High anxiety days

This buying a new, or different, vehicle business is quite stressful...awash in indecision and second-guessing ourselves. Justin chose a 'new' truck last week Sunday but it was not yet ready to come home. In fact, it had not even been 'processed' for sale by the dealership. The salesman figured it would be ready for him on Monday some time. They had to perform a safety check on the truck, making sure it's road-worthy and so on. 

In the meantime, though, Justin's boss began searching for a suitable vehicle to buy, other than the one previously selected. That really stirred things up! Not the help wasn't appreciated, because it certainly was, but it made us concerned we'd goofed on our original choice. Justin was torn between the truck being processed and anything his boss found. 

The salesman contacted Justin to let him know that they had to order parts for the truck so it wouldn't be ready until Tuesday. With all the vacilating, I had my neighbor look at the paperwork with her "lawyer-eyes" and she figured that we could back out if we wanted to since money had not exchanged hands. Justin had a particularly exhaustin week at work, long days in the heat, and so on, so he was willing to put off going to get the truck until he was ready. We'll see how that goes...

Today was Bible study at Victory. We were a sparce group with some folks traveling in MI and others simply absent. Those of us there enjoyed the class greatly, beginning the class with prayer for those suffering or facing loss. One woman had lost her younger brother that week, and her husband and she were flying out the next day for IL. Another couple from the congregation had to put their son, in his 20's, under Hospice care, due to untreatable organ failure. Needless to say, there was a pall over the room, despite the uplifting promises in Isaiah 27. "and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem."  And we worry about our choice of a used truck???

Senior Moments

Justin is gone tonight with his friend, Jesse, to watch the NFL Draft proceedings on the big screens at Everbank Stadium downtown. He was glad to get done working at a reasonable hour today, had enough time to clean himself up, and then go to help one of our neighbors with her printer problems. Then he was meeting up with Jesse to go downtown. Before he departed, Justin asked me if I was going to be okay food-wise with him being gone. Of course I will be fine---we have plenty of dry bread and water to sustain me!

The other day at lunch one of our group was sharing photos of her grandson taken at prom. He was 'asked' by an older girl to be her escort and it was not an ideal situation. Even the girl's father said he felt sorry for Jacob! He was basically just along for the ride, but Jacob rolled with the punches and had a good time dancing with the others there. 

It reminded me of when Justin was a junior in high school and had no intention of going to the prom. His friend, Mark, however, had other ideas, needing another couple to help defray the cost of the limo. Not that I didn't want him to go or anything, but it was sort of disconcerting for him to go with a group, matched up with a girl he only knew in passing. Just to cover the cost of the limo...

I remember that Tom and Linda were here visiting and at the last minute (it seemed) I had to go to the florist to buy a corsage for him to give the girl. There might have been a tuxedo rental too but I am not sure of that right now. It was so much more than just the ride, you know? If memory serves, I had to drop him off somewhere, and then they were posing for pictures. BUT, I was not invited to participate in the photo taking, and, in fact, he asked me not to come. Why? "Because you cry too much..." How much is too much? It is a problem because it's catchy, that's why.

When he was a Senior in high school, his friend, Olivia, and he were going with a group to the prom, this time the fee for the limo being substantially more. Like in the hundreds for our (his) share alone. The girls organizing the event for the event (ahem, ahem) wanted a Hummer limo. I had shopped a bit online and found a regular limo for about $40 a person but, nope, it was going to be a Hummer. 

And then there is the tuxedo rental, the dinner before, and then the prom fee. I sure would not deny him the privilege of going to the prom but even he had to see how this stuff was a bit over the top. I'm not sure how many troops, oops, I meant prom-goers, fit in this Hummer limo (isn't that a bit of an oxymoron?) but even so, they might as well have rented a bus. No mention made this time of pictures being taken and I don't know that I have even seen any from that night. Jacob managed to have a good time under less than ideal circumstances and I am sure Justin had fun at his Senior prom as well. Sadly, my memory of that is limited to the Hummer! 

Another sad thing about this is after having done all the big stuff for prom, far more expensive than it has to be, every year or for every event, the bar is being raised for the next occasion. I see those types of weddings almost every weekend from my balcony!

It is sad that I don't remember more about these big days for him. I do have a photo of him posing with the young lady in Twila's yard, with the lake behind them. To him, it was not a big deal, not really his thing, so I guess it wasn't all that to me either. When I was in high school, we had banquets instead, with entertainment rather than a dance. Much less pomp and circumstance than is expected for students now. I still have two of the dresses my mom or sister made for me to wear to the banquet. I believe I went three times, twice with my now former spouse and once with a boyfriend named Gary. I might have to pull out those photos from the archives and scan them in. Those I have--- but not of Justin, though!