lET iT sNOW...lET iT sNOW..lET iT sNOW

anywhere but where the fuck I am.

The Gma, the boy and the girl and I left for our trip down south to catch my wonderful talented 8 yrs old niece act in her first starring role in "Rumplestilskin".

The weatherman said, "Bad weather...blah blah..snow on the valley floor..blah blah...freezing temps." Since I never pay attn to them, I didn't think it was possible. Wrong. Going up the grapevine, I noticed some sprinkling rain and the sky go black. No problem. The rain started getting heavier. No problem. Then all of a sudden, little drifts of snow came flying at me. A problem. 2 miles later, the car and windshield was covered in SNOW. A big fucking problem. I've been in the snow. I've played in the snow. I've never driven in the shit before and here I was with the gma and the kids only.

As it started to get heavier, I got a signal and called the brother in law down south and asked if there was lodgings anywhere where I was near. The conversation went something like this.

me: "R, is there any hotels near Lebec?"
R: "What?"
me: "Is there any hotels near me?"
R: "hotels?"
me: ARE THERE ANY LODGINGS NEAR LEBEC!!!!! NEVERMIND!"
click ...idiot.

I kept repeating the mantra, "Oh God, Oh God, Oh God" over and over again. It was getting worse. The gma was actually really calm while sticking her nose to the windshield to see if she could see out. The boy was asked by the Gma to read out the signs so we could see where we were going. He did a good job, literally reading everything he saw. The girl was crying. So If we were being taped, you'd hear something like this:

"Oh God Oh God..."Call Box"..."Mommy, turn around"...Oh God..."Elevation 3000"..."Mommy, can u see?".."Oh God Oh God".."You could do this"..."Frazier Park 3 mi" ..."Oh God Oh God"..."wahhhhhhh"...."Call Box"

Reading that over, it's pretty funny. Living it wasn't.



(Not of me, but damn close to what I saw)




We finally made it past Gorman and it was getting better. When Castaic was in sight the snow had stopped and we all breathed a sigh of relief. That's when the hysteria set in. I called up big sis and started to cry. Little Sis called and I started crying. I lost it. I just kept seeing me spinning the car in the snow and crashing into a car or the side of the mountain. It was hell.

We made the ususal 4 hr ride in 6 and ended up at little sis's just before dark. Hell was over...for now. Sat was the play and it was sooooooo good. She really really did well. It was effortless on her part. She takes to acting like a fish in water. No flubbing, no hesitation....right on cue each time and the crowd loved her. You kept hearing throughout the show, "She's sooo good" - "How adorable". It made you beam. The trip up the mountain in Hell was worth it.






"Don't be reckless with my necklace!"






The grapevine closed all that day and night and was still closed the next morning. I figured we were going to be stuck there another day cause I sure the fuck wasn't going to be driving that road in the snow again. We laid about in our pj's and started to look up the weather on the computer. Lo and behold they said the road was clear and if you were going to go, go now cause another storm was moving in.

"Let's move it, throw everything we brought in a bag and get out!!" Kids, sisters, gma's were flying everywhere throwing everything into our suitcases and into the trunk. We had everything packed and ready in 30 min. At the last possible moment, the Gma then realized she didn't have her bra on. Too late I shouted, its in the suitcase and its at the bottom, your going without! So off we went, gma bra-less, me in my xmas pj's and the kids barefoot. Needless to say if we got stuck over that grapevine, we'd freeze to death.

At about the time we found out that the roads were opened, oldest sis called and said that her daughter was in the local ER with a fever (4 days) and they were running a cat scan and possible spinal tap. I'll let the good sis write about the wonderful skilled hospital staff we have to deal with. Ok, so we have the snow and we have the niece. The snow didn't stand a chance. We flew thru the mountains and got to Big Town Hospital in 4 hrs 10 min. Which is pretty good. (Had to make a pit stop at Gma's house to get a bra on though, I of course, true to form went to the hospital in my xmas pj.s.

The poor baby, she went thru soo much that day. I wanted to cry when I walked in there but I held my cool and I wouldn't let R see me worry. She was sooo grown up and took everything well when I was there. I heard a little bit of a different story in regards to the local ER's, but I wouldn't blame her with those quacks over there. They ended up doing a spinal tap there and she was really good. The only bad thing was that I was making her laugh and that ain't good when they got a needle in your spine. Bad Auntie.

All tests were negative and they were going to release her that night. She still has to see the doctor and find out what's going on though. They're stumped. We left around 7:30 or so and followed each other home, thank god, cause i couldn't find my wait out of that damn place.

I came home, smoked a cigarette, kissed hubby good night and that was all she wrote.