Pop!

I bought myself an early birthday present today: two new tires! I was going to buy new dinnerware, but then I figured: why buy something you want, when you can buy something you need? :)

Afraid I was getting a little soft, the Universe conveniently left the jagged metal edge of a storm drain exactly where I wanted to park. Pop! Well, Universe, I have some news for you: if you're trying to get me down, you're going to have to try harder.

I've been secretly paranoid about getting a flat tire from the first day that I bought my car. Now that it's behind me, I realize it's really not so bad after all. Here's why today was the perfect day to get my first flat tire:

-The timing was fortuitous, because it happened just as I pulled up to the church for Melissa's baby shower. I was already where I needed to be for the morning, and I had the rest of the afternoon to take care of it. (*Bonus* Fortuitous is one of my favorite words, and I just got to use it.) 

-A church fellowship hall full of women in dresses isn't the most likely place to find help dealing with lug nuts. However, it did mean that there was plenty of coffee and lots of muffins nearby.

-Mary Clark's dad once bought her a AAA membership for Valentine's Day, and she's been a member ever since. Someone please remind me to thank Mr. Gaston for his thoughtfulness when I meet him at the wedding.

-It was raining. Ok, so that probably wasn't fun for the AAA guy who had to change my spare, but it sufficiently deterred me from trying to do it myself. I wasn't quite as stubborn as I normally would have been about asking for professional help. If you're a man whose number is in my phone, be grateful to the clouds that you didn't have to come teach me how to fix my tire in the rain.

-The AAA guy was pretty impressed by the size of the hole I put in my tire. I really ripped it open. That's not actually a blessing, I guess, but it made him laugh.

-Within two minutes of posting a "damsel-in-distress" themed facebook status update, I got a phone call from the ever-faithful Nate. He volunteered to spend three hours with me at the Wal-Mart tire service center and even helped me replace my windshield wiper blades. This was a humbling reminder that I have better friends than I deserve.

-I needed to get my oil changed, anyway.

-Next time, I'll know what to do. This is one less "what if" for me to be intimidated by. 

Growing up isn't so bad - especially when life's lessons come gently.