"Wrinkle in Time", Java Chiller, & Adulthood

Ok...so I've been listening to "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle for the past 6 months. (I really like it :) ) This is a great quote from it..."Meg hesitated....She wanted to reach out and grab Calvin's hand, but it seemed that ever since they had begun their journeyings she had been looking for a hand to hold, so she stuffed her fists into her pockets and walked along behind the two boys. -- I've got to be brave, she said to herself. -- I will be."

Very motivating, right? Ok..that being said, let me tell you how that quote, a weekend alone, and a Java Chiller resulted in a police car in my driveway. :)

This past weekend, I actually stayed at home instead of going home home. This meant that following church and lunch I had an entire Sunday afternoon to myself. I drove and found an internet connection (completely legal one FYI) and spent about an hour checking email, purchasing songs, etc. To complement this wonderful Sunday afternoon activity I decided to go get a Mocha Java Chiller from Sonic (they are really good, you need to try one). I took my Java Chiller home and wasted the rest of the afternoon watching portions of Masterpiece Theater and random movies. This feeling of going to Sonic just because I wanted to made me feel very much like an adult (because adults, as you know, spend all their spare time going to Sonic). This feeling does not happen very often. In fact, it was such a novel feeling that I even noted it on my calendar - "felt like an adult". This should have given me a clue that something was going to go wrong. Preparing to go to evening church, I turned my cell phone on silent, like any good Christian would ;o). After church, which was quite good, I got in my car and headed home. Now, I normally call someone as I'm walking in at my house - it is precaution of sorts. Well, I decided that this time I was not going to call...("Wrinkle in Time" has apparently become part of my subconcious workings). I was going to be brave and walk to my front door. That went well and I felt very good. I opened my phone and started to dial home, but changed my mind. I am ALWAYS calling home. I was not going to be the one to call this time. I closed my phone, fixed some supper, and went about watching Masterpiece Theater (which happened to be showing Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park" - one I have not yet read). It was quite good - people being all confused about who they really love and such but realizing their true feelings in the last 15 minutes or 3 chapters- typical Jane Austen. I got to thinking at one point, "Why hasn't anyone called?" I was a little sad but again, being stubborn, I was not going to be the one to call. I went on watching Mr. Crawford try to woo Fanny to no avail when I heard a vehicle pull into my front yard. Not good! No one ever turns in here! Then there was a rapid knock on my deck door. Also not good because the light bulbs I put in after finally getting the broken bulb out (which caused my thumb to bleed profusely by the way) were mimicing strobe lights and I did not want to cause anyone passing by on the road to have a seizure. I went to the door, pulled back the shade, and heard from a source I could not see "Hey!" Ah! "I'm ________, the pastor's wife." Oh, ok. Oh, crud! What is this? I opened the door. "You're mother wants you to call her". ???? Oh double crud... "I must have left my phone on silent", I said along with an abundance of apologies. She was very nice and said that she completely understood, that she is a mother. I continued to apologize as she headed back to the vehicle at which point I realized there is some man silhouetted against the vehicle's headlights. I began to close the door and heard her say "Thank you, officer!". Oh MY GOODNESS!! The local police had been called out to my house. The calendar note definitely needed an amendment, which it got. As if that wasn't enough, I went to pay my rent a few days later. My landlord also happens to be my next door neighbor. I was going to quickly drop off my check and head back to work. He came over to the desk and said "Now, Emily, let me ask you a personal question. Well...not a personal question...." Oh wonderful... "........We got back to our house and saw a police car outside your house. We weren't sure if you had gotten spooked or if you had a guest...."

::sigh::

So....This is my life.I am very glad that my family would be searching for me if something were to happen. I am more angry at myself for feeling like an adult and then messing it up. Is there ever a point where you get comfortable with this adult feeling? and don't mess it up? Or are there just more mess-ups to dread?

Though it seems kind of dangerous, I am not yet ready to give up "Wrinkle in Time" or Java Chillers. I will attempt to isolate other factors to see if they are the root cause of the "felt like an adult mess-up". I might begin with the internet connection.....as it is certainly not the forgetting to turn my cellphone off of silent. ;o)