I hope at the sight of this title you are humming a nice little 80s diddy by the Bangles. I know I am. For a scheduled, organized person like me, Mondays are great. I get to start a whole week over again. No mistakes. No limitations. Just seven days waiting to be filled with excitement. I forget sometimes that I live in Russia and in Russia, all plans are tentative, but certainly not concrete.
So I woke up on this particularly cold Monday and grabbed my grocery list because I was taking a friend to the store. Next time I will remember that if I wake up and it's -25F, stay home. The vehicle did not comply with the cold. Even though it was parked in a garage all night, that wasn't enough. I did what we always do in this situation; plug in a heater and turn on a shop light under the engine. It's amazing what 100 watts can do.
End result: No grocery store, which equals no bread, no produce, and no beer. No biggie though because at noon, we were going to some friends' house to shake things up a bit. The van didn't start then either. My dear friend was anxious to visit as well and so she and her four kids made the trip out to us. Her vehicle which was parked outside all night, started right up. Ridiculous, I know.
After a lovely couple of hours, it was time for them to go to music school where her eldest had a competitive exam of sorts. They were off and on their way with plenty of time to spare. Just moments after they left, a huddled group of five appeared in my doorway. They had only made it out of the driveway when their car started leaking gasoline all over the pavement. I ran out to the garage and my van started right up! Literally, a complete miracle. I drove them into town to get a taxi and went back home.
I'm sure I've mentioned we live in a gated community. Not just anybody can come right in. Therefore, I learned the word for tow-truck so I could call security and let them know who was coming. Mission accomplished. School was done for the day and I was ready to teach my Monday piano lessons a few houses down. Just as I headed out to teach, the tow-truck arrived. I had the key to the broken down vehicle and my friend told me how much to pay him. This was the easy part. It was when he asked for the registration to the vehicle and more money that made it complicated. He didn't speak English and my Russian is limited to grocery store terms.
So I called my friend and he called his friend. Simultaneously, we handed each other our cell phones. His friend on the phone is my friend's friend too so he says, "Hello, this is Sergei!" I was so happy to hear his voice. He explained I needed to give the driver more money. Well, geesh, that was easy.
The tow truck drove away and I went to my piano lesson. I was already running very late and so I gave lessons, ran home, and whipped up some eggs. Oh yeah, hubby had to work late. I shoveled some food into the kids' mouths and remembered that I told my earlier friend I would take her to the store tonight if the van started. I also remembered that I forgot to give Number 1 money for her gymnastics class that she was in right that minute. I started up the van again, went to the sports center and paid for class, and then on to the store. No big adventure there except when my overly-nice American friend tipped the grocery cart guy 500 rubles for helping with our bags.
Last week a friend who is stationed in Colombia sent us some chocolates and coffee. Somewhere during this crazy afternoon, I ate a couple chocolate covered coffee beans. I definitely got a good kick of energy but man, did I pay for that. I usually fall asleep instantaneously when my head hits the pillow. Not that day. I laid in bed and talked to myself until midnight when I knew there was a new day coming.
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