If you lose my kid.....Can I get a phone call?

The new school year has started for Mason last week. Although Mason has moved up a grade, he still attends the same school on the same track and the same before and after school program. Monday was the first day of school so naturally I took him myself. The van picked him up and took him back to the daycare where he attends an after school program and I picked him up as usual. 


So here comes Tuesday morning. I arrive at the center at 7:15a, as I have done for years now to drop off Mason and MJ. Kissed them both goodbye and turned to head out the door. The teacher yells after me..."you forgot Mason!"  "No, Mason started school this week" I inform her. She says back "well we do not run the route to his school here anymore". WTH? "as of when?" I ask clearly irritated. See I ain't got time for no BS first thing in the morn. I have to be on my job to open the facility at 7:50a. I literally have just enough time to get there. Hence no time for BS like this. The teacher explains that they changed the routes, etc and they will still take Mason to school just from a different locale. "Why was I not told about this?" I ask pissed off tryna figure out what I am gonna do now. "I don't know" the teacher responds. 
Ugggh. I grab Mason by the hand and fly out the door because now I have to drive to a second location and drop him off and there is not much time for that. We arrive at the second location I walk Mason inside and am greeted by the teacher there I say to her " you guys are taking him to school right?" She responds "I guess so, I do no really know". Seriously????? "I don't know" is not an appropriate answer how about "let me find out?" 
So I make sure that is the case and I also ask where will he be in the afternoon here or at the other location with MJ. I was told he would be at  the other location. The afternoon routes did not change, only the morning ones did. "Same time?" I ask. "Yes" I am told. So off I race to work.
Let me just add that my kids have been going to this place for 4 years and I have had a positive experience here. I am also on their Parent Advisory Board. This center is a family ran place and I generally love it.
That afternoon I pull up to the daycare center it is 112degrees so I want to get the kids home quickly. I arrive at 4pm, 10 minutes early. I don't see the van so I go into the after school class. I ask if Mason has arrived the teacher looks at me clueless and says no. So I go to the lobby to await the van. 4:25p, no van so I go back to the classroom and ask if the van was coming. I was told the van had came and gone. "Well where is my child?' I ask. "Dunno, he didn't get off the van" she says. I head back to the lobby and encounter the director. I ask her where my son is?  "Oh let me call the other center." She calls them hangs up and tells me he is on the way here. I wait. It is now 4:40p, finally I see the van pull up so I go out to get Mason and notice he is the only one on the van. So I ask the driver "is he the only one?" she says yes. I then ask "is this the normal time now 4:45p?" She looks flustered and mutters off some crap about "working out the kinks"  I go back in to get MJ and pay my bill. When I go to pay the bill it is double. I inquire about it and the lady cannot explain why that is so. I know I do not owe that much I tell her we can pull up my bank statements and I can show her the cleared checks from last month. She says don't worry about it. Just pay what you think you owe, and we will get it sorted out." Okay. I wrote the check  and handed it to her "here is what I know I owe." 
Later I question Mason about the pick up at school and it is discovered that he was left on the first run?  Basically they forgot him and when I showed up they rushed back and got him and then played like they were just behind schedule. The next day I encounter the head director I ask her to clarify for me the changes that I apparently did not know about and to clarify pick up times and  locations. She did. Then I asked what happened on Tuesday. She starts to tell me that its the first week back to school and they are still ironing out all the routes etc etc. I stare at her head on and let her stumble around trying to cover herself. I then tell her I know that you guys forgot my kid  at school yesterday. She starts to deny it, but one look into my face tells her that is not a good idea. So then she admits it, she then winces as if I am gonna go off. I explain to her that I understand people make mistakes and it is the first week of school and even I have a hard time keeping my 4 kids schedules straight so I can only imagine that keeping hundreds of kids scheude straight must be hard but I would appreciate honesty the next time I am searching for my kid. 

My Brush With The Law

Monday, I had an appointment in Chapel Hill, NC. Chapel Hill's traffic patterns scare me and I am terrified of getting lost. No, I do not have a GPS because I do not travel out of my comfort zone. I'm an ole lady that way. Anyhoo I solicited a friend to drive me to Chapel Hill. When we arrived we had to park in this massive parking deck. On the way out of the parking deck there are signs overhead that say "Remember 3C". This sign is supposed to serve as a reminder and a warning that you should remember that letter/number combo should you wish to find your vehicle upon your return. Problem was we did not see that sign until we returned. We exited our vehicle and tried to follow the many signs directing us to pass this sky walk, and turn here and take the footbridge etc. So we got turned around a few times but found the place were visiting.

