Mother-daughter stuff

Last night at about 9:00 my daughter, Teri, called me in a panic. Her car wasn't starting and she wanted to go to Target. So I drove up to the northside and jumped her car which started right away. We thought she had left her inside light on and it had drained the battery so she left for Target and I went home. An hour later she called to say she was at Target and her car wouldn't start again. Since she had the jumper cables with her she found someone to jump the car again. I told her she needed to take the car to a mechanic. Fortunately there is a good one very near where she lives so she could just drop off the keys and call them in the morning.

At 11:15, she called again. She had decided she needed to drive down Lake Shore Drive to recharge the battery and the car had died near Fullerton Avenue. I was a little miffed that she had not listened to me about taking the car right to the garage and of course, she was in a meltdown phase, so when I got to her again we created some drama together. She says I lectured her instead of empathizing. I say she gets mean when she is panicking and there is nothing I could ever do right. I finally told her to call AAA which really ticked her off.

Recognizing the tension between us, I had prayed on the way over, that God would help me with my attitude and teach both of us through this rather stressful experience.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I jumped her car again as cars flew by on the expressway and we hobbled it back to the mechanic and left a note with the keys under the door.

So today, to ease the tension between us, I suggested we go to dinner. We had a nice meal at Charlie's Ale House in Andersonville. As I drove her to her apartment in Uptown she mentioned that my car was low on gas. I nodded that I knew and would take care of it. I dropped her off fifteen minutes before I was supposed to teach a Wheaton in Chicago class a block from her apartment.

Since I was a little early, I decided to review my notes for the class. I let the car run because it was cold outside, and, as you can guess, the car died! I ran it totally out of gas! I can't remember ever running out of gas!!

So I had the wonderful privilege of calling Teri to say, "Please honey, could you come to my rescue and drive me to the gas station?" She lectured me the whole way about how irresponsible I am and I got to show her a more pleasant way to ask for help and of course, we laughed the whole way. God has such a sense of humor!

I love you Teri!