Finally, my friend, Tokyo, from school arrived to pick me up around 6am. The rain had almost stopped and we thought the drive ahead might be decent. Five minutes out of the driveway, the rain started coming down at a steady pace. Tokyo expressed her fear of driving in the rain and we just continued driving forward in the pitch black with the rain bouncing off the road. The farther we drove towards our destination of Tulsa, OK, the harder the rain got. The wind was blowing the car from side to side and parts of the road were pooling with water causing minor hydroplaning. The rain was torential at times causing us to drive as fast as 40 mph. I tried to help Tokyo remain calm. After two hours we arrived at our destination, tense and starving.
We walked into the conference center and eagerly began searching for the food we were told would be there. We found the room where the food was going to be and found the perfect table. We sat and visited with the rest of our friends patiently, but hungrily waiting. About 15 minutes before our first conference we were told there was a misunderstanding and there would be no breakfast. Tokyo, one of my best friends Princess, and I hopped in the car with frustration fuming from our mouths to grab some quick food. I was so upset about being away from my family that I was sure I would just barely tolerate being gone and as soon as I could possibly get back to my family I would be out of there.
After the conference sessions were over, Tokyo, Princess, and I retreated to our rooms to rest up for dinner. Princess and I had rearranged our sleeping arrangements (which didn't make Wonder Woman very happy...WW if you read this...sorry for being rebellious this once) so we could spend some extra time together. So, Princess and I spent our time catching up on each other's life and solving the world's problems. I tried blogging from the hotel but they didn't have free wi-fi. Seriously what $200 a night hotel doesn't have free wi-fi in the rooms. I was furious. Then we were summoned to the lobby to go to Dave and Buster's courtesy of Wonder Woman. We had a BLAST. We ran into some rivals and were challenged to a Super Trivia battle. Unsurprising to our team of Falcons, we won the challenge and settled our conference right in the middle of Dave and Buster's.
Upon return to the hotel we joined with our friends for what turned into hours of fun, music, gossip, and laughter. I haven't laughed that hard in a long time but what happens in the hotel room with a bunch of colleagues stays in that hotel room. As we were getting ready to leave one of numerous times, everything goes pitch black. We're all standing right next to each other wondering what has happened. Initially we thought one of our friends was just messing with the lights. So, we opened the door and the entire hotel was black. The electricity was out...no elevators...no lights. We didn't even know if the doors would unlock. Through the light of cellular phones we found our ways back to the beds and spent some more time chatting in the dark. A screech rings out, followed by a series of screams and the lights come back on. I felt like I was in some sort of murder movie.
So, this morning comes around and I tried to convince Princess to use the electricity going out as an excuse to sleep in but she is such a dedicated friend that she didn't want to leave Tokyo alone in the session. So we dragged ourselves out of bed and trudged down to the session where we thought there was going to be food but alas, we were disappointed again...well temporarily disappointed at least, the food came out late. We attended two fabulous breakout sessions today and learned information that is so valuable for our school.
At the end of the day, Tokyo and I loaded up in her car and I anxiously awaited the arrival at my house so I could hold my babies and kiss my husband. We got almost to the exit of I-35 and Tokyo noticed that the road noise was all of a sudden much louder and her steering wheel was shaking. She drove a little more and then we decided to pull off and check it out. As we pull off the road, a truck with a trailer speeds beside us and rolls down his window. This guy asks if we need help and we park the car and check the tire. I wait in the car and but hear Tokyo say, "oh my gosh" and our red-headed angel Michael say, "we started seeing chunks of the tire start flying off right there as you exited." Chunks of tire? I had to see this! So I excitedly hop out of the car and walk around to see a tire, flatter than flat because there are gaping holes on the side of the tire. Holes and wires were all that were left in places.
Red-headed angel Michael had a Red-headed angel brother named Chris and they suggested towing Tokyo's car on their trailor someplace safer than the middle of the lane of traffic to change the tire. They get everything lined up and Tokyo drives up the ramps and gets her front tires on the trailor as pieces of wood shoot fifty feet down the road and almost hit the kind Oklahoma County Sheriff that is blocking traffic from running into us. Tokyo gets lined up again and revs her engine in an attempt to fly up the ramp and onto the trailor only come to find out, her car doesn't have a high enough clearance so we have to change the tire in the middle of the right lane of traffic. Our red-headed angel brothers block the tires and start trying to jack up her car, only to find out that her jack doesn't fit her car. Luckily they have their own jack and use that one to put on the donut spare. While the tire is off one of our red-headed angels tells Tokyo that her shocks are shot and suggests she have those fixed. (No I can't really make this up and wish I had video!) They finally got everything fixed up, we thanked them profusely, thanked God for sending them to us and were on our way!
However, that wasn't it. A couple of minutes down the road we started hearing this HORRIBLE scraping noise. Tokyo took it slow over all of the bumps but it the noise continued. I thought maybe we had ran over something and it was stuck under the car. We get to my house, look under the car and the entire, pipe and boxes (I'm not a car person) that run to the muffler is hanging down under her car. Seriously...this couldn't have been worse. I told Tokyo to let me know if she needed anything as she drove away. I felt terrible. I couldn't do anything to help her.
But, at last I am home and I as I walked into my house expecting a loud screaming Momma from my son and daughter, I realized it was silent. Maggie was sleeping and Noah was playing a game. No excitement. Not even any hugs but at last, I am back with my babies. I survived my first night, not putting my babies to bed in their rooms and I lived to blog about it. Maybe next year I can stay for both nights. Oh and by the way...it snowed today so our tire adventure....FREEZING!!
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