last week, me and my clan packed up our bags and headed over the border.
i do like saying that,
it always sounds so exotic saying one is 'heading over the border' to foreign parts.
of course the truth of the matter is,
it is never exotic piling into a mini van with three teenagers and a preteen for any length of time over 15 minutes.
but i was tres excited,
for it has been two years since all of us have gone away together
and so i was armed with my special 'i'm not listening to you' fading out device (called daydreaming),
one large packet of sun chips
my new, second hand raincoat
and
i was more than ready for a road trip.
for indeed what could be more exciting then heading to Vancouver in Canada.
it is one of my favorite cities to visit and we haven't been there in many a year.
now of course i actually probably have only ever visited less than 10 cities in the whole of this world so i'm not really one to judge or compare them.
but i do like Vancouver and my clan like it even more.
for Vancouver is where they sell Shreddies cereal.
on returning home from our excursion i had visions of border control opening up the trunk of the 'big green turd'
(as our 10 year old, rather smelly, mini van is affectionately known)
upon which the border control man would say
"what do we have here then, trafficking Shreddies are we?"
but it's not about the Shreddies today dearest readers,
no sirree, it's about my new second hand raincoat...
i have lived in the northwest of the US for nearly ten years and until three weeks ago did not own a rain coat of my own.
i am thinking that is quite a feat.
however, i found one recently on ebay,
a used NOA NOA one that had my name on it.
it would appear that it had other peoples names on it too.
so in the last few seconds of bidding time,
i put in my top bid, shaking and a sweating.
after what seemed an eternity,
the sweating and a shaking paid off...
then i waited for its arrival,
upon which i noted it was not a dull tealy gray as the dim slightly iffy ebay picture suggested to me,
but instead a rather light pretty pale blue with mini polkadots.
you know the kind of color an eight year old would like to wear.
i told myself
"do not fret Tif, for when it is raining you will be dry and happy, thus balancing out the worries of wearing an eight year old's rain coat"
and so i packed my lovely raincoat for our road trip,
for i knew the weather man had said "rain"
and i knew i would be laughing whilst my clan would be wet.
the first day and it rained.
i chuckled knowing a little bit of rain wouldn't harm me.
i donned my rain coat, took the elevator 29 floors down to the ground and headed out,
rustling as i walked...
after a few minutes,
"that's strange" i thought to myself,
a feeling of dampness beginning to sink in.
upon perusal of the interior of my raincoat
it would appear i had water seeping in,
yes as far as i could tell
water was positively loving my raincoat...
on very close inspection i noted one rain drop having the audacity to quite clearly run down the inside.
i turned to my man and told him just how disappointed i was in my little raincoat.
how i could deal with feeling a little bit twitty in it and rustling where ever i go, if it actually worked
and then i made the mistake of mentioning just how much it cost in my moment of disappointment...
after the moment of confession had past,
my man had regained his composure
he told me not to fret,
that indeed he too would feel most disappointed if he had a raincoat that failed him so.
he assured me upon returning to Mossy Shed he would have a rummage in the garage to find some waterproofing spray so my raincoat and myself may live happily ever after together.
for as i remarked to my girls on the day my raincoat arrived in our Mossy Shed mailbox,
"girls, i intend to be wearing this raincoat in twenty years time, it is the sort of raincoat a granny who is a little bit mad would wear"
she is spring cleaning, which evolves a lot of shuffling and of course pondering a certain wall ~ Tif
footynote: here's a bigger picture of the raincoat, thus avoiding you having to rattle around the kitchen drawer to find your bi-focals to see the one above :)