Here's a map of where we were

Two hours later we were done and headed back to the garage. I asked immediately if my friend, we'll call her Bonita, knew where we had parked because I had no clue. She said that she was pretty certain we were somewhere on level two. I knew immediately we had a problem. Bonita thinks I am a dramatic person so in trying to live that down I played it cool. Inside I was worried we would never find the car. We entered level two, no car. Level two had several levels so we walked up and down the garage. Up and down for thirty minutes and no car. Thinking we were maybe wrong about level two we thought maybe we were at the beginning of level 3 and missed the sign so we walked for miles on level three. No car. 
After searching forever I suggested we go to the security desk and ask for help. We arrive at the security desk and the security guard looking quite serious asked us what the problem was. We explained that we lost our car. He kinda sighed like again? He asked us to have a seat on a bench while he "suited up for business". We watched comically as this security guard got his security coat, flashlight, notepad, keys, etc. He locked the booth up and cranked up his golf cart. I was tickled to death at his serious demeanor, and could not help but laugh.In typical blogger fashion I immediately thought "this will make a great blog post". So I tried inconspicuously to snap a few photos of Mr. Man. Every time I tried to take his pic he would turn around and I had to try to pretend that I saw a bird or something that I was trying to capture on camera. Here is my jacked up attempt to get him on camera. 

He knew something was up so it was really hard, here he is gathering his investigative supplies.

You know how when you laugh when you're not supposed to? That is when you cannot stop laughing? Well that was me, cracking up on the security bench. Embarrassing Bonita I'm sure. The security guy approached us, flipped open his notepad and began a series of questions that cracked me up even more. It was like a scene from a copper movie. Here's how it played out:

Security Guy

Bonita

My Thoughts

Sir,  I believe we have lost our vehicle
Sighs, give me a minute to lock up and I'll assist you. What kinda vehicle is it?
Well, it is a Venture van and I'm pretty sure we parked on level 2
What was your arrival time? Do you have a copy of your parking ticket your received upon entry to the facility?
No, but it was around 11am
I doubt you are on level two, At that time you would have had to park at level 3 or higher. Did you happen to see the sign with the reminder on your way out?
Dying from laughter...'on the way back we did"  I say
Security guy did not find this funny, But I found his question stupid. I mean if we had seen the sign would we be lost??? Duh.
What is the make and model of the vehicle?
Chevy Venture
Didn't we just tell him that, jeez?
Color?
Black
Does it have any tint, or descriptionary details?
No
Any decals, fancy paint, bumper stickers, custom rims, an enhanced lighting kit?
I'm dying over here, envisioning Bonita, who is very conservative driving a pimped out minivan.
No
Hmmm, Does the vehicle in question have a NC tag?
No
I look at her and wonder if she's cracking under the pressure of being interrogated  because yes it does have NC tags.
What state tags do you have ma'am?
NC, I'm thinking great, you just killed our credibility here and perjured  yourself. I'm rolling now thinking Bonita is an idiot.
She explains that she thought he meant decorative tags
Well hop in lets see what we can turn up.
We hop on the back of the cart and he puts that bad boy in motion before we know it he is FLYING through the parking deck jerking us this way and that. Either I'm getting really old or we were going about 45mph. I am holding on to the sides hoping he doesn't tip me out from all the turns and rapid speed. We are quite the spectacle riding around with Mr Man. Everyone stares at us like we are the stupidest people in town. I can tell Mr. Man is none to pleased with us so I try to make conversation. I ask him if this happens often.
Everyday, it's all in a days work. 
The seriousness of his answer set me to cracking up again. After we scan level two and three for 20 minutes flying up and down the rows on the golf cart he stops the cart and turns around and says are you sure you parked here?
I started thinking are we? I'm getting confused, maybe it's all the turning and speeding on the cart.
Yes Bonita says
Well, we'll just ride down to level 1 to cover all bases but I'm sure it must be higher
Eventualy we found our car on level 1
He bid us farewell we thanked him
He tipped his hat and told us to drive safe as he sped off to save others.
Bonita looks at me and says it is You! I never lose my car. 
I told you, "Welcome to Raquel's World"
And off we went laughing all the way back to Raleigh