Vice President Schmice President

It has been a long couple of weeks in my life. I have had computer glitches. I have had extremely challenging writing projects. I have had limited sleep. I have had health issues. And now it's hot. No, not hot. H O T. As in triple digits.

So, today was to be a treat. A moment I had been looking forward since mid-February. I was going to get to see "The Lion King" on stage. I was beyond excited. I had heard about how amazing it was. Nicole and Coryn were just as excited as I was. We left in plenty of time and headed for I-84 West. We were on the on ramp. We came to a halt. Why? Was there an accident up ahead? No. Was there heavy traffic? No. Cars came to a total stop. People were getting out. They were sitting on the side in the grass. No one knew what was going on. The guy next to us in the spiffy convertible (the extremely tan, shirtless, muscled guy that I took absolutely no notice of at all) went up and asked. We waited. Time passed. The time for the play got closer and closer. I was up from worried to frantic. Next would be depression and tears.

The hot-guy-I-didn't-see-at-all told us why we were at a halt. "Look at the highway," he said. "It's empty." He was right. I-84, the busiest highway in our state, was EMPTY. (I could hear the theme music from some disaster movie starting to play and I figured doom was imminent. How sad that I was more upset about missing the play than the utter end of human life on the planet.) We were halted because Joe Biden, the VP, was in town, taking the highway and there is some security rule in place that states the highway has to be cleared 15 minutes and 15 minutes behind his entourage.

How long did we sit there? 40 minutes.
What was the temperature? 100 degrees.
How upset was I? Priceless.

Did we make it? We actually did. We missed 10 minutes in the beginning but there were about 60 people late, so they had delayed it a few.

Was it wonderful? Beyond wonderful. Most amazing play of my entire life. Cried all the way through it because that is what I do when I am emotional. Sad? Cry. Happy? Cry. Amazed and thrilled? Cry. My friend Susan says it is endearing. I find it exasperating. And wet.

So VP Joe Biden, I am not a happy American. I think shutting down an entire highway on a triple digit day without any warning stinks. I think you owe us all an apology. My kids were sweltering in the back and it was miserable out there. There was just no regard for where people were going--I kept wondering if there was some poor baby in a back seat of one of the non-air-conditioned cars or an elderly person. And they would die because Biden needed a secure highway. May I suggest that next time he pick a different time or take one of the many helicoptors that were circling the skies the entire time. You're not getting my vote if you run.

So there.