Pre-Vacation Race

It’s been a while, but I’ve been out of town. This Memorial weekend, my family and I were at the 5th annual Flint Muslim Family Camp in Thompsonville, Michigan. We look forward to this camp every year. Most of our friends from our mosque attend and we all have a fun, relaxing, and spiritual weekend.

Rewind to the chaos that resided under our roof Friday morning. I wake up to discover that we are in fact leaving at noon, not at 4 pm as per the plan. I still had to pack my clothes, shower, pack my younger sisters’ clothes, get an oil change and fill up gas so that we could take my car for the trip, go to the mall and get a birthday present for my sister (18), buy a bike rack because every year we say we are going to take our bikes, assemble the bike rack, pack snacks for the car ride, and pick up my sisters from school because we were leaving early.

Did I knowingly leave everything to the last possible second? No. The plan was to get most of these things done Thursday. I spent the morning completing work for my classes and my plan was to run errands in the afternoon. Little did I know I would be babysitting for much of Thursday. My sister graduates from high school this year and there was a reception that recognized honors students for their achievements. My parents and sister went, they were supposed to be back in max an hour and a half. It took them four hours. It was not a big deal – I watched my three sisters and baby brother. They really are good kids and not a lot of trouble. We went outside to enjoy the weather. I sat with textbook and highlighter in my hand (didn’t get much highlighting done), my three sisters alternated between drawing and fighting over the purple chalk or concrete space, and baby brother sat beside me in his bouncer playing with his toys and watching everybody around him. It got dark out and my two younger sisters were covered in chalk so we went inside, they had their baths and I prepared them ready for bed. Eventually, my parents came home. By then, everything was closed and it was too late for me to go anywhere.

Back to Friday morning. I wake up, discover I am four hours behind schedule, quickly resign myself to the situation, and begin running around. I helped pack my younger siblings’ clothes, pack my clothes, and shower. My brother and I then take my car and he drops me off at the mall while he gets an oil change and fills up gas. Everybody is running around, but I of course must ask my mom’s opinion on what color scarf I should get for my sister as part of her gift.

Leila: I’m going to send you a pic message so you can tell me which one I should get.
Mama: LEILA!! Don’t send anything. Just hurry up and come home.

I decide on the yellow one, check out, and walk out just as my brother is pulling up to the mall entrance. I’ve come to realize that I do my best shopping under pressure. Anyways, my brother and I go to Dunham’s, pick out a bike rack, which we are assured is very simple and easy to assemble, and we return home. My sister had picked up the kids from school and was packing snacks for the trip. I had exactly ten minutes – before my dad arrived and we had to go – to put together the bike rack and attach it to the car. Yeah right. First, the instructions are ridiculously vague. Second, it appears that I can’t assemble parts as well as I can shop under pressure. I had to put it down.
My brother says that it has to get loud in house before we leave for a trip. Even if we had been prepared, something would have provoked somebody. Enough said. Finally, the kids and the bags are all packed into the cars and we begin the road trip.

In all the chaos of Friday morning, we had very minor casualties. The bag of snacks ended up in my dad’s car (no car will fit the nine of us and two car seats), but thankfully we had a pastry that my brother, two sisters, and I (all starving) shared. Also, we forgot to pack a just-in-case-it-gets-chilly sweater (which we didn’t need) for my sister. And to my unending disappointment, the parts of the bike rack still lie in their cardboard box in the middle of the garage. After this initial dose of chaos, everything ran smoothly and it was a beautiful weekend.