Just Another Manic Monday

Well, Mondays in general are the worst day of the week. Yesterday I did something especially stupid and made a fool of myself in front of a large group of people I was trying to make a good impression on.

It involved thank-you notes, a one-way street and a cop.

As I left my Junior League meeting, I had a stack of loose thank-you notes to put in my car. I'm in charge of writing thank-you notes, and I put the stack of them on the passenger's seat and pulled out of the parking lot. I don't know where my mind was, but I looked up, saw a red light, put on my brakes, looked down and saw the thank-you notes fall all over the floorboard, saw that a cop was at the light and quickly took a right on red onto a one-way street. I knew that I couldn't stop in time for the light. It was all happening too fast.

My heart rate didn't even rise.

I just thought to myself, this'll all be over in ten minutes. I knew I'd make it home in time for "Laguna Beach" and I just tried to stay calm. Very unlike me. Really, I just thought to myself that this would all pass soon. Mondays are bad enough without me being upset all night. I saw people look at me in awe of my stupidity, but I pretended not to see them. It was either ignore what was going on or cry. And I'm against wasted tears.

I pulled over on the one-way street, trying to stay out of the way of other cars. I knew all my new friends would see me make a fool of myself, but I thought, best they know now that I'm not the most coordinated person in the world!

I looked in my rearview mirror, saw the blue lights and realized I didn't even have my seatbelt on. I just kept picking up the thank-you notes out of the floor and rolled down my window.

"Sir, I'm sorry. Everything fell down in my car and I just got sidetracked," I said flustered.

He looked shocked at my stupidity, and I knew he and his police friends would all be laughing at my expense later. I wanted to explain further as to prove I was not some college girl ditz, but I decided to keep my mouth shut.

Mr. Policeman STOPPED TRAFFIC on the one-way street to help me turn around. He just let me go home. I couldn't believe it.

I went home, ate supper and watched "Laguna Beach." Everything really was OK; there really was nothing to stress over this time.

So while there were no consequences yesterday, most of the time there are. I'll count myself lucky for yesterday's Manic Monday, but I know that I won't always have a free pass.

But every once in a while, they sure are nice.