little drama queen

i have to post this story so that it is never forgotten.  just thinking about it makes me laugh.

last tuesday morning we were in california on our way to lax, which is about an hour away from my parents house.  we had to wake the girls up at 5:45 (too bad we weren't in hawaii because they would have already been up) to make our flight.  anyone who has had they joyful experience of driving with velzy knows that she is not always the most fun kid to be in the car with, about a 10 minutes into the drive she started whining.  "me back hurting" and so on, and on, and on.  ivy wasn't the happiest of campers either and she had spilled a whole water bottle in her lap as well.  i was just tired, as i had only gotten a few hours of sleep- and by a few i mean 3, and just wanted to sleep in the car.  so the mood in the middle seat of the excursion was a little less than happy.

we finally made it to lax when my mom (aka "the most cautious driver in the family") went through a yellow light that turned red while she was in the intersection, and don't forget to notice the motorcycle cop waiting to prey on late-already-stressed-travelers sitting right there.  a few seconds later that same cop pulled up behind us, lights a flashin' pulling us over in "the yellow zone for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only" (name that movie).  at this same time velzy was sitting innocently looking around at all the cars and getting excited for the upcoming flight.  when all of the sudden her mom yells at her "VELZY START CRYING." she looked up at me- what are you talking about? "VELZY, START CRYING NOW.  START CRYING!"  sidenote, i have always dreamed about talking or crying myself out of a ticket.  i have only got one ticket in my life.  my friend brad and i were on our way back to campus after lunch and had a bag of el pollo loco trash we needed to get rid of.  it just so happened to be trash day in mission viejo and all the houses we were driving by had their trash cans out.  we waited till we found one that was open and i slowed down while brad hung out the window and threw our trash in.  we speed away laughing at a little over the speed limit of 25.  of course there was a jerk-off of a cop waiting there to meet his quota of high school kids and he pulled me over and having no mercy and gave me a ticket.  knock on wood, that is the only time i have ever been pulled over.

but i digress, back to the original story.  so velzy, very confused and sad that her ever so loving mother has just yelled at her, puts her hands to her face and starts to sobb.  perfect.  i tell my mom to roll down velzy's window as she does her own, which she struggles with a little but it eventually gets rolled down.  as the cop walks up to the drivers side he walks by and sees poor little sobbing velzy in her car seat.  the usual "do you know what you did/can i see your license" cop talk follows and he ask to see my license as well.  a little weird, but whatever.  technically, my mom didn't run a red because she was in the intersection when the light was still yellow, and the safest driver in the family does not run reds.  we do the whole "sorry sir, it's been a long ride" and all that, then the cop returned our licenses and "let us off easy."  my mom thinks that he would have let us off anyways, but i am convinced that it was the little drama queens real tears that got us off the hook.  thank you velzy for fulfilling a life long dream of mine.

don't worry, the actress was paid in dots (candy) upon the cop mounting back up on his bullet bike and the widows being rolled up.