Our big adventure

I don't work Fridays, so I really take the opportunity to savor some alone time with little Maya. Yesterday my mom came over in the morning and we hung out; it was really nice. I had arranged to meet another mama at a great kids clothing store in Santa Monica - Life Size at Fred Segal... which is about 10 miles away from my house. A really good friend of mine works there and they are having a huge sale right now. We were going to shop a bit and then walk down to the beach and have lunch. Beautiful idea, right?

We had a really nice time. The weather was infectiously nice... blue skies, calm ocean, sweet warm air. I was walking back to my car and noticed it was 2:45 pm. Crap.... I really needed to get a move-on because Friday traffic is a nightmare and I didn't want to get caught up in it with a baby. Plus, Maya had been snoozing away in her stroller and that meant she probably wouldn't do too much sleeping in the car.

I thought about feeding her before heading out on the road, but she was very content, so I figured I'd just get on my way and not waste any time. We got on the freeway, and about 2 minutes into my drive, I noticed a big electronic saying that there was an accident up ahead (at the exit before mine) and that the 3 right lanes were shut down.

Fukc.

It took 30 minutes to transition to the freeway I needed to get on (the lovely 405). THANK the lord, Maya fell asleep in the car. I was so panicky.... if she woke up and started wailing, I would have no options... Stuck on a freeway that wasn't moving.

As soon as I could get off the freeway, I did. The exit was Santa Monica Blvd, and if anyone is familiar with this area during rush hour/traffic you know what a clusterfukc it can be. I figured I'd take the side streets. I was going to cruise through Brentwood and take Barrington up to Sunset. All was well with that plan until I heard huge sirens and saw helicopters ahead. Traffic on Barrington at a standstill. There was apparently some huge accident/car fire on Sunset Blvd. You had to be kidding me. It was awful. I called my mom and H basically so freaked out about how I was going to get home.

I got off Barrington and jumped on Bundy.

Maya woke up and started to fuss and I knew she must be hungry. I pulled over off of Bundy (famous street where OJ and Nicole Simpson lived) and nursed her. Mind you, she decided to pick this day to start a nursing strike. I think she has gotten used to getting bottles during the day from the nanny, so nursing is just far too much work. She was crying and I felt so at a loss.... all I could offer her was me. Thank god, she eventually did go for it. I could see traffic ahead up at a complete standstill on Sunset. After nursing and changing her, Maya was in the sweetest mood! I had to play along like I was in the sweetest mood too, but I wasn't! I was freaking out!

We got back in the car and I tried to see if there was some alternate street I could take. I looked in my GPS and saw a little road up in the canyon that could be a shortcut. We drove ALL the way up, only to see that it is a private city road that was gated off. Shit!! Down we went, back to the parking lot that was Sunset Blvd.

I told Maya we were just going to have to be strong and get through it. Onto Sunset we went. I sang songs to her, just tried to be as positive as I could. She was such a trooper. After a while she started to fuss (how long can a baby tolerate being in the car!?) so I gave her the paci and thankfully she took it.

There were many more little incidents along the way, but we FINALLY made it home. 2.5 hours later. To go 10 freaking miles. Oh my goodness. I really felt desperate... like I was in a battle that I had no control over. That's what LA traffic can be like.

From now on, we are staying really close to home on Fridays. Never freaking again.