Break Neck Speed

Mom left on a 10 day trip yesterday to visit her sister in Oregon to see her sister Christine's new baby, Petra. She took Molloy with her for 10 days, which means I have to take care of the boys...alone...for 10 days...and nights...and mornings...ouch. (Please check in with me from time to time to be sure everything is all right.)

The flight left at 1:15 pm on Friday and we all drove to the airport, and of course we left about one hour late and were in a big rush to Laguardia. We got to about 5 miles from the Whitestone Bridge and traffic came to a practical stop. Now, from where we were, there were only two ways to the airport: The Whitestone Bridge and the Throgs Neck Bridge. At our very last chance, I lobbied to exit and go a few miles out of our way to the Throgs Neck, which should be clearer, and then swing back to the airport. Kerrie and I then had a "Speed" moment in which Kerrie played the tough, decisive, influential cop (Keanu Reeves), and I played the mousy little ferret (Sandra Bullock)

"Stay on or get off?!?!?!" I cried.

Kerrie's cooler head prevailed as she tuned to the traffic report and at the very last second we learned the Throg's Neck bridge had been shut down due to a fire in some construction materials under the bridge (had we checked the traffic much earlier, like 5 hours earlier, we would have learned it was shut down at 6:30 am). Our traffic on the Whitestone was the overflow. Had I diverted to the Throg's Neck Bridge we would have been doomed.

As we panicked at less than 5 miles an hour (which exacerbates the panic) we inched our way toward the bridge, used the breakdown lane when we could, and somehow greased through the tolls because we had no EZ-Pass and all the EZ-Pass holders were holding each other up and were too stupid to pull out their wallet and move to the cash lane. (EZ-Pass suckers!)

We continued our sticky approach to the airport and finally made it with a few moments to spare.

We dropped Molloy and Kerrie, kissed our goodbyes, and as Lev was climbing back into the car he said, "I miss Mom."

I had not even left the airport grounds when we had to pull over and let two little boys jump out to pee along the side of the highway entrance ramp.