I've been sick. Not the whole time, but significantly most of the time. In fact, I'm not at work right now because I have strep throat AGAIN! (I'm reconsidering my career as an educator due to the health risks.)
I ended up not going to my eleventh high school reunion for totally unbelievable and random reasons. As I was getting dressed (I'd purchased a new skirt to wear a week before), I twirled around in front of the mirror and something caught my eye: the round ink tag was still on the bottom of the skirt! George laughed at me and offered to take it (the tag, naturally) off, but seeing as how that could have ruined my skirt (and hurt him, of course), I declined his offer. I frantically searched for the receipt, but of course, it was gone. Luckily, I still had the price tag with the "must be present for return" sticker on it. I called Macy's (not a very helpful customer service line, by the way) and was told that if I brought in the skirt, its price tag, and the credit card on which I made the purchase, they could take off the ink tag for me. Well, at this point it was 6:50 (and the reunion was supposed to start at 7 pm).
My husband, still laughing, tried to calm me down (at this point I was pretty riled up), and convinced me that the aforementioned skirt could be replaced by another skirt, or even a pair of pants. I reluctantly changed to a pair of slacks. By the time we made it outside to get into our truck, Alex decided that he wanted to stay at home. So we had to coax him back outside. It took a lot of promises to go to the train park and a couple chocolate chip cookies (he's obsessed with trains and chocolate, or pretty much anything sweet).
That's when I spotted two baby birds, huddled in the rock, right next to our driveway. It had been windy, so we figured they'd been blown out of their nest, which likely was in the tree right next to our driveway. George, who grew up on a farm and is known as the "Animal Whisperer" at work, was adamant about helping them to survive. In the past, we've taken found birds to the Wildlife Rescue, but seeing as how it was a Saturday night, I doubted they'd be open. So as I was seriously considering letting the poor birds fend for themselves (something I'm sorry to admit), my husband got gloves and a shoebox out of the garage, scooped them up and ordered me to call 411 for the number of the Wildlife Rescue. We sat in the truck for about 15 minutes as I waited for the 411 operator to tell me that she couldn't find a listing, and then George decided to put the box back up in the tree to protect the birds from coyotes and cats (I've never seen a cat in our neighborhood, and haven't seen a coyote since they started building houses in the desert that used to be across the street a year ago- but this was not the time to engage in a debate with George).
By then, it was almost 7:30 pm. My husband, satisfied that he'd done all he could for the birds, smiled over at me and asked if I still want to go to the reunion. I'm one of those who believes in signs from God, and at this point I was not sure what God was trying to tell me, but I said okay, and we headed off to my parents' house to drop off Alex. When we got there, my parents were watching a not-appropriate-for-a-three-year-old movie, and when I asked that they put in a Dora the Explorer DVD instead, my father and mother got into an argument and I was tempted to take my son and run.
Finally, at about 7:50 pm, everyone calmed down and my son settled in to watch his much-loved Dora. George and I left my parents' house and got in the truck to go to the reunion. We were almost there when we saw a DPS officer who'd pulled over two cars. At that point, I turned to my husband and suggested we just go to dinner somewhere nice, since we were both dressed up. He obliged, and we had a nice, quiet dinner, after which we picked up my son and went home.
A week later, the baby birds grew up (their parents came each day and fed them) and looked like adult birds, and then they flew away.
So I don't really know how the reunion went. But I guess I'm thrilled that we saved the lives of two birds who otherwise wouldn't have survived because of high winds, coyotes, and/or cats.
J
