the taco bell drive-thru

today brooke & i made an unplanned stop at a playground on the way home from church, which was fine & lovely & great, except for 3 little things. one, she was wearing flip flops & warmish clothes. two, we had no sunblock. three, i didn't have any drinks because we'd already chugged them during church. those last 2 didn't seem like such a big deal initially, but since it's 85 and full sun today, it got a bit hot & possibly burny out there.

after an hour of full-on play mode (her, not me, i was texting & listening to an audio book in the shade) she was red faced and panting from exhaustion & dehydration. we stopped by a sonic on the way home for a slushie that i thought would be a fun treat since she's had all of about 2 previously in her 8 years, but we sat in the drive-thru waiting, for nearly 20 minutes! and while i was sitting there, i remembered another day, many years when i got stuck in a drive-thru. . .



faces edited for privacy. LOL!



picture this, if you will, i was at an amusement park with several of my very best friends. it was christian music fest and we'd had a full day of loud music & too many rides in the hot sun, but it was ok, cuz we were about 18 and just having fun. it was dark by the time we left & as we were leaving, there was a sudden down-pour. it was one of those kinds of rains where you can't possibly stay dryish without an umbrella, no matter how fast you run to your car or put your purse over your head. we got soaked, like we'd just jumped in a pool, so we figured we'd just have some fun with it & be glad that we weren't hot anymore. we splashed in puddles and kicked water at each other for a while, but eventually decided it was time to head out. we'd arrived in several different cars; i was driving my parents' big conversion van with my 3 closest girlfriends. the 4 of us were so close, we even went to sears & had portraits done together once & that's who you see here. i'm the one with the bowl-cut in the front.

we hopped our sopping wet selves into the big daddy van and promptly decided that we didn't want to ride the 45 minutes home in our water-logged jeans. so all four of us stripped off our pants & chucked them into a heap on the floor of the van & giggled ourselves silly that we'd just left christian music day & were now cruising down the highway in wet t-shirts and panties with no pants. it seemed positively scandalous and hilarious and i probably failed to keep it between the lines because of all the laughing and spewing of jokes.

we decided that we were hungry needed to make a stop at taco bell. we didn't care to try to cram ourselves back into our soaked jeans, so we opted for the drive-thru and figured that was safe since my van sat up so high that the window worker wouldn't be able to see in too much. we placed our huge order and were waiting behind a couple of other cars. it was a rather long wait, but we were having a grand old time, being young & stupid.

that's when we heard it. a knock on the passenger side window of the van. we all turned, wide-eyed, to see a guy's face pressed up against the glass, leering in at us. he was grinning and asking us if we wanted to go to a party with him and his friends. he may also have suggested that we just let him into the van & we could have a party right there. we squealed in fright and made sure all the locks were smashed down tight and yelled at him through the closed window to go away & no we did not care to party with him in the van or anywhere else. it was scary because we were totally stuck in that drive-thru lane with a building to one side, a huge hedge of bushes on the other, and cars in front & back of us.

after some shrieking from us, the dude reluctantly wandered off and we finally got our food & got out of there. i'm sure we made quite a sight with our matted down hair, soaking wet shirts & mountain of pants on the floor. that's one of those stories that makes me smile every time i remember it and one that went down in the history books in that group of conservative friends as the craziest thing to ever happen at taco bell.