And Then There Was Friday...

This picture is from Thursday.  Kado took it of my dear friend Anne who is visiting from Maine.  I always thought that Kado was shy.  Kado is NOT shy.  He adored 'his' friend Anne and told her lots of stories.

Anne is in town while her husband and their son, who was Oldest Son's college roommate, are attending a music festival at Calvin College.  They are also meeting their son's girlfriend for the first time.

So, while their 'boys' were at the music festival the girlfriend, whom we shall refer to here as "Kate" (because that is actually her name!) came over so she could do 'old lady things' with Anne and I.

Hmm.  Old lady things.  What are those you might ask?  The usual.  Drink coffee, look at junk in my house, eat lunch at Hunan, and then of course, go thrift shopping!

Note that Anne had just met Kate the night before.  I was meeting her for the first time.  Also note that Anne is visiting from Maine and hasn't been to Michigan in eight years.  The last time she was here we had just learned that Daughter was pregnant with Jonge.  Kate lives about three hours north of here.

Somewhere between "look at junk in my house" and "eat lunch at Hunan" an interesting thing occurred.

The three of us were involved in a hit and run accident.

Kate was driving us to Hunan for lunch.  Things were going great when all of a sudden out of NOWHERE a navy blue Suburban going in the same direction we were, sideswiped us on the right, turned into us, did a U-turn in front of us and sped off in the opposite direction.

Not that there is EVER a good time to be involved in an accident, let alone a hit and run accident, but it is seriously bad timing for it to happen on one's vacation or when one has just met one's boyfriend's mother and her friend.

Thank God, none of use were injured in the crash.  It was VERY loud, and VERY scary, but we are fine.

Now this is the part where the story gets good.  Because I learned that the women in the city I live in watch out for each another and do not suffer fools gladly.

Two witnesses stopped.  One left her information with Kate, and another stayed with us until the police  arrived.  It was a rather long wait on a very cold and wet day.  While we were waiting a third witness showed up.  She had seen the accident, followed the driver and had gotten a fabulously clear picture of the license plate.  Soon after a police officer arrived to take the accident report.  She was kind, with a calming demeanor.  The officer also mentioned another woman who had called 911.

So although it was a man who caused the accident and fled the scene there were four women and a female police officer who came to our aide.   And what could have been a much worse situation turned  into my being able to see first hand just how the people in my city watch out for each other.  I was truly amazed.  Of course, their kindnesses won't fix Kate's damaged car, but it did help sooth our anxious souls.  Although quite damaged, Kate's car is still drivable.

And so with only a two hour delay, we drove off to lunch at Hunan, which was wonderful, as it always is.

Next we continued on to my favorite store for some serious thrift shopping.  We are tough women.  We do not let a little thing like being in a hit and run accident take the fun out of our day.

Anne didn't find anything worth taking back to Maine on the plane. She was looking for a tee-shirt with "Michigan" on it to bring back to her grandson.  As luck would have it, the only state tee-shirt in the store said "Maine".  I found a few things but at this time I don't even remember what they were.  But Kate!  Oh, my!  Kate found a fabulous pair of the brand name SEVEN jeans (which looked like they had never been worn) in her size.  They were not even in the 'boutique' section, just on the very basic $5.00 jeans rack.

Kate and Anne dropped me off at home and continued on to a concert at Calvin.

While sitting at my computer later in the evening I thought I'd Google "SEVEN Jeans".  I could not believe it when I found several very similar pairs to the one Kate got that were listed under 'vintage collection'.  They run between $198.00 - $225.00.

Yes, I DO occasionally go places and do things.  And even though I am a dreadfully boring person, sometimes VERY EXCITING things happen to me.  For reals.