It Is What It Is: If something can happen, chances are it will
There are certain crazy, seemingly impossible things that happen to us every day -- stuff that, even if we tried really hard to make them up, we couldn't. And throw some kids into the mix and you've just elevated the list of outrageous things that can happen to a whole new level. Take last night. My 16-year-old daughter asked if we could go for ice cream. A totally appropriate request for a steamy Thursday night in July, right? What could possibly go wrong? Yeah, well … So, of course, being the stellar mom that I am, we went. And for the first 11 seconds that we were in the ice cream shop, everything was peachy. It was at second 12 that the wheels came off the bus. A muffled, Oh, God, was all I heard as I was just about to order. Which was quickly followed by, That did not just happen to me. So right away I know that whatever just happened 3 inches behind me was not good. Not words you want to hear out of your kid at 9:15 at night when all you want to do is peacefully lick on your soft serve and go home to bed. Now, as a parent of a teenage daughter I won't lie, I was heavily inclined to just keep facing forward and pretend she wasn't my kid. But genetics are strong little things. Needless to say, I turned. And what I found was almost too ridiculous to believe. There she was, standing against the counter, hunched over, and staring down into the three-quarter-inch space between the counter and the ice cream freezer (you know, the giant size that holds like 12 containers of ice cream and weighs around 2,000 pounds). Wanna guess what somehow magically slid out of her hand and fell directly, perfectly, almost comically down that little black hole? Yep. Her brand spankin' new iPhone. Oh yeah. Gone. Gonzo. Bye-bye. Ciao. Also wanna know what can make every ounce of color and fluid drain out of a 16-year-old-girl's face faster than anything else? Watch them watch their entire digital world slide into the abyss. I mean, if you had been there seeing the size of this teeny, tiny little crevice, you would've just started laugh-crying, which is more or less what I did, after the initial shock wore off. It was literally, physically impossible that that phone fit into that space without a carefully orchestrated move on her part. But the fact is, it was an accident. A complete fluke. A one in a million. And even though Libby knew I knew that, the vein in her forehead still started bulging. Of course, she immediately assumed she was S-O-L and her phone was gone for good. Typical kid move. And although I tried to assure her that we had options, she wasn't hearing me. Had blocked all forms of rational thought. But as far as I was concerned, all we needed to do was move the 7-ton freezer back far enough to reach an arm down and grab it. Which would've been potentially doable if the owner was there and if there were more than two people working and if they weren't closing soon. Fortunately for her, I'm a problem-solver. And I'm a frugal mom who was not about to lose a crazy-expensive smartphone to some oversized, antiquated freezer unit. Not on my watch. This was going to involve some creative thinking, resourcefulness, and expert hand-eye coordination. Totally my wheelhouse. So in my head, I was formulating a plan. A plan that was either going to fail miserably or elevate me to an urban legend in my tiny little town. (And I've always wanted to be a legend, so …) But I needed to be systematic about The Plan. I needed to ditch the kid, whose bulging head vein and bloodshot eyes were acting as a distraction, and go get the right tool for the job. That tool being a long steel rod of some kind with a perfectly placed little hook-thingy on the end. And it just so happened we had that exact thing back at the house. It was the tool we use once a year to crank our ski carrier up to the ceiling in the garage, of course. It was just the thing and I knew it would work. (I was doing a lot of positive visualization to avoid getting too pissed at the situation.) Fifteen minutes later, I walked back into the ice cream shop with my steel rod, a fireplace poker, and my putter over my shoulder. (I needed options just in case.) Ninety seconds after that I had done the impossible. I had fished out her phone -- fully intact and buzzing with 200 new Snapchat notifications. BOOM! Who's the urban legend, now, baby!? So here's the takeaway … Life is actually one, long comedy. It really is most of the time. Ridiculous situations are everywhere and we just need to expect that stupid, seemingly impossible things are going to happen every day. We just need to do our best to laugh them off, wherever they come from, and learn to deal. And may I suggest keeping a 4-foot-long metal rod in the trunk just in case. -- Lisa Sugarman lives just north of Boston, Massachusetts. Read and discuss all her columns at itiswhatitiscolumn.wordpress.com. She is also the author of LIFE: It Is What It Is available on Amazon.com and at select Whole Foods Market stores.
Jul 25, 2016 9:43 AM
