"That was the low point."

Have you ever seen "Father of the Bride"?  The Steve Martin version?  It's one of my favorites, especially the scene in the grocery store.  You know, when George Banks has had all of the wedding stress he can take, so his wife sends him to the grocery store.  He's wearing a navy blue tuxedo that's supposed to be black, it has a rip in the back, and he's at the store buying hotdogs.  Good ole' George is frantic about the amount of money his daughter's wedding is costing him and decides right there on the hot dog bun aisle that he's not paying for one more thing he doesn't need.  He freaks out because he can't find a hot dog bun package with the same amount of buns as the amount of hot dogs in the hot dog packages.  So he "removes the superfluous buns".  Ha ha ha!  He gets caught ripping open hot dog bun packages, the manager gets called, and he gets arrested. The next scene shows George Banks sitting in jail and he narrates, "That was the low point.  Freaking out over hot dog buns".  

Ha ha ha!  It really is very funny!

I had a George Banks moment a few days ago.  It was time to leave for the chiropractor's office and as soon as I instructed the kids to head to the car, they started moving in slow motion.  We were running late.  I had our afternoon planned out to the minute and we could not afford to be late to this appointment.  We (finally) managed to get into the car and as soon as I started the engine I heard a "BEEP".  I was almost out of gas.  Chris had driven us home the night before and he ran me out of gas!  Maybe not such a big deal to most people, but the gas stations close to our house are so much more expensive than every other one of the 10 gas stations we had passed the night before on the way home.  I was a little frustrated.  

At that exact moment, Chris called.  I guess his ears were burning, because I was talking about him!  He apologized, and I forgave.  And I drove down the street to the expensive Texaco.  As I was filling up, I noticed that one of my tires was low on air.  Gah!  I was still on the phone and Chris insisted that I needed to pump it up before driving all the way to Dawsonville and then back to Gainesville.  

This presented two problems.  One, I hardly ever have quarters.  I can thank my kids for this!  Two, the past two times I had tried to use the air pump at this particular Texaco station, the machine had taken my money.  I told Chris this, and he said it would probably be fine this time.  Jordan coughed up some quarters and I deposited them into the machine.  And the blasted air pump machine did not turn on.  I had no more cash, no more change.  I looked at the tire again and decided it wasn't that low and that I could make it to the RaceTrack air pump that has a credit card machine on it.  I knew it was pointless to go into the Texaco station and ask for my money back from past experience.  

I was really, really irritated and irrational.  I stood outside my car and almost had a panic attack.  Then, I just got mad.  Mad at that stupid machine.  So I called the service phone number listed on the machine.  I was put straight through to voicemail, and I left a message something like this, "Well, hi.  I'm calling about your air pump machine at the Texaco on Mount Vernon Road.  It just took my money.  Again. In fact, it's taken my money every time I've ever tried to use it.  You really should fix it, put up an Out of Order sign, or just take it down.  I'm very irritate right now.  My name is Erin and my phone number is *** *** ****.  Please call me back, I'd love to hear what you have to say."

The whole time I was talking, in the back of my mind I kept hearing, "That was the low point.  Freaking out over an air pump machine".  I'm pretty sure that I was battling the worst case of PMS of my entire life.  

I'm still mad, though.  I want a refund of the three dollars that machine has taken from me.  It's not about the money, it's the principle.  Why should the owner of that pump get away with this?  I saved the phone number in my phone as "Stupid Air Pump" and I'm going to keep calling until I get an answer.  

Over the top?  Maybe a little.