Signs, signs, every where a sign

It's been a while since the omens of badness were flying so close to my head, so maybe I can be excused for ignoring them. All I know is I'm going to be more careful going forward.

It all started with an attempt to help the 8th graders at Christ the King by attending a trivia night fund raiser. We needed a team of eight, and I called on my friend and trivia ringer, Chris Austin. John and Lisa made sense -- he's a legacy at CKS -- so we needed three more people. We lined up our favorite sitter.

Then, John and Lisa had to bail. His company party was going on and in the course of going to it, they checked on the lakehouse to find it flooded with 5,000 gallons of water. Major disaster.

With no way of helping clear the mess down there, we we asked Team Ogden to fill in for the Vielees at the event. Karin invited a couple we'd met at our Halloween party. We liked them then, so it seemed like a good idea. We had 7 and I figured that was close enough.

But we didn't get an immediate confirmation from the new people. Chris ended up having a kidney stone and a bad work week and had to bail. By the time we got confirmation from the new people, the deadline to enter had passed.

We had a sitter, so we talked about going out Saturday anyway. Dinner and a movie. We'd invite the new people. What could go wrong?

Well, first, CKS announced a 2-hour-delay on Friday due to really cold weather and Ali celebrated by vomiting at 4 a.m. She'd had another cold for a while that was getting worse, so and I stayed home from school and work. We went to the doctor and CVS, where she vomited again in the parking lot before we got her meds. I alerted the pharmacist to the deposit we'd made, wondering if we should clear it out of the way. She laughed and said, "This is Broad Ripple. There's always vomit in our parking lot."

Ali was showing full recovery signs by Friday evening. So we decided we would go to the movies: us, the Ogdens and the new potential friends. We were to gather at our house between 6 and 6:30, plenty of time to get to an early movie and then dinner or to decide to have dinner first.

While waiting for the others, we quibble between Gran Torino, The Wrestler and Slumdog Millionaire. Karin and I put a bid in for Rachel's Getting Married and were soundly booed. We settle on Gran Torino. Jeff, who'd gotten distracted talking to our fabulous sitter, Claire, looks up says, "I'll see anything but Clint Eastwood."

6:30 came and went with no new friends. By the time they arrived, we'd lost out on getting to the early movie option. Not a huge deal, but annoying. I'd had a Red Bull. I figured I could squirrel another one in my coat pocket. They arrive with no apparent knowledge (or care) that they'd blown Option A. Finding a dinner venue proved a bit annoying, but we found a new, fun and even good place. The night was settling in nicely.

We get to the movies. We set semi-settled. Karin is on the phone. Hannah's sick. How sick? Let's let it go a while. If she's really sick, call back. The movie house dims. Karin's back on the phone. Will (potential new friend and driver of us all) and Karin disappear.

I wonder if we should all go, too. No one else is budging. Back to Clint Eastwood I go.

After a while I glance over. Now they're all gone. I text Karin who tells me Hannah is hoarking up a storm. I ask Jeff if we should leave.

"Uh, we have no ride," he reminds me and directs his gaze back to the screen. I get a text later from Karin saying Dale will pick us up after.

Turns out that Will took Karin to get her car so she could get Hannah. On the way back to the theater, his mini van gets smacked by another car whose driver ran a red light. (Dinner had been full of a great story from a month earlier when their parked car got smacked in the middle of the night by a hit-and-run driver who left behind her bumper. An angry Dawn went looking for the hit-and-runner in plain sight of the cops who later found it when the driver called in to say she'd been victimized by a hit-and-run. The same cop who'd responded to Dawn and Will's call went to that scene and put two and two together when the new victim showed him her bumperless car. The cop, amused as all get out, called to alert Will to the discovery and to also advise Dawn to keep her vigilante butt at home and not track down the criminal.)

So Will hikes back to the theater -- about 4 blocks away -- and snags Dale and Dawn. No one is hurt -- well a bunch of people were hurt in the movie -- but no one in our little circle.

We get home and are walking in the door talking about the crash when Leela, Dawn and Will's daughter pops out of Ali's bedroom, eyes wide. I'd just assumed Will had taken her home. But no, I get to scare the bejesus out of her with news of her parents' car crash. I have to call Karin to get their number to determine if they'll be getting their kid or if we should deliver her. For all I knew, Dawn was doling out some justice on the other driver...

Finally, we send everyone home. This morning, I wake up sick.

It doesn't pay to ignore the omens.

With apologies to Mr. Eastwood who's made a terrific movie, I think we should have just stayed home.