Undaunted

On Friday, two of our close friends offered to take both of our children for the night. They are clearly brave and honorable people, especially since they already have two children of their own. We quickly took them up on the offer before they realized what they had done. We dropped the kids off and headed to Pi, a lesbian bar and restaurant here in Minneapolis. We were excited to have some great appetizers, a couple of beers and spend some time together. More than anything, however, we wanted to go to a movie. Luisa hadn't seen a movie in the theater since we saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in 2005. We had a very happy Happy Hour at Pi and, around 6:30 p.m., started getting ready to go. Our movie started at 7:10 p.m. and we didn't want to miss it. We paid our bill and were finishing our beers when a staff person from Pi came over and asked if we owned a Saturn Vue with car seats in the back. Nothing good ever comes of a question like that. No one ever follows that questions with "You've just won a million dollars!" or even "You've won a complimentary turkey!" No, this question has an air of doom about it. She then told us that someone had broken into our car. We went outside and one of the rear passenger windows had been shattered. Nothing was taken, however. They just shattered the window for sport. We were upset but it could have been worse. But wait, it did get worse because we realized it was 6:45 p.m. and we still had to call the police - we were not going to make the movie. Oh, there is nothing that compares to the depths of despair parents face when they ponder the possibility that a child-free night is going to be wasted. We fell silent and looked at our shoes. Then, at the same time, we looked at each other and said, "We can still make it!" We decided to make the police report later and to take our chances with a windowless car. We figured that it was highly unlikely that our car would be broken into twice in one night. We sprang into action. We were in a lesbian bar, by god. If they didn't have cardboard and duct tape then there were bigger problems in the world than a little broken glass. We procured the needed materials, patched up the window and headed on our way. We made it to the movie with a few minutes to spare. We got some fresh popped popcorn and M & M's and escaped from it all for a couple of hours. And...the car didn't get broken into again.