The Best-Laid Plans...

Time and again, I learn not to hold any plans I make too tightly.
Yesterday's plans seem innocent enough. Lizzy and Isaac were over for the day, and after my ethics class, Isaac was going to do a photo shoot for Angel and I at the park. Afterwards, we'd go out for dinner all together and then go to a Bible study meeting. It would definitely be an exciting day! From early in the morning I was jumping up and down with excitement. A photo shoot, going out to a restaurant, and Bible study with my friends all in the same day! That would be too cool!
When I got home from school, Angel and I got dressed up and we all headed out for the park. Only, on the way we had to stop at the library to return a couple of movies. So, we were headed to the library, all excited for our nicely planned afternoon, when we stopped at a stop sign. At the sign, a car pulled up beside us, and the driver gestured for us to roll down our window.
"You know your brake lights are out, right?" he called.
"No, I didn't!" Angel said, "Thanks!"
Oh dear. We couldn't drive the rest of the evening without brake lights, since we expected to be coming home after dark. But the library would be closing soon so we decided to hurry on to the library, then drive back home, switch cars, and continue with our plans for the afternoon. Angel would just have to fix the brake lights the next day.
We returned the movies to the library, and had just gotten back on the road and headed home when we started hearing a flapping sound.
"That's not normal," Angel said.
As he sped up, the flapping sound increased in frequency, so we all deduced that something was wrong with something that was spinning. A wheel? A tire? A gear?
"Pull over! Pull over!" Lizzy and I started yelling.
Angel said, "Maybe it's isn't something really bad...I can probably keep driving."
I think the look on my face helped convince him that that wasn't a good idea. Anyways, as it happened, the power steering went out just as Angel tried to pull into the parking lot of a dry cleaners. He opened the hood, and the problem was immediately apparent. We had a broken serpentine belt.
"Can you drive it home?" I asked.
"I don't think so," Angel said, as he pulled the belt out of the car. He called our car insurance to find out the number for a towing company while Isaac, Lizzy, and I made use of the camera we'd brought along and posed in front of the car with the broken belt for a couple of shots.
"Alright, the tow truck's coming in an hour," Angel said when he got off the phone. "But he said he can only carry two people."
More phone calls, to my aunt and my grandpa. Grandpa was able to come and pick Lizzy and I up and bring us back to my house before the tow truck came. The alternate plan we'd decided on was that Angel and Isaac would fix the car after the tow truck brought them home, and Lizzy and I would go to Bible study. We could have stayed at home, I suppose, but there were two reasons I decided to at least stick to the Bible study part of the plan.
1) I was supposed to facilitate the meeting that night, and
2) I figured the combined manpower of Angel and Isaac would be plenty to change a belt on the car and figure out what was wrong with the brake lights, and that Lizzy and I would really only have been able to take a sort of cheer leading role in encouraging their car-fixing endeavor.
When I arrived at Bible study, I then remembered that I hadn't eaten since nine in the morning (I'd really been banking on that restaurant dinner) and I hungrily devoured the apples and tortilla chips that were our snack for the night.
When Lizzy and I returned home after Bible study, my car was fixed and we found Isaac and Angel had planned a party complete with a movie, ice cream, pizza rolls, and nerds candy. It wasn't what I'd planned, but it was a very good day.