Shortcut

Spontaneity doesn't agree with me. I'm just not a very spontaneous person and it's driven Brook crazy for 17 years now. So last night I thought I'd try. Just down the street from our house is a stop sign that leads out of our neighborhood. You can turn left or right. Right takes us on a road through a neighborhood and left takes us through a FIELD to an adjoining neighborhood. I was driving Zach to basketball practice last night, on my way to pick up some other players who live right through that field. As I reached the stop sign, I glanced left and saw that the snow was melting and that there were many bare spots and tire tracks in the field. "Zach," I said, "let's go four-wheeling" and before I thought twice about it we were in four-wheel-drive and driving through the field. It was fun! We were doing great! "I'm such a cool mom," I whispered under my breath. Just about that time we reached the top of a little hill. "Mom, it gets deeper here," Zach warned, but I didn't care. I was cruisin'! Sadly, just beyond the crest of that hill the sun doesn't shine as much, and the wind doesn't blow the snow away so effectively and I quicikly found myself stuck in a very deep snow drift. And I mean stuck solid. In a panic I called a friend and told her to bring the basketball players to the field with shovels. They arrived and spent the next hour trying to dig us out. Cars traveling up the street saw a black suburban stuck in a huge snowbank with a blond lady ordering four young men around. Cars honked. Moms brought their kids outside to watch. And thankfully men in shirts and ties, arriving home from work, stopped to help. When Brook came up the block he was greeted by the sight of cars pulled off to the side to watch. When I waved at him, he pretended that he didn't know me and just kept driving before he thought better of it and came to help. My new best friends, Steve and Todd, finally helped Brook pull me out and I had to stalk their houses down today to deliver pies and thank-you cards. Lessons I learned from my experience: shortcuts take longer in the long run.... Spontaneity isn't something I'm good with...... People are generally willing to help strangers in need..... and every once in a while a good laugh is needed.