It’s Official, My family are The Griswold’s

[private]

Every time we go on vacation, literally something crazy happens.  DH and I have just dubbed ourselves The Griswold’s. Part of the problem is that we are not planners. It could be Wed and we will be like, “Oh, lets get in the car and drive 10 hours to go to water park tomorrow.” Generally that means our car will break down, we will miss the hotel we booked by 4 miles, and Charlotte will come down with rabies.

Today I woke up with an impulse thought: ‘Lets go to Waffle House for breakfast and then go to the pet store.‘ What I should have done was tell myself I was crazy and ignore all thoughts that included leaving the house on Sunday. Instead I woke my DH up (it was his turn to sleep in, I slept in yesterday) and told him we should start getting ready. He told me nothing opened till noon. Glancing at the clock.

9:09 am.

Oops.

An hour later we all piled into the car and headed to Waffle House. After a particularly satisfying plate of eggs, toast, and hash browns, Charlotte was just finishing up her meal and I told DH to go ahead and check out so when she was done we could just leave.

This is the conversation that ensued.

DH: “Please tell me you have your wallet.”

Me: ” No, I don’t, I left it at home.”

DH: “I don’t have my wallet. I forgot it.”

(I am picturing myself skipping town for not paying a bill at Waffle House or enslaving Charlotte to scraping eggs into the trashcan to work off the $15.95 bill.)

Me: “Let me go check the car. I think I have a credit card in there.”

I head out to the car and find one ID and two credit cards. One credit card was expired and one had an activation sticker still on it. So there we are sitting at the table in Waffle House and I am calling my credit card company in hopes to activate this card. The automation transfers me to customer service where she informs the card cannot be activated and offers me a phone number to call. Basically its an old card that was canceled and doesn’t work.

Great. Just great.

Did I mention we live 20 minutes away?

DH got into the car and took the long trek home for a wallet and Charlotte and I sat in the Waffle House for 35 minutes with an Ipod and a coffee, held hostage by our nonpaying status.

After what felt like the end of eternity, he returns and we promptly head over to the pet store. Its now 12:15.

Not open.

Of course its not. Doesn’t open till 1.

Instead we combated Charlotte’s tears of not going in by taking her to McDonald’s and playing on the outdoor playground for 45 minutes. There is nothing like being at McDonald’s while your not eating. I felt like a rebel walking through the restaurant and not ordering. I kept waiting for the McDonald’s playground police to tell me that only paying customers could sit on the playground.

Once we got into the pet store, things were pretty smooth sailing…unless you count that bird Chris and Charlotte got out of the cage and let loose, where it frantically went flying into the fish tank area, both of them running in tow trying to catch it while the employees were shooting eye daggers at them.

They are both still in denial it was their fault.

But I know better…after all, we are The Griswold’s.

[/private]