Friday the 13th

I should have known when I woke up this morning that today was an ill-fated day.

I mean, I knew that today was April the 13th, and I knew that today was a Friday, but I didn't not really put it together that today was Friday the 13th. That kind of stuff doesn't usually faze me at all. In fact, I don't really do anything with superstitions.

But alas, you live and learn.

As I was saying. Today started off oddly. I woke up this morning around 8 AM listening for the sounds of my son stirring in his crib. But I couldn't hear anything. Which was when I realized that he hadn't made a sound all night long. That I had indeed gotten seven hours straight of sleep.

Naturally, I bolted from my bed to Rich's room to check on him. I was sure that some accident had befallen him. Usually, he wakes up at least a few times during the night needing his binky or needing to be re-swaddled. But not last night. He slept totally through the night.

But, Rich was fine. Just like he always is after my mini-panic attacks.

The day progressed as usual. Feeding, pumping, getting ready for the day, chatting on the phone, running an errand, feeding pumping, etc. Nothing strange or out of the ordinary. Nothing Friday the 13th-ish. (Was it the calm before the storm?)

At our house, Friday night means date night. And although Tyler and I don't really do anything very exciting for date nights, we do always look forward to them. They are the one night a week where I know Tyler can just chill out and not worry about any homework. In other words, on Friday nights, Tyler is all mine. Well, mine and Rich's.

Anyway. I decided that it would be nice to use one of our Olive Garden gift certificates and eat a little bit fancier than usual tonight. So not long after Tyler got home from school, I sent him out to pick up our date night fare. He left around 5 PM or so to drive to Olive Garden (and stop off at Cold Stone for dessert--again, thank you gift cards!).

When he hadn't returned by 5:30, I started getting worried. By 5:45, I was practically panicking. I tried calling him, but his phone kept going straight to voicemail. In my head there were two thoughts--one, he's on the phone and is ignoring my call (but this didn't seem very likely: Tyler always takes my calls) or two, Tyler's had some horrible accident and his phone was destroyed.

Although I knew that he was probably fine, by 5 till (5:50) I began imagining what terrible things might have happened. Like, Tyler's in a hostage situation at Olive Garden and the robber/gunman destroyed Tyler's phone when I tried to call him or that Tyler has been in a horrible car accident in which Tyler and his phone were thrown from the car and the phone was smashed to bits and Tyler was dead and no one knows to call me and I should maybe start calling the hospital or the police to find out if anything terrible has happened.

Tyler finally answered his phone at 6:00. Letting me know that I was both right and wrong about all of my fears.
1) Yes he was ignoring my phone call. (what?) In his defense he was on the phone with the insurance company because
2) He had been in a car wreck. But it wasn't his fault. He'd been rear-ended by a guy and the bumper of our car was trashed.
But thankfully, 3) Tyler was not injured, and neither was the other driver. Although both cars were damaged.
And 4), since Tyler wasn't at fault, they had already contacted the other guy's insurance to get the claim process started.


Okay. So maybe it wasn't that bad. Things could have been a million times worse. (My worst fear is Tyler going out to run an errand for me and dying in some terrible car accident. Hence my over-reacting from earlier.) But we were very lucky and blessed. And somehow, this will turn into some sort of blessing. Because trials always do. I'll let you know when I know what it is.

I am very very grateful that Tyler came home safely. And that the damage to the car seems to be only affecting the bumper. And that Richie wasn't in the car when the accident happened. (Nor was his car seat.)

Sidenotes:

I had some kind of funny thoughts going through my head as I half-contemplated calling the police. I imagined my phone conversation with the dispatcher going something like this:

     "Hi, Officer? I'm calling to report a missing person. I'm worried about my husband. He's been gone for a while and I can't get a hold of him, which is so unlike him. I'm worried that something has happened to him."
     "Okay, Miss. How long has your husband been missing?"
    "Well, I sent him out to grab dinner about an hour ago. He should have been home already."
    And then the dispatcher or officer or whoever I was speaking to would kindly tell me that I was being silly, and I would insist there was a problem, meanwhile, Tyler would be off bleeding to death somewhere.

I also almost called Tyler's parents to find out if they had talked to him recently and knew what was going on. (Which, it turns out, would have actually been pretty effective. Tyler called Dennis, his step-dad, as soon as the accident happened.)

Anyway. We're all alright.

And also, dinner and ice cream were both delicious. (Thank you to my mom and to McKenna for the respective gift cards which paid for our date night tonight.) Although, had I decided to make something instead, this whole fiasco might have been avoided. But, in the eternal words of Mitch Baylor, "If it wasn't this . . . it'd be something else."