Saturday evening Connor and I had a date to see "Alvin And the Chipmunks-The Squeakquel" and we were headed to Red Robin to grab a quick bite before the show. On the way out of our street we came to a STOP sign and were faced with a gold minivan that was already stopped there, kind of in the middle of the road. They did not proceed after several seconds then, suddenly rolled about 6 feet forward before stepping on the brakes again. Then, their reverse lights came on. Then they went off. Then they did nothing again. Since they're sitting in the middle of the road, and its a skinny road, I can't get around them. So, I enjoyed the opportunity to justifyingly honk my horn and say aloud (inside the car where only Connor can hear me) "Come on people! Let's go!!" They took the hint and moved on and proceeded to follow the exact same route we were on out of the neighborhood. At some point near the Greenway a car got between us and I lost sight of them. Minor neighborhood traffic frustration. Not even worth remarking about....normally.
However, in the 2-3 minutes of the drive after the "no-go" incident as we proceeded to Red Robin, Billy Joel's "She's Always A Woman To Me" was playing on the radio (lyrics here if you need 'em). As is typical, I sang along.
So, we pull into the Red Robin parking lot just as the song is wrapping up. The lot is pretty full and its one of those incredibly stupid loopy parking lot layouts that you find everywhere around here. So, I'm kind of circling around heading to a few empty spots I could see in the distance. When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, but the NO-GO GOLD MINIVAN. Which, now is sitting perfectly still in the middle of the too-skinny-to-pass aisle near three open spots which I can't get into because they're blocking my progress and I can now see that its a middle aged woman driver with husband in the passenger seat and two kids in the back. I wait a reasonable amount of time and still they do not move and I really just don't want to honk again but I do say aloud "Jeez, Connor, this woman is horrible!" and here's how it goes from there:
C: What woman?
D: That same woman in that minivan blocking us at home. She's blocking me again. She's a horrible driver.
C: Well, if you ask me, the woman in this song sounds pretty horrible.
(I snap to reality and out of my road rage.)
D: What do you mean?
C: What kind of a woman carelessly cuts you and laughs while you bleed? That's horrible.
(Now, I'm kind of chuckling.)
D: Well, honey, he doesn't really mean that literally. He means that she hurts his feelings and doesn't really care.
C: Yeah, but then she throws shadows at him? How does she do that? That doesn't sound nice.
D: Well, again, he doesn't mean that exactly. He probably means that she acts mysterious and does things he can't figure out. Songs are like poems. The words don't always mean exactly what they sound like.
C: Well, I don't like that. You should just say what you mean. Right?
While all of that is going on she moves her car and we park. The conversation ended there and that was it. But wouldn't you know it, when we got into the restaurant that family was in front of us at the hostess stand, confused, trying to gather their children and decide where they wanted to sit. This time, we had room to go around them. So we did.
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