You hungry? Solid Plan.
I ordered in a delicious salad for lunch at work the other day. While waiting on it to arrive, my 18 year old son Brenden calls me.... "Mom, can you meet me at Urgent Care?"
----there was a time when this call came from my younger son, Aiden and it went like this: "Can you meet me and Alexander at Urgent Care? He is driving me in because I just cut a huge gash in my arm with a grinder" Right?! So I start to panic inside----
My heartbeat quickens, eyes open wide with worry. I respond quickly, "Yes! What happened? You okay? What's wrong?" I reach for my purse to make sure my insurance card is where it is supposed to be. It is. Good! He answers... "I can't hear out of my ear, like at all. It's all blocked and really annoying." Okay, this I can deal with. His ears seem to get extra wax in them and he works outside at the farm with dirt, dust, hay and who knows what else. Might be blocked, might be an ear infection. He has all his limbs. This is all do-able. I calm slightly. "Alright, I can leave now and meet you. Where are you at?" He proceeds to tell me he is still at the farm and it could be anywhere from 25 to 35 minutes before he makes it to Urgent Care because he has to do this... and do that... and then he will be in town. So not the 'emergency' my mind first created. (It's a mom thing, I can't help it.) I tell him to just come to my office when he gets into town and we will go together to get his ear looked at by the doctor. Solid plan.
In the meantime, my salad arrives and I start to eat it, fairly quickly because I am expecting him to arrive and then I will have to leave and a salad is always best freshly made. I am about halfway through my salad and in walks Brenden, limbs and all. He notices my salad and says "Oh, what's that?" All this time I thought his ear hurt and he couldn't hear... turns out he can't see either. "It's a salad from the pub down the street, give me just a second for a couple more bites and we can leave." He is okay with that and sits down across from me at the desk and leans in to inspect closer. "What's in it?" I give him the run down of the ingredients as I take another bite. "Can I try it?" I know exactly where this is going and grab a spare plastic fork and give it to him, knowingly. He takes a bite "mmm, that's good", and another, and another, until I break the cycle and ask if he is ready to go get his ear checked out and we head out the door. We are a couple blocks from Urgent Care and he pops the question..........
"Did you eat lunch?" ......Seriously!? "Do you remember the salad at my desk just a moment ago?" He confirms and I remind him.. "That was my lunch", to which he says "Ohhh. Well, I'm hungry". Of course you are Brenden, of course. I wish I could eat like a teenager and get away with it. "I want to get something to eat after." This is no surprise whatsoever and I shrug it off as we pass a Wendy's restaurant and pull into the medical clinic. We get in and learn that he has an ear infection and the doctor tells us what we need to do and writes him a prescription for us pick up at the pharmacy. Solid plan.
We drive away from the clinic (and Wendy's restaurant) and begin our drive to the pharmacy. Upon pulling up in the pharmacy drive-thru line Brenden says to me... "You hungry?" Sweet Jesus! He followed up with "I could use a Baconator from Wendy's". I mean we covered this, right? It's possible his ear infection has spread to his brain, but I honestly believe he is just thinking..... "I want food. Solid Plan."