7:00 am- Uff! What a day, what a day. I don't even know where to begin, I guess I will start by getting woken up at 7am and having my mom ask me if I will go to Trenton, NJ with her. As you may imagine I thought it was a dream because it just seemed like such a random request.
8:00 am- I went back to sleep and had my mom come in once again and wake me up out of my sweet slumber asking me to go to Trenton, NJ with her. I realized that her request from an hour before was not a dream; I just did not realize she was really talking to me. At first I was so confused and told her I did not want to go, but then she came back again twenty minutes later.
8:30 am- I finally decided that I had to get up and go because other wise she would keep coming in and ask me the same thing at least two more times.
8:40 am- I finally got up and went in her room and asked her why she wanted me to go to Trenton so badly, she finally told me it was time for her to hand in her pension documents so she could retire and have everything settled. I was so happy for her, the long process of figuring out a pension plan would finally be over and she would be able to enjoy her last two months of work with no stress. My mother has been working for the state for almost 26 years and now that her time is coming to an end she could not be happier. I was honored that she wanted to share this experience with me but I did not realize exactly what it would entail.
9:15 am- Once I finally got out of my morning funk my mother and I had already gotten into a little tiff, I will admit that it was my fault because I was a little cranky, (Mom when you read this I apologize!) I tried to be in a good mood so she could enjoy her day and then I realized how far Trenton actually is. I had been there a few times before but that was between the ages of 8-13 for school field trips.
10:45 am- It took us about an hour and a half to get there, luckily I got full reign over the radio. Once we finally got there I will just say parking was somewhat of an issue, we finally decided to park in a garage that was fairly close to where we had to go. Once we got into the pensions office we had to wait for about forty minutes until my mom could go in and file her paper work with one of the pension officers.
11:45 am- Once my mom actually got called to go in I realized that I would not be able to go into the office with her, once again I was sitting in the reception area waiting . The magazine selection was not even close to par, most of the magazines the office had were either about the military, pension plans, retirement plans, or UsWeekly from December 2006. There was left for me to do but sit and wait.12:00 pm- I decided instead of sitting in the same spot for the next hour or so I would explore the building a little bit. To my surprise I found a small cafe so I decided to get a cup of coffee. The first sip of coffee I took burned the s**t out of my mouth and then I sat down with the steaming hot cup and of course spilled some on myself. I thought my morning could not get any worse but trust me I was wrong.
12:20 pm- I went back into the office and was patiently sitting and waiting for my mom to come out of that a sense of relief and a huge smile on her face but unfortunately as I was waiting the office started to get full.
12:45 pm ( it just gets better and better!) - Much to my dismay a large and not so lovely smelling man decided to sit next to me. I could not move because there were no seats left and I did not want to walk out of the office because I just thought that would be way to rude. If you think that is bad the kicker of it all was the man sitting next to me found a buddy that he had met in JAIL!! I promise you I am not making any of this up. The two men started talking and I was just stuck next to him and the other guy listening to them share war stories of things that had happened during their “sentence” and whom they thought might be dead or alive at this time. I was sitting there and freaking out!
1:15 pm- I have never been so happy to see my mother in my life. I jumped out of that chair and waited for her to make her way down the little hallway. I thought she would be the one with the huge sense of relief but the tables had turned and I was the one who was so happy to get out of that office!
1:30 pm- We were finally able to get out of the office, but we were so frazzled when we got out that we forgot where we had parked. We walked around in a circle and then realized we parked on a completely different street. Once we finally got in the car it was so hot and I started to really reek of coffee from the little spill I had earlier in the day. I just could not wait to get home!
1:40 pm- My mom decided that she wanted to try a different way home, for all of you out there that may know anything about my mom she is the queen of trying to find shortcuts. My mom decided that she wanted to try to take a new way home so of course I did not want to argue with her and spoil her elated mood, unfortunately it turned out we were going the wrong way and ended up in a construction zone. I honestly thought we were never going to make it home, it was only a quarter to 2 but it seemed like it was 8:00.
2:00- Thank god we are finally on the highway and on our way home, well at least that is what I thought . My mom decided that she wanted to celebrate her big day with a late lunch, I was not about to complain after all it was her day. We were driving and driving looking for a place to eat and of course we could not settle on a destination, until I saw my haven; On the Border is one of my favorite Mexican restaurants so I somehow convinced my mom she would love it, (which she did by the way.) We went in and I had never been so happy to eat a nice and comforting meal, I am sure my mom felt the same way.
3:00- We are going home!!!!!
4:15- I have to say today was an extremely interesting experience and I am happy for my mother but I promise all of you out there, I will never step foot into that office again. I might be exaggerating a little bit, but I really don't think so. If any of you think you had a horrible day I hope my experience will make you laugh a little bit.
