The Never-Ending Line

Sorry for my little rant earlier today. I'm human and was having a bad day and had gotten one too many nasty comments this week. I felt the need to lash out instead of just snorting and deleting and moving on. Joe's been doing a few side jobs and hasn't been home in weeks. There's an unwritten rule, some of you may know about, that states: your children must act like deranged gibbons the last 2-3 weeks before school starts. Jackson's been off the diet the past few days because, well because it's really hard cooking everything from scratch every day and I let him have fast food the past 2 days and before that, we ate at my sil's for my niece's baptism and before that, it was Jackson's birthday party...

Anyway, it hasn't been a fun summer with Jackson off all meds and now that he's full of artificial junk, he's extra fun. And by fun, I mean, "I don't want to be in the same state room with him right now!" Of course I love him, but I really don't like him right now. The fact that Joe hasn't been around at all just ices the cake. I shouldn't whine because I did it by myself for many, many years when money was really tight and I've got it easy now. And there are single parents and military spouses who do it by themselves every day. It really makes me thankful that, at least usually, I have someone else around to help out.

So sorry to anonymous. I shouldn't have sunk to your level. Oh and thanks to the dozen or so people who wrote to tell me that I'm mean or I'm not a Christian because for once I stood up and wrote what I felt in response to the many nasty comments I get (and usually delete) each week. Because I'm human, I can't be Christian I guess. Apparently I've had it wrong all this time.

*****

Sooo, because I'm clearly insane, I took the kids to Sonic last night. It was the first day this store was open. And to make it an even more awesome experience, I left around dinner time and drove in rush hour traffic. It took us over an hour to get there. But it's Sonic, right? Worth it, right? So we get there and lo and behold, everyone this side of Chicago is in the Walmart parking lot next to the Sonic. About a dozen Sonic employees were out there directing traffic. I pulled up, opened my window and asked, "So this is the line to get to Sonic?"

"Yeah, there's about an hour - hour and a half wait right now."

"Yikes!" I turned to the kids who'd already been sitting in the car for over an hour and asked them, "Do you want to wait? There's a long line. Or would you rather go home?"

They all agreed that they wanted to wait. If we'd left at that point, we'd just be sitting in traffic for an hour to get home anyway.

So we crept through the parking lot inching along toward the new Sonic. We had fun watching the people in the other cars. There was a very pregnant woman in a car in front of us. She got out of the car and walked around to stretch her legs now and then. I was pretty sure she'd go into labor before she reached the restaurant. I could just imagine the conversation between her and her husband.

"I WANT a cherry limeade."
"But honey, an hour wait!" whines her husband.
But I WANT a cherry limeade!" she insists as she grabs the car door and shoots laser beams from her eyes at her husband.
Afraid she'll actually rip the car door off its hinges, he says, "I'll buy you some limeade at the grocery store. I'll even add some cherries to it." He tries to appease her and find a way to get out of the line that stretches all the way to the end of the earth.
"You don't love me!" wails the preggo lady as she starts to cry.
"Of course I love you," hubby insists, resigning himself to the wait and secretly hoping she goes into labor right there in their Expedition so he can leave the line.


Entering the parking lot (or trying to anyway...)


beginning of the line that wound around the Walmart parking lot


I wish I'd gotten a picture of the Walmart employees who were standing outside on a break. I'm sure they were marveling at the stupidity of the whole lot of us.


Another line of cars just waiting to get in line


a car in front of us. The passenger grew completely crazed while waiting and cut off someone's head


The kids getting tired of waiting


the kids getting loopy from waiting (They were walking around with slushy samples while we waited. Savannah had just had a blue coconut one)


I'm so excited! After only 3+ hours, I'm getting to eat my dinner!


finally made it to the Sonic lot - the Walmart lot's still full with a long line waiting to get in


cars lining up for the limeadey goodness


look at all their yummy offerings


How many Sonic employees can you shove into a tiny restaurant?


The answer is 16


Slushy tower


I probably should've taken pictures of the food, but after an hour+ drive and TWO hours waiting in line, we inhaled that stuff so fast, it couldn't be captured on film. Here's one lonely tot.

Especially considering the insane amount of time we sat in our car last night, the kids were awesome. Had I known it was going to take that long, there is no way I would've gone! We won't be returning for a few weeks at least.

Oh and they got my order wrong and the guy taking my order didn't seem to have a clue about the menu, but considering the absolutely insane amount of traffic they were handling and the fact that it was their first day in business, they did pretty well. If I'd been working there, I would've gone home and sat there shaking and rocking and trying to unwind for a good 4 hours! Everyone was really friendly and a manager talked to me for a minute and said, "I know you've been waiting a really long time. Thank you. We hope you like everything!" That there negates any wrongness in my order.