Coffee mugs and waves and other magical things

This morning we woke up bright and early, before the sun had risen, to drive Che to work. The night before, I had run out of gas on the way home from picking the kids up from school, which resulted in a long and drawn-out “adventure” that ended with the car being towed to the mechanic. I’ll spare you most of the details, but I will share that the very ridiculous reason for running out of gas may or may not have had something to do with a collection of shells from a recent beach trip sitting on my dashboard. They happened to be placed in such a way that they covered the gas gauge, which meant I didn’t see the bright yellow empty warning symbol glowing beneath them until it was too late, and we found ourselves slowing to a stop at a very inopportune moment on a dark and rainy evening when bellies were hungry and bladders were full.

When all was said and done, we had many blessings to count, including the fact that Che happened to be on his way home from work and just ten minutes away from coming to our rescue.

Anyhow, All of this meant we were temporarily left with only one car this morning to carry us through our commutes. The pre-sunrise drive offered sparkling views of the holiday lights adorning the dark, rainy streets of Portland, and we pointed out our favorites as the windshield wipers whooshed and we talked about the day ahead.

After dropping Che off, the kids and I had an hour to spare before the school bell would ring in the day, so we made our way to a little cafe, where we drank hot cocoa and chai tea and sketched pictures of coffee mugs and waves and other magical things.