While You Were Sleeping

Dear husbands (Justin, Spencer, and James),

Do you remember that Sandra Bullock movie from the mid-90's? Well, as you know, we went out to celebrate my birthday tonight and we went to a restaurant owned by Ms. Bullock, Bess's Bistro. It was a wonderful little bistro with Manhattan-esque ambiance and great food. We didn't see Sandra---though we did hear she was there---but we didn't need a celeb sighting in order to have made the night memorable.

Yes, while you were sleeping we were having quite a time. Due to our need to be responsible mothers (and because we had already ditched you with the kids on Tuesday night) we opted to go out a little later tonight so that we could get the kids into bed or, in one case, support you in your church calling and allow you to attend an evening meeting before we headed out for our night on the town. Because of our late start we didn't even arrive at the restaurant until around 9:15pm. We parked in a lot across the street and headed in for our special evening. None of us had ever been down to this quaint little spot off of 6th Street but we had heard good things and knew that we were in for a good time.

Brooke, Jackie, Lonna

Two and a half hours later we emerged from the underground hotspot and crossed the street to Lonna's car. Unfortunately the car didn't seem to be in the spot where we had parked it, indeed I immediately had flashbacks to my BYU days where everyone I knew had their car towed at least once, and Lonna's car had definitely been towed. It turns out that the empty lot across the street was really for an Extended Stay America hotel and that across the parking lot, behind the branches of a tree, there was a sign posted by J & J Towing company stating that all vehicles without a proper hotel pass would be towed at the owners expense.

Because you were all home with our sleeping children we were unsure how to get to the impound lot, the only logical choice was to call a cab so that's what we did. After a rather unsettling drive through a sketchy part of east Austin---with Jackie monitoring the cabbies every move on her iphone map---we arrived on a little street with no street lights across from some factory at a shed with bars on its windows and a lot of sad looking cars parked behind an adjacent fence. I couldn't help but have flashes back to a conversation I had with Allie recently where she nonchalantly mentioned that there have been a lot of pregnant women who have had their baby's cut out of their bellies lately. It was clear that the smartest thing we could do was get out of there as fast as possible, I mean what could two women each in their ninth month of pregnancy, or a 110 lb. woman (who was asked by the tow guy if it was her Dad's car---I thought Lonna may lose it and tell him that she may look young but that she is the mother of two children) do against any creepy kind of danger on a back road? It would clearly be up to me.

Sketchy towing place in the middle of nowhere

We paid the fine of $193.30 and tried to not be infuriated by the fact that we learned that the car had only gotten to the lot 10 minutes before we realized it was gone. If only we hadn't taken that last pregnant-lady bathroom break right before leaving the restaurant!!!

Lonna and her car are reunited, they embrace

As Lonna said, "$75 spent on dinner. $16 cab ride. $193.30 impound fee. Celebrating Brooke's 29th birthday, priceless."

So husbands, sorry that we didn't arrive home until 2am and sorry that we are all at least $70 poorer than when we left home, and a special apology to James---sorry we got your car towed!

Sincerely,

the wives

(Brooke, Jackie, and Lonna)

Thanks girls for a very memorable night!