Within an Inch of My Life

Last week, I forgot to roll up the back window on my Jeep. My daughter was sleeping and I got her out of her car seat and carried her in the house. (She never stays asleep. She immediately wakes up and I immediately cry.) Of course, it ended up storming all night long. The next morning I found the seat next to my daughter's car seat soaking wet. My car already has some weird leaky water issues. I was just imagining the huge mold rave that was raging all day and night in my car.

Today, my daughter and I ran into Target near her school for approximately 15 minutes. By the time we came outside, it was lightly raining but picking up speed. Well, that must have been the second go of it. This time, both of my front windows were down. My driver's seat was drenched. I tossed my daughter into the car in the back seat and ran around to the trunk to look for a towel or something. It was locked. As rain was pouring down my back and soaking my dress, I jumped in the back just as my sweet child said, "We are having a bad day, [are] we?"

Today was the one time I was grateful that my trunk area is full of all kinds of ridiculous crap. I reached over and grabbed a blanket that I use on picnics. The blanket is waterproof on one side and plaid something (Wool? Human hair?) on the other side. I jumped back out of the car just in time for what felt like bucket of water to overturn on my head. I covered my seat with the blanket, jumped in, messed up said blanket reaching over to roll-up the passenger window, situated blanket, sat back down and wanted to take a nap. Let me just tell you how absofreakinglutely hot I was. I think I heard someone say it was 105 (with the heat index) degrees today. And when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror I nearly jumped. I looked like I'd been beaten by wet sponges. But did that stop me from going to the grocery? No. Did I run into mass people I know? Certainly. Did my daughter say, "Mom. You need a shower"? You betcha. This is how I know I'm a grown-up. I just don't. care. any. more.