I have a friend named Jen! We were Aggies together! In fact, the first time I remember seeing her was at an Elementary Education Major Meeting. Everyone was introducing themselves, I remember her standing up, saying her name, and then all of a sudden we were signing up for clubs with each other. (Which is really amazing, because I really don't do CLUBS and I am not big on strangers.) But Jen never felt like a stranger to me, and this week I saw her after 10 long years. She still didn't feel like a stranger. No awkward pauses, no gap in time. I think you know how good a friend is when you can pick up right where you left off, be it 10 years or 2 hours ago.
We have a lot of history in the short couple of years that we knew each other (it was short because she INSISTED on marrying Brad, which I have to admit NOW was a good idea. At the time, I didn't think it was a very good idea, simply because she left me to deal with singlehood alone.) I remember as we pulled out of her parents driveway to visit Las Vegas for Spring Break, her mom rushed out with a roll of quarters for both of us. (Believe me when I say that I have never felt so close to the edge :) Or the time that I got to use one of their season tickets to the Jazz game and sit right behind Karl Malone and use the same bathroom as John Stockton's wife. Especially the time when we sat in our Professor's office, wondering why I got a B+ and Jen got an A-. And the response, pointing at me "You got a B+ because you deserved it, and Jen, you got an A- because you are friends with her." pointing at me again.....
The friendship was really one sided as you can tell. Jen did a lot more for me than I could have done for her. I think the one reason I love Jen so much is because, during a time of SELF-ABSORPTION (otherwise known as college) she took a great interest in my life, and my family -What made me - ME! She still does, she could remember each of my sister's names, where they were, details of their kids, and we talked in length about my parents. I hope I can be the same way.
Well, we chatted and ate, and chatted, then when I knew Jared would be waiting for me (we were staying in a hotel in Henderson because Jared had a week long meeting and we came to join him) I rushed home, pulled in the parking spot as quickly as possible, and hurried to get the kids in bed.
In my rush, I pulled into a Handicapped parking spot (totally on accident, I never would have done it, had I realized what I was doing). After a long night of Daniel screaming for hours on end, I decided to end our little vacation early, do the grocery shopping, and head home. When we had packed up and headed to the car, we were greeted by a nice pink ticket.
352 DOLLARS for parking in a handicap parking spot.
ARE YOU SERIOUS HENDERSON? 352 dollars? You are killing. So from that point on, I want to THROW UP. But I still have to go to Winco, Costco, Wal Mart, ParTy City, and DSW. But.....I want to throw up, and I have had 3 very small hours of sleep to go on.
We made it to Winco and I can tell that I am going to lose it. Every little move that my 5 children made seemed punishable with prison time at this point. I was trying to be the good mom, but my tongue was on the verge of doing things that, very quickly I would regret.
There is a quote that goes through my head at times like these. It is from Elder Holland, talking about how Joseph Smith reacted to all of his trials.
It has always been a wonderful testimony to me of the Prophet Joseph’s
greatness and the greatness of all of our prophets, including and especially the
Savior of the world in His magnificence, that in the midst of such distress and
difficulty they could remain calm and patient, charitable and forgiving—that
they could even talk that way, let alone live that way. But they could, and they
did. They remembered their covenants, they disciplined themselves, and they knew
that we must live the gospel at all times, not just when it is convenient and
not just when things are going well. Indeed, they knew that the real test of our
faith and our Christian discipleship is when things are not going
smoothly. That is when we get to see what we’re made of and how strong our
commitment to the gospel really is.
So what did I do? I paid for my groceries, got in the car, got on the Freeway, and headed home. I knew that it was time to cut my losses before I LOST it all together. And if I were thinking correctly, the real question, at the time, would have been.....WHO ON EARTH HAS MONEY TO SHOP, WHEN THEY JUST RECEIVED AT $352 PARKING TICKET?????/
