the doors open and the trunk popped for inspection was just enough to drain our battery. We got out and told the inspector that we needed a boost and he called the DOT. "It'll be 10-15 minutes". Great. We're now a good 4 hours late and still an hour away from our hotel. 15 minutes turned into 30. 30 quickly turned into 60 and still no help. It was almost as if Friday the 13th figured that if my birthday could come early, it could too.

Now I should point out that we had intended to spend Friday evening hanging out with one of the couples we party with. We've become very close over the past 2 years and don't get nearly as much time to spend with them as we'd like. Customs is a secured area and cell phones have to be turned off and left in the car. Our friends had no way of knowing how far behind we were until we finally got boosted and started down the highway and could call them. "Long story but see you in an hour". If only that were true.

15 miles into the last leg and my hubby notices the tach suddenly spike and drop back. 1 mile later, the car came to a rolling stop. Hubby got out and came back with bad news - there was a pool of transmission fluid under the car and we were stranded. I didn't know whether to laugh, scream or cry. This is not simply Friday he 13th coming early. This is bigger. God must be unimpressed with my blog. He's tired of good little Catholic girls going bad without any remorse and decided to teach me a lesson.

Another call to our friends. We're in trouble. Not sure how are we going to get to Detroit tonight. Without a second's hesitation, he had offered to drive up and get us. Skip ahead to 4:30am... 9 hours since we left home. The car is safe at a garage, our friend got us and our stuff to the hotel and the beds beckoned. What a night! We'll worry about the car on Sunday. Let's just do what we came to do and worry about the trip home when the time comes.

On Saturday, our friend once again came to the rescue by driving us on our errands and helping us get everything ready for the party. What a sweetheart. I ruined his Friday night and here he is giving up his Saturday to help me again. This party was actually going to go as planned. (More on the party itself in a few days.)

As the guests began to arrive, our worries faded into the background. Eventually one of the regular couples noticed our car wasn't parked out front as usual and asked what was up. As soon as they heard the story, they offered to get us back to our car and help with the repair when we were ready to leave on Sunday afternoon. What a generous offer and what a huge relief! I couldn't have asked for any better birthday present than this support from my friends.

After a well-deserved sleep-in, our friends arrived to take us back to the car. With our bags packed and tools on board, we headed out hoping that the problem wasn't too serious and that we could at least limp the car back to Canada. Fortunately, our bad luck seemed to be contained to Friday as all that was wrong was a blown hose clamp - simple to fix in the light of day but it sure was a big deal on the side of the interstate in the middle of the night. 9 bottles of fluid later, everything roared back to life. We climbed in for a test drive and when things seemed in order, we headed for Cracker Barrel for dinner before attempting the remainder of our trip. With our bellies full, we did a final peek under the car, said thank you and parted ways as we all headed home.

I had hoped that this would be a weekend to remember and it certainly was. You can write off Friday to just plain bad luck but you can't blame God for this one. If he did have a hate on for me, I sure wouldn't have have been blessed with friends like these. Rich, Christy, Thom and Danielle... thank you so much for everything you did for us. There's a tendency to make a distinction between 'lifestyle' friends and 'regular' friends but you have shown us that we are TRUE friends and for that I am truly grateful.