Saturday, December 17, 2011

Life Is About... Surviving Bad Juju!

If the Universe sends a strong message... you better pay attention! 


And by a strong message, I mean bad juju. Have you ever been stalked by bad juju? Like one bizarre incident after another? And after awhile it doesn't seem so coincidental, does it. Cue Twilight Zone theme.



Thanksgiving week was one big bad juju extravaganza for my family. (Yes, I know it is time to blog  December fun but I can't move on till I make peace with blog about the bad juju. Blogging is cathartic, you know.) 

Anyhoo,  back to Thanksgiving. We get a week out of school to deerhunt  celebrate Thanksgiving. Oh, how my family loves this week. We don't hunt. We travel, dine, shop and frivolously entertain ourselves. And spend time with family and give thanks, of course. We aren't totally shallow, after all... just partially shallow.


This year, our destination was New Orleans (NOLA). Did we make it to NOLA? NO! Such a disappointment since I was so looking forward to introducing the delights of NOLA to my mother and my little boy.




So how did the bad juju begin?


It was a dark and stormy... Ha! Just kidding! Actually, it was a beautiful sunny day when we headed south towards my mom's house in East Texas.

What could possibly spoil such a promising beginning?

Forgetting our NOLA music (Harry Connick, Louis Jordan ect) to set the festive mood of the trip, that is what!  



Just an inconsequential bummer, or so we thought at the time. But from that point on, the Universe thwarted us at every turn.

Really, it was as if the Universe channeled the Soup Nazi from Seinfeld: No music? No NOLA for you!

It took three loud clear messages before we finally got the hint. Yeah, we can be a bit thick, unfortunately. 

Bad juju one:  Hub forgot his blood pressure pills-- but he was able to get an emergency week's supply from a pharmacy in Texas.


Bad juju two:  A tiny scrape on my knuckle, that I spotted as we left our house in Oklahoma, morphed into a raging painful swollen oozing staph infection by the next morning at my mom's house in Texas. A red stripe was actually streaking past my wrist. Scary! Thankfully, a Saturday clinic set me on the road to recovery.

At this point, we should have seriously rethought our travel plans. But no, so...

Bad juju number three:  Four plus hours into the trip, between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, the check engine light came on.  Oh, yes, it did! And it took two cranks to start the car. Not a good sign. All this at a Welcome Center too... some welcome!  

Finally, the Universe had our undivided attention.

Way too much weirdness on top of a weird day so since it was almost dark we stopped at a hotel in Baton Rouge hoping the car would magically unglitch over night. Of course it didn't--- in fact, the car was even more difficult to start the next morning so we headed back towards Texas. 


We did not turn the car off the rest of the way back which meant tricky bathroom and snack scrounging breaks at convenience stores. Hub even put gas in with the engine running-- Now that was really taking a big chance considering the bad juju!

No explosions but the Universe sent one last parting shot to make sure we kept skedaddling out of Louisiana.

Bad juju number four: At one stop, my little boy noticed a hubcap was missing! Who loses hubcaps anymore? Actually, we think it was stolen at the hotel because our hubcaps are held on with screws. 

Bizarre, just bizarre.

After crossing the stateline back into Texas, we felt less on edge and things started looking up. The car needed a new fuel pump which, thankfully, was covered under the warranty and was repaired the next day! Yippee!

We may have missed streetcars, pralines, beignets, po-boys  and jazz but we ended up having a wonderful hometown Thanksgiving week anyway. Lots of laughs, eats, movies, shopping and games... so there, big bad juju! 

Whew, did you make it this far? If so, thank you. I love all my readers but you are my favorite reader! 

I certainly feel much much better... festive and merry even!

Wishing you and yours a holly jolly and good juju only holiday season! 











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1 comment:

  1. WOW! Glad Thanksgiving week turned out to be wonderful for you after all. Hoping you have a much smoother Christmas holiday! (Thanks for sharing at "Life as this Mommy knows It")!

    Blessings,
    Breena
    mommyknowslife.blogspot.com

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