Alex, Daniel, and Mommy Meet Officer Pablo

Anyone who knows me will say that I have come a VERY long way in the ability to control myself when I have a run in with a situation that is stressful or makes me angry over the past four or five months. Letting go of the things that bother you is much better then holding on to them, and is the key to a much healthier and happier life. That being said, I definitely have my moments that can be called "Erica 0-60 in under 5 seconds". At this point my anxiety takes over and I'm off. I work hard to control it, but the other day I was failing at control, while driving home from a friends house, so I picked up the phone and called my best friend and closet thing to a sister I will ever have, Natalie.

As I was struggling to hide my feelings from my sons in the back seat, I saw the lights of Officer Pablo in my mirror. I said a quick "Oh shoot, gotta go" and dropped the phone into the center console, hoping against hope he missed the cell phone or I could charm my way out of trouble. (I'm darn good at this, at least I used to be. I avoided 13 speeding tickets until my daddy bought me a convertible and a beach trip got off to bad start with a speeding ticket. After that they just think your full of it when you cry and act a fool, and claim you normally are more careful, had to pee, etc...My list of excuses goes on and on).

"I'm officer Pablo with the ________ transportation authority police. I pulled you over this evening because your headlight is out and you were talking on your cell phone. License and registration please"
I handed over my information and was so thrown off when he asked me if the address on my license was correct I said no. (I moved around quite a bit in college and never changed my license from my parent's address and have let it go for about hmmm... eight years now). Unfortunately, the state I reside in likes you to take care of it in thirty days of moving. I was honestly too over my day to even care that I got pulled over. All I could think was my driving record was currently the cleanest its been in years and my steadily decreasing car insurance rates were about to skyrocket.
In the mean time Alex and Daniel were crying when the officer walked up to the car and immediately stopped and started yelling "Hi, Hi, HI,HI,HI" out my open window, until I finally opened Daniel's window and let him say hi to the officer. (The yelling continued until Officer Pablo finally acknowledged them gave a quiet "Hi". He clearly is not a parent.
At this point he walks back to his car and I finally decided to start crying really started getting into it. Where I live the warnings used to be a narrow, long piece of paper and tickets were wider and on a different paper. It's been a couple years, so I didn't know there was a change and started crying harder when I saw the wide piece of paper in his hand. When asked why I was crying, the emotions of the day took over and I responded with "My life freaking sucks (even though it defiantly does not, just how I was feeling at the moment), and continued with some other unintelligible things. I think he thought I was crazy and couldn't wait to hightail it back to the safety of his cop car. so he said "it's just a warning just be careful and don't talk on your phone, and fix your headlight. I pretty much wanted to kiss Officer Pablo at this point (I didn't in case your wondering). I drove home, bathed my children, and thanked god for another day with my beautiful family and friends.

Another end to a day in the life of a happily single, working women + 2.

Hope everyone has an amazing night!

Erica