This weekend I had plans to shop all day Friday & all day Saturday with 2 girlfriends. We had sitters or friends picking up our kids from school, our husbands were scheduled to be super dads all weekend, we were ready to relax and have fun and we deserved it!! Myself and a friend from Augusta drove to Charlotte to meet a mutual friend who moved last year. We pulled up to a very large and very nice mall. Our time was valuable......only 48 hours with no kids, no husbands and no responsibilities but to shop......so we chose to valet, like all smart mothers would. We open the doors to hand our keys to the cute valet and a phone rings. My Charlotte friend says "oh no" and we immediately knew that it was definitely a school for one of her 3 kids. We kind of sink a little and try not to smirk (because it was inevitable, right?). We hear "uh huh" "oh no" and then "he needs stitches?". Okay, so we know it's her 7th grade son, her other 2 kids are girls. My Augusta friend is a doctor's wife (Chief of ER Pediatrics I believe) so she knows a lot about "kid emergencies". She very quickly says "how does a middle school student have an accident at school?" I naively giggle and say "good point". Cute valet guys says "you're not shopping are you?" He was very amused. We are still refraining from laughter for fear that he is hurt and say "um, no". We climb in the car as she hangs up the phone and says "he was in an accident involving a slinky and needs to go to the ER, he cut his hand". Okay....we lose it. We laughed and laughed......not only at our bad luck and the bad timing...but a SLINKY was involved? We glance back at the big beautiful mall as we depart.
She calls her son back to get more details because my smart medical friend is asking a lot of valid questions. The slinky incident involved multiple students and there are multiple injuries, he has a big cut but it's not bleeding anymore so we determine there is an issue but he's doing fine. Okay, hysterics. A slinky incident with multiple injuries. I need to mention, recently this friend of ours was in a car accident involving a raccoon and prior to that her last vehicular accident involved an automatic car wash. To say her luck is amusing is an understatement. We had been looking forward to this day for a month and it was foiled by a slinky. Of course........it was foiled by a slinky. We take her to her car, she directs us to a mall closer to her son's school and she departs. 4 stitches and 3 hours later our friend joins us. She missed hours of shopping and a great brownie. We all missed lunch because we did not want to enjoy lunch without her.
The update: three students were injured, two required medical attention. Apparently, the kids get a "health break" for 15 minutes so they can get some fresh air (they do this in prisons, right?). Her son was innocently playing football. Allegedly, two kids had a metal slinky that they pulled apart between them. A football player ran into the slinky, it flew and hit two other players, one being our friend's sweet son. The school is now trying to assess whether there was malicious intent with the boys who had the slinky and suspension is being discussed. We should all say a quick prayer for the kiddos, my friend's son loves playing guitar and he is inconvenienced and in pain and we feel bad for him!
That evening, over a wonderful dinner and a bottle of Merlot AND Riesling, we giggled a lot as we reflected over our day. As moms we are always ready to run to our children's aid anytime they need us. As moms will will continue making idyllic plans to reward ourselves. As friends we will continue to smile and giggle (and laugh 'til we cry) as we realize that idyllic plans are sometimes impossible but watching life unfold together is half the fun.
-Kim
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