We had a fabulous oh, $#@! moment in the car recently.  (And by “we,” of course I mean me.)

Our Wednesday evening schedule has gotten pretty squirrelly lately.  At 5:30 I pack the kids into the car and head to BrightSide’s office.  I used to be able to drop them with him and go to my 6:00 choir rehearsal, but that was before basketball season started.  Suddenly Bear had a 7:00 practice at the other end of the county, and it didn’t make sense to keep T-man out until 8:30 on a school night by sending him along.  It was time to tweak the schedule.

Now BrightSide takes Bear, grabs dinner on the road, and gets her to the 7:00 practice.  Meanwhile, T-man comes to my 6:00 choir rehearsal, chilling out for that hour until we head home again.  We’ve been grabbing takeout afterward for a quick (and easy) dinner at home.  When the stars are aligned I can manage to get T-man fed, settled, and ready for bed before Bear rolls in from her practice.

I tell you, it’s like a well-oiled machine around here.  Except for when it isn’t.

I’d had a particularly rough afternoon.  The kids were edgy about school or homework or who-knows-what, the dogs (okay, Gracie) were making trouble, and it seemed like I couldn’t get out of the house on time to save my life.  I was also kind of freaked out about rehearsal since I hadn’t been able to review my music that day.

All that’s to say it had been a tough day overall, so I wasn’t exactly firing on all pistons.

Well, we got through the first half of the Wednesday drill, then T-man and I decided to grab Subway near the church before heading home.  I was going on autopilot by then: start car, back out of space, right turn out of lot, right turn at light –

I didn’t make it five feet before I realized what I’d done, and I have to say some kind of innate edit function must have kicked in because even though the car was silent, all I could hear in my head was a remarkably loud OH SHIT!!

I’d managed to turn up a one-way street.  Facing three lanes of traffic.  Right by the police station.  With my son in the back seat.

This right here is how I know my son has a vigilant guardian angel – all oncoming traffic was stopped at a light one block away, which gave me just enough time to frantically do an illegal U-turn (again, BY THE POLICE STATION) and get out of there.

Now that was a stellar parenting moment, let me tell you.  Mother of the Year right here, baby.