Tired...

Tired now, and will be more tired later, or as Ed calls it, Re-tired... LOL.

Unbeknownst to us, Nick drove 'down south' (won't say exactly where) to pick up a friend. This kid was kicked out of his home by his parents and has no where else to go. So my son drives to the rescue, with his trusty sidekick, AKA Felicia, in tow.

Ran into problems when they discovered the toll for the George Washington Bridge is now thirteen bucks. Didn't have enough $ to finish the trip, so finally called us last night. We transferred some gas money to his ATM acc't, but it was rejected as the card was reported stolen. (Maybe because he used it out-of-state without warning the bank?) In the process of trying to get some money down to him, his car battery and his cell phone died. Didn't hear from him for 3 hours, so we innocently thought he was on his way back.

Got a call at 2am that they got kicked out of the Sunoco gas station for pan-handling for gas money. Ed spent over an hour on the phone, trying to work out the problem from hundreds of miles away. Finally paid big bucks for AAA to add him to our acc't, which we discussed just last week but did nothing about, and he was towed to a truck stop. Ed called the national headquarters and got it set up that the gas tank could be filled, plus the kids, since they hadn't eaten in well over 12 hours, and I would give the credit card number over the phone. (The young gentleman was very polite and professional, and I will be letting his supervisor know that!)

They're not home yet; Nick had to nap when he found out that he was falling asleep at the wheel, more than once. (Felicia doesn't drive, and I don't know ANYTHING about this young friend, except his name, but I'm guessing he doesn't drive, either...) I guess Nick will miss school today, which is not good as it's the first day of his 2nd term. But that can't be helped.

As for me, I'm in a bit of a tizzy. Worried about the kids, worried about the friend, worried about Nick taking this decision into his own hands, just worried. (I'm not even sure if this is legal, because I don't know how old this child is. Ed says WE didn't drive him across five state lines, so we can't be sued, but who knows. I guess we'll find out the hard way.)

I've been cleaning house for a while now, trying to not eat myself into a frenzy with all the stress. I have no idea how this is going to play out. But as I told Ed in the wee hours of the morning, we can't preach 'help our neighbor' if we're not willing to live it ourselves.

PS: this is NOT how I wanted to spend my week off work!