Why We Need Our Own Reality Show

I've often thought that one of my main missions in life is to cheer people up with the thought that things could always be worse--they could be me. Not that I'm some martyr or something, but unusual things do seem to just sort of happen and very little of our lives is "normal". I've been told that we would do well with own reality show, but I don't think we're really ready to be the next Duck Dynasty. And we don't qualify as the next Duggars. Not enough kids, and we're too human.

At any rate, our circumstances last night are one more piece of evidence that normal is not a part of our vocabulary.

Normal people might have an emergency late night trip to the er because of chest pain for the head of the house. But do they interrupt their late night trip to the er because hubby hasn't decided for sure if the pain he's feeling warrants the trouble and expense of an er visit? And as they sit in the parking lot of the hospital while he's trying to decide if he needs medical attention, do normal people end up detouring to save their son who wanted to meet them at the er but the transmission in his crappy car that they told him not to buy went bad and he had to push it into an empty and dark parking lot between a tavern and a tattoo parlor in one of the worst sections of town? 

And then when the not-quite-normal couple pulls into the dark parking lot next to their son, hubs (better known on this blog as the original Indiana Jones) decides to get out and check his son's car because he wants to "walk around and see how he feels". And then, after a short discussion in which they realize there's nothing that can be done for the car that night, the son says he'll get his stuff out of the car and ride with his parents to the hospital. 

A normal person (i.e., the mother) would assume by "stuff" the son meant the bag he takes to the gym or an extra pair of shoes. By the time the son has made a fifth trip between his car and the mother's trunk, she would remember that they're not a normal family, and that his "stuff" included at least one change of clothes, most of the tools that he owns, some self-defense gear and enough survival items to get him through the Alaskan wilderness. 

As this mom from not-a-normal family wonders how long all the extra gear will remain in her car, the son and husband both suddenly jump into the backseat, on top of all that gear. As they do, the mother realizes that a dark car without lights has pulled in next to them. There are 3-4 men in the car, and as they start to get out of their vehicle, it's clear that they're not stopping to see if they can lend a helping hand. As the hubs and son shout, "drive! drive!", the mom of not-a-normal family slams the car into reverse and starts to back out.  the not-too-friendly drug dealers got back in their car and pulled around behind the tavern. Normal people would then immediately drive away. 

We didn't.

With the bad guys out of sight, mom was ordered to wait while the son grabbed one more thing out of his car and dad stood lookout. Then the mom pealed out and headed back to the hospital. One good thing out of the incident (in addition to escaping with our lives) was the adrenalin surge that convinced the husband he might need to get his heart checked out after all.

All of this was before we got to the emergency room. But since the drama didn't stop at the er door, I'll cover that part of our night in my next post.



P.S. This post may appear in multiple fonts and sizes. I can't help that. I wrote it at 3:00 a.m.

P.S.P.S. Indiana is fine and he is at home. Actually, he's at the office, but the main point is that he is not in the hospital.