One of those Days

Yesterday was one. I saved my house from burning down, was excused from a parking ticket, and listened to the 12yo’s band concert. All in one day.

aka the Honking Goose

It started out as a normal Wednesday. I had a four hour prep shift at the restaurant where I work. Prep is my favorite shift, because it is just me and the kitchen. I chop, cook, and clean for four hours and then go home. Super simple and nice.

Afterwards, I came home. I flipped the thermostat up to turn on the heat, stuck a casserole in the oven and turned it on, and then I took a shower. When I got out of the shower, I could smell something “off”. I checked the oven, first. But I couldn’t find anything burning there. But the smell was toxic and I needed to make it stop, so I kept looking around.

It was the gas wall heater. A tiny patch of carpet next to the heater was burning and melting. I blew on it and expired a hot orange ember. Then I poured some water on the spot and heard it fizz and go out.

little big deal

I was relieved, but terrified, all at the same time. It was a tiny bit of carpet that burned, hardly bigger than a quarter. I’m incredibly thankful that I was home when it happened and was able to put it right out. If I hadn’t been home, it would have kept melting the carpet, the floor would have caught on fire. Our whole house might have burned down.

When I picked my kids up from school, they heard all about it. Then my husband heard about it when he got home, too. And he handed me the mail: a letter from the parking authorities. I had appealed a parking ticket I got last Wednesday during my prep shift. I tore open the letter to: good news! My parking ticket was dismissed as a “one time courtesy”. Thank goodness!

But a day like this one doesn’t stop with saving my home from burning down and being excused from a parking ticket, on no! It just keeps getting better.

My 6th grader had his Winter music concert at the high school last night. He plays the baritone. (Side note: he started with this instrument this fall at which time he told me it was a Tuba. All semester I have been calling it Tuba, telling him to practice Tuba, etc. Last night, getting ready for the concert, he mentions it is actually a baritone. WTH? Yeah, I clearly didn’t know the difference until now. Okay, so short story long, he plays the baritone.)

So we all went over the high school. The sixth graders performed their one song. They sounded great. I couldn’t see my son at all, as he was in the back with the other large horns. It is incredible how, as a parent, your heart just swells with pride at a moment like this one. I couldn’t even see him. I couldn’t pick his baritone out from the other horns in the section. But I felt as proud as if I had just run a marathon. I was looking around at all the other parents, thinking about how proud and happy for our children we all were at that moment. All the annoying things your kid has ever said or done melt away. All the harrowing nights we’ve been through feeding or changing our kids, nursing them through illnesses. It all disappears. And they are these sweet, hard-working, heart-warming little creatures of our proud hearts.

Parenthood is truly absurd. And the best.

So yeah, that was my yesterday. I was wiped out by the end of it. Slept like a baby. Today is a new day!

Have you had a day like this? Please tell me about your own. Or, if you blogged about it, leave a link in the comments.

Have a great day,
HG