Day 61: Lemon

It was your typical Wednesday night: Leave work early to walk Lady, get a text from my wife about dinner, get back in the car, drive 30 miles to North LA through rush hour traffic, and find Gill babysitting a truck driver's daughter at a VW dealership next to Six Flags. Allow me to explain.

It all started at Del Taco (not recommended by the way - just one of Gill's many cravings). As she's paying for her food, our suddenly lemon-esque VW Passat dies in the middle of the drive thru lane. After several "You serious giirrrll?!"s from the cashier, a couple men help her push the car into the parking lot. When I got the text "Call me ASAP - my car died at a Del Taco drive thru", I immediately realized that my night had taken a drastic turn for the abnormal.

After gathering my things, Lady and I take off for the wonderfully mountainous Santa Clarita. Well, to be honest, we were headed for the 405 on-ramp, which, at 6:30 pm, takes about 30 minutes in and of itself. THEN we're off to the mountains.

By this point, a tow truck had come, picked Gill up and taken her (and her lemon) to the dealership. But it's what happened along the way that was ... uhh ... interesting. You see, her tow truck driver wasn't entirely alone. He had proudly designated today "Take Your Daughter to Work Day" (We later found out that, in reality, his girlfriend had designated it "YOU take her! Just take her!!! Day") Either way, he had strapped his 1 year-old into the passenger seat. And doing the math, that left the one seat left for Gill.

Awk. ward.

So as the three of them are on their way, Mr. Driver discovers that Gill is a therapist, and naturally decides to take this opportunity to unload every bit of his personal baggage on her for free. She soon hears that he doesn't have just one child. Or two. Or seven. But ... eight!? Don't worry though - they're all being taken care of ... by eight different women. Now THAT is one irresponsibly fertile dude. And if that weren't enough, she also finds out that he has an outstanding DCFS report for an anger problem. Yippee! This went from awkward to creepy to scary in a matter of 5 minutes.

Fortunately, Gill's Knight in Shining Armor was right around the corner. As I pulled up to the dealership, I could see her still sitting inside the tow truck. I got out of my car, expected her to do the same, but quickly realized she was busy watching the truck driver's baby for him. Uhh yeah, okay, sure, totally normal.

She did eventually get out, we dropped off the car, paid the guy, and all was well (that is, until I get the bill). We concluded the night by eating a leisurely dinner in the land of the mountains. So what started dramatically at Del Taco ended peacefully at Pei Wei. And we both agreed that it was quite an upgrade.


(No, this was not a story about the baby. They can't all be, ok?! Remember, Wadesy Baby is joining US, not the other way around. That's the lesson we need to learn here folks, and don't forget who taught it to you: Stewart Douglas Wade, father-to-be. Woah. Weird.)