let's get ready to ruuuuuumble

about a week after we came home from christmas chaos, 2013, while  henry and i were feeling especially sorry for ourselves and as itchy for excitement as ever, we filled up our tummies, the diaper bag, and our optimism to-go cups for a big ol' adventure (probably to the tune of target or the grocery store). and just as the train of harried mama + always sunny henry was about to pull out the front door to load up the family fun van, we were stopped dead in our tracks by an empty parking spot instead. so we retraced the half hour it took us to pack up our loot, and settled ourselves back in for a long winters afternoon until papa bear came home with the bleebing car. joey always takes the train to work and buses the short distance to the train station, but occasionally his alarm clock fails him (or he presses the snooze 18 too many times) and he drives his happy tush to the train station instead. but when he came home from work and i plastered a smile on my face as i graciously inquired about his morning decision making skills that lead him to take the one of two vehicles we own which is stocked and loaded with henry's car seat base, the stroller, and all necessary infant items that should, arguably, remain parked outside in preparation for use with the infant inside he simply said, "i didn't drive today."

oh.

so i panicked a ton and then panicked some more because we moved our happy family all the way to virginia, just outside of dc, where crime rates are ridiculous, and our family misses us, and we have a baby now, and now our car got stolen, and... well you can imagine the calm and rational thoughts that continued to pour from my ever blabbing mouth. and joey just looked out the window with a tiny little smirk, so i jumped to some more rational conclusions and accused him of leaving the car in the parking lot at the train station, and lying to me about driving today, and making up stories to scare his hormonal wife, and on and on. until he turned to me, calmly, and lost the smile, "it got towed."

"what! why would it get towed?! we were parked where we were supposed to! this is our house. that's our spot. we didn't get towed. the car is stolen. joey! call the police...."
"no, we got towed. i'm going to go call the tow company."

and he did. and we did, we got towed. so we paid the $150 to unleash the beast, and we drove home in silence because $150 is more money than we care to drop for no reason at all and who in the world would have called us in?!? and why!?!

we have some great neighbors across the parking lot, who also happen to be lawyers, who encouraged us to email the board of our home association to demand a refund, or at the very least an explanation. so i threw on my feisty pants and hid behind my computer screen to type out a real zinger of an email to the board. and i've been razzing them every two or three weeks for answers since the middle of january, because, hello! it's the principle of the matter at this point! and finally, after all this time, last week we got our answer. the board declined to refund our money. they attached the photo that the tow company took before they took our car.

see below for the big reveal

yep! parked like an angel. in virginia, straddling the line is a big fat nono. huh.

;)

and tomorrow, life gets real. back to work! have a good week!