I feel certain that you will recognize fairly quickly who the "Rule Breaker" in this story is, so I'll go ahead and admit it...it's me! Surprised? I knew you wouldn't be. Well, I believe that there are those of us who are natural rule followers or rule breakers; for some reason, I seem to have been born into that second group of individuals.
Let me give you an introduction to "The Candy Man", now. I thought about him as I passed my children's former high school on the way to town the other day. He wasn't a bad man; perhaps just a little odd. His daughter was in my daughter's graduating class and the only time I ever saw him was at basketball games. He could always be found with some sort of lollipop in his mouth, while carrying a HUGE bag of candy that he kindly offered to everyone else in the stands (Hmmm...this might be a strategy that Ryan could use to get new dental patients...). Anyway, as I said, he wasnt' a bad guy but I DID keep my eye on him after the time he came up to me...rubbed the sleeve of my sweater...and simply said, "cashmere". Now THAT sort of creeped me out! I'm a "my space" kind of person...and he was DEFINITELY in "my space" while touching my sweater...while it was on my body. Other than that, I never really ran across his path...until the day that I discovered he was a "rule follower".
Once my children could drive themselves to school, life became a whole lot easier for me. There was only a brief period of time between Ryan and Caitlin before she got her driver's license and I was forced to endure carpool (and the RULES found there...) once again. I say all of this because Caitlin MUST have been in one of the "punishment phases" of her life because I cannot IMAGINE why I was even IN the carpool line that day, however, it is one day I will never forget.
Upon approaching the school, the first thing I did, was determine which direction I needed to go in to get out the quickest. Deciding this, I got in line...and began my wait. It was raining and dreary and the cars continued to pile in behind and across from me. This carpool thing was CRAZY! I was surprised that there hadn't been a wreck while waiting in line before. About that time, I saw someone several cars ahead of me getting out of their car...in the rain! It was "The Candy Man". What in the WORLD was he doing?!
Well, he continued to walk back in the line of vehicles and I wondered if he was going to speak to a friend (or perhaps offer them some candy...). I glanced back down for a moment and that's when I was startled by a tapping on my car window. Surprised to see "The Candy Man" standing there...in the rain, I slowly rolled my window down. And do you know what he wanted?! He wanted to inform me that I had apparently entered the carpool line incorrectly! REALLY?! I was speechless (well, not really, but what does one say in THAT situation?!...). As I watched the raindrops roll down his face, he went on to explain that there was a diagram in the back of the Student Handbook that we signed at the beginning of the year that showed how we were to navigate the carpool line. Hmmm...SO, I thought, "People REALLY read that handbook?" I just signed it and sent it back every year so my kids didn't get detention.
After he had finished telling me about the err of my ways, he walked back up to his car...in the rain. And as he did, I had a couple of thought immediately run through my mind. First...WOW! That guy just got soaking wet to tell me about a rule ( that I really didn't care about...) and second...I was actually GLAD that he had brought this little rule to my attention because EVERYONE who REALLY knows me knows that if you want me to follow a rule, you should NEVER bring it to my attention. If I ever had to be in that carpool line again (which I dearly hoped I did not...), I would DEFINITELY be going in the exact same way I had that day!
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