sleep on it

okay, this entry won't make any sense if you haven't read the two before it--start with the entry titled "disconnect".

My first thoughts as I awake this morning are of Kalei. what time is it there? what is she doing right now? did she send me an email? Before leaving the house for work, I check. No email from her. I'm not really surprised, but still a touch disappointed. Mark and I are commuting togther while one car, our old grey van, is in the shop. This vehicle, which transported us through our family's most active ozone depleting years, days of hockey, camping and remote control car racing, is clearly aging--along with our cat our dog and yes, good old us. In our first empty nest week, we unexpectedly emptied our wallets of $1000 between the garage and the vet. sheesh!

During the morning commute, we listen ambivalently to an NPR morning edition story on stricter laws regarding cell phone use while driving and bascially how unenforeable they are. As one man said "I'm always complaining about people driving while talking on their cell phones... except when I'm driving and talking on my cell phone". I drop Mark off at Ft Shafter, and as I'm exiting the base, my cell phone rings. It's Kalei; safe-cell be damned (but Officer, I had to take that call because it was from my daughter who just left home after 18 years and is thousands of miles away and I had a fight with her last night and wouldn't you do it too if it was your baby girl?) In my own defence, I will add that before turning onto the freeway, I switched the phone to "Speaker" and plunked it on my lap--two hands on the wheel!

Kalei said she got my email and called to say she was sorry about last night, she was tired... and then launched into a pre-emptive and satisfying description of her classes and credits and how she's handling her money, new friends she's hanging out with, food she's eating. The best thing we taught our children is to apologize, forgive and move on.

So as dark as it all seemed last night, things can sure look better in the morning.