Jealousy is an ugly thing

I came into the office Wednesday morning and I had a voicemail from my parents, left at 5:38 Tuesday evening. Why they didn’t call my cell phone I don’t know, but that’s neither here nor there at this point.

Here’s the transcript of the important part:

“Just wanted to let you know...it’s a long story but we just had a lady tell us that, ‘Oh you don’t want to stay at the Wigwam...’ in Holbrook, you know. (To mom) Because of what? Because ‘It’s musty and stuff.’ She says ‘You want to stay up at’ some fancy La Sperado [sic – it’s the La Posada] something up in Winslow for 80 to 120 bucks a night. We figure we can go to the grocery store and buy air freshener. I was just calling you to see what your opinion of it was. Must’ve been alright, you didn’t discourage us. So ok, have a good week! This is Tuesday afternoon and it’s 2:40 Arizona time so we should be in Holbrook in about 20 minutes. Bye-bye!”

I know my parents are not high maintenance at all and they did make that comment about buying air freshener, so I was fairly confident they would stay at the Wigwams. But still...it sure was a long couple of hours while I watched the clock and waited until it was an acceptable hour for me to call them. We finally connected and they told me that they did, indeed, stay at the Wigwams and found them delightful.

It turns out they had arrived in Holbrook rather early in the afternoon and decided to venture on ahead to check out Winslow so they wouldn't have to stop there the following morning. They were in a shop in Winslow when they had that conversation with a proprietor. Despite that lady’s negative opinion, they backtracked to Holbrook to spend the night. My mom, who is one of the most mild-mannered people around, said she had an urge to stop by that store when they went back through Winslow so she could give that lady what-for!

Now it’s Friday night and we spoke about 45 minutes ago. They’re at the Wigwams in Rialto. I keep having to give them pep talks that they’ll be able to drive to Santa Monica without any problems. They’re driving it on a Saturday morning. It’s just a regular city street with four lanes and traffic lights. But some people (um, person) in this family tend to get a little jumpy in traffic (See also: Amusing stories about my dad backing into someone at a toll booth outside Chicago) and I think this certain person has visions of chaotic freeway traffic with people randomly shooting each other. I’m supposed to set my alarm for 8:45 tomorrow morning so I can wake up and pray for them. :-)