STRANGER DANGER

Look at me. This is entry number two, and it's only been a few days since my first post. Maybe I will actually be able to keep this thing going. (If this is your first visit, read my first post below so you'll know a little of why the heck I'm doing this...)

I spent the evening with my friend Julie discussing decorating, fashion, the greatness that is a Burger House french fry, schoolwork angst, tackle football, etc. - a good mom evening. Cole and I pile in the car to head home, and he slumps down in the seat and begins moaning about his stomach. I'm telling him to hang on until we get home and am imagining the night ahead: much moaning and potentially an unpleasant night in the bathroom.

We pull up to the corner of Boedecker and Northwest Highway, and this guy in a big truck pulls up next to us. He's looking right at me, smiling and making hand motions. I smile and try to figure out what he's getting at. Are my lights on? Is my trunk open? Is my tire flat? Finally I realize he wants me to roll down the window. Oh good, now I can hear what car malfunction I have missed.

Well, lo and behold, he actually says "Hey, what are you doing tonight?" I laugh and say increduously, "WHAT???" Keep in mind that this is a normal-looking, age-appropriate cute guy.

"No really, what are you doing tonight?" he says again.

I start really laughing and say "Well, I'm actually taking my sick child home to put him to bed." (He couldn't see Cole because of the aforementioned slumping due to stomach distress.)

He said "Oh well..."

Meanwhile Cole has heard all of this and was like "what was that all about??" I quickly took the I'm-single-and-I-got-the-attention-of-a-cute-guy-on-the-street-corner stars out of my eyes, and we had a serious discussion about the perils of stranger danger.

I'd like to think that if Cole hadn't been in the car, and if my hair hadn't been in a clip, and if I hadn't had my baggy workout shorts on, and if I wasn't worried about getting my eight hours of sleep, and if I didn't care about that whole stranger danger thing, that I just might have said "I'm not doing anything. Where are we headed?"

Yeah. Right.

So, I'll spend the rest of the evening trying to act compassionate to my moaning child. But, with the one-year anniversary of my last date looming, I'll take what I can and go to bed with a smile.