A Big Slice of Humble Pie, Side of Spilled Milk

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Last night, the Tollivers were gracious enough to open their doors to Danielle and me because residence life shut down the halls we were living and working in for the semester. The Tollivers fed us (twice!), entertained us, and gave us a comfy bed to sleep in. We laughed so much while we were there, and I decided they needed their own reality TV show.

Then today I was supposed to drive one of my closest friends to the camp she and Matthew Tolliver will be working at until August 1. On the way there, it hit me that along with my AMAZING family and boyfriend, I won't see her for three months. What was I going to do with three months of no Abby-Danielle time? No slushies? No late night rides? No all nighters dedicated to "homework?" No awkward laughing fits? It was a terrible realization, and I'm kind of ashamed it just hit me that I'd have to say goodbye to her. So this all begins around 7 this morning. I'm already teary-eyed, and on top of that I was pretty sleepy.

As many of you know, I tend to speed a bit, so I was going down Route 25 to Richmond at about 60 MPH (only 5 miles over for those of you that are counting). I come up on a gray truck in front of me, going about 57 MPH. I slow down 20 yards behind the guy because I'm from the country, and we don't crowd people there. But my breaks didn't catch at first. I kept pushing them down, and finally when they got to the floor, we awkwardly jerked side to side and slowed down. I figured the problem was with me, so I continued, but a little further back from the truck. I scooted my seat up (maybe I just imagined pushing the pedal all the way down?), and adjusted the floor mat (maybe it was getting in the way?). I told Danielle, and saying it really made me sick to my stomach.

Then I came to the red light before the depot at the BP station. I had to fight the steering wheel to keep from hitting oncoming traffic. My car started driving itself (terribly). So I pulled over and called Mom. Why? Pfft! IDK. Anyway, from there the tears started welling up, crying ensued, Danielle's coworkers picked her (and her stuff) up, and I called AAA. It hits me around this time that 1) I'm homeless and 2) I can't afford to fix ANYTHING about my car. Add more crying. I got a tow back to Berea after half an hour of crying in a parking lot and being stared at by all the old men going into the truck repair place. So AAA, for those of you who are unfamiliar, offers you three free emergency responses a year if you pay a membership fee, which my LOVING parents give me every year. The emergency tow covers the first 100 miles for free, but Mom had said she and Dad could come to Berea tomorrow. When we were almost to student parking, I realized this guy should have just towed me to Mt. Sterling, and I should have had another emergency and gotten a tow to Huntington. That would have been 200 miles, and I would have been within minutes of relatives who would open their doors to me and work on my car.

So yeah, I realized I'm not very good at thinking when I'm too busy crying. But on my way up the hill from student parking, I called Mom, told her it was probably just a belt. I was walking by Boone Tavern when I hear a voice from the past shriek, "ABBY MAYNARD!" It was Shauna Sams with baby Jerry in tow. Long story short, she was in Berea for the day, so while she was in a meeting, I watched Jerry. We played on Anna Smith's lawn. He's SO much bigger than he was 6 months ago...He has teeth now! And he can get in chairs, on tables, in trouble...Heh. He was a lot of fun. And the funniest thing was he was wearing khaki pants and a light blue tshirt, and I was wearing khaki shorts and a light blue tshirt. I felt really dorky. Anyway, I think I attached pictures of Jerry to this? IDK, I hope so.

Then we went to lunch at Popaleno's. We were going to eat at The Black Feather, but there's no seating for wiggly little boys. So yeah, at Popaleno's Jerry was highly entertaining. He got a cup of milk that he dribbled everywhere, and he was more interested in pulling the straw out of his cup than drinking from it. Shauna got a nice bit of a break between me and Kim Jerry-wrangling, and it was SO good to see her. It made having an awful morning worth coming back to Berea.

BTW, I still might be homeless tonight. But what I love about Berea is almost a dozen people have offered me a place to stay tonight.

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Photos

Jerry's Gonna Getcha!
Humble Pie, Spilled Milk

Jerry Closeup
Humble Pie, Spilled Milk