Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Easter Shopping

After a few hours of shopping in Atlanta, and another few hours in Dothan, I was still unable to find the 'right' dress for me and my youngest girlie.

Around this time of year, I like to purchase new digs for the entire family to wear Easter morning. This was a tradition that I grew up with, and decided to carry it on with my own children. The trouble ensued with my color choices. Two complimentary colors are picked every year so that we all sort of coordinate... not match, but at least look good in our annual Easter photo. This year, Pink and Orange will be displayed on the Dismukes family.

In many ways, this shopping trip is a worshipful event for me. I realize that this may sound weird, and to some even sacreligious, and I'm okay with that. During the shopping trips to numerous stores, I am very aware of God's presence and spend quite a bit of time praying.

Seeing as Easter is this weekend and I didn't have to work today, I took off for Albany to finish the list of purchases that I wanted to make. The drive to Albany is roughly 40 minutes, if you go just a little over the speed limit, so I normally get on the phone to chat with any number of people. Today, I was visiting with my mom, talking about activism and other extremely important ideas. As I talked, my driving speed increased more than the usual 5 miles over the limit, and I did not even notice. Not until the little blue lights on top of a passing car went off. I immediately slowed and looked through the rear view mirror to discover in horror that the police car had turned around to get me. Now, over the years, I have had the priviledge of being pulled over by men. And I have always used that to my advantage and had never been issued a ticket (except that one time I broke the cops window from loose rock on the road). As I was pulled over on the side of the road, I began to run through my mind what I would say to ease myself out of the trouble I was in, then I looked in my driver side mirror as the officer approached and all of my wonderful explanations vanished as I saw a female officer coming my way. I was out of luck. When she got to the window, I handed my license and registration over promptly, then was asked if I knew the speed limit. I answered back with "Yes ma'am, it's 65." She returned with, "No, it's 55." My heart sank. I wasn't going 11 miles over the limit when she nabbed me, I was going 21 miles over the limit! Needless to say, I received a ticket.

After resuming the drive into town, I passed two more county sherriff's. However this time, I was traveling much slower with my speed control set to 55, just to be safe.

When I made it to the shopping district (which is what I prefer to call it, even though it is quite the pitiful mall), I found the perfect dresses for the girlie and myself. I was not expecting the added expense of a speeding fine today, and hope that I miraculously get some money in the mail to cover it. Since, after all, it WAS a time of worship.

2 comments:

SandyBo said...

That stinks!

I can't believe that you found dresses in Albany! I mean, you went to Atlanta and Dothan and ended up purchasing them in ALBANY?!?

Colleen said...

I'd love to see your family photo, Ben in Pink and Orange has to be a sight !! I also really feel for you. A lady cop pulled me over on my way to church for turning right on red off the freeway @ Country Club (by your guys old church)
She had no mercy and when I went to the court to fight it she was in the front row!! I had to pray hard for forgiveness of the things that were going thru my head about Mrs. Officer I tell you what!!