The Flamingo
Sunday in Gulf Shores, AL, was FUNday. My daughter and I woke up pretty early and had a super great devotion. We flipped our hourglass, prayed outloud, discussed life, love, Jesus, God and people we wanted to pray for. We sipped our coffee and felt a great sense of mental and spiritual growth just from the conversations.
We were both planning on leaving town. She was headed back to Atlanta and me to Tuscaloosa. We decided on lunch at the Sunset Grille in Perdido Key. Its sits directly east on the bay so that the sun sets straight on! No masks required in Florida, and things seemed slightly back to pre 2020.
Honking and yelling at people out of the window is something that we both find extremely fun. It is as fun to me as a roller coaster ride. We put on songs that you can’t resist singing and dancing to. If you are one of those people that hear a song and hum along or tap your foot, you just don’t know the exhaustion that comes from being us. I call it the creative curse. The curse or analyzing a songs production. The curse of trying to figure out the lyrics true meanings. The curse of “what if we” and “I wish we could”. But at these moments of pure exhilaration when the right song hits, all heaven breaks loose in our cars. Arms and legs flail. Neck veins bulge! Hair blows wildly as we point at random things as if they are fans in the audience that are enamored with our sudden burst of unconfined excitement!!
Old and young, male and female yell back and sing along. People wave. We are a one vehicle parade!
After miles and miles of honking and singing, slowing down to nearly a stop so that someone could finish their own snapchat of us singing “I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL.” (Miley would have been proud) suddenly our fun came to an abrupt end.
I had jumped out of the car after pulling over on the side of the road. I sat on the hood and sang in an empty parking lot. No harm. We found a beach ball stuck in a bush and I’m thinking that is where the demise began….
Juke Box Hero is blaring. We are driving. We stop at a red light. Suddenly, my daughter is getting out of the car and running towards a large corner or faded pink plastic flamingos! I am mortified. What is happening?? The light turns green and I have to go. There are people behind me. I pull off at the next turn and see my 25 year old running down the highway in her chetah print skirt split clear up to the ying yang! She’s trying to hold it together but the large flamingo is awkwardly bouncing around with every stride. I turn the music down because everyone in the Dominoes outdoor seating area is staring and videoing by this time.
Out of breathe she yells open the door!
NO.
Open the door mom!
No.
MOOOOOOOOM. Help!!
Stick it in the ground!!
She frantically sticks it in the ground and I let her in. We head out and around the back of the restaurant and a dude in a Mustang starts to pin us in with his car. Walking towards us is a lady videoing. He steps out of his car. He is huge! Scruffy! He could have been the bouncer at any local club, but he was the Ice Cream Shop bouncer!! He walks to the car and says “YO BRO, GIVE ME BACK MY FLAMINGO”.
We are shaking. My daughter gets out to go retrieve the Flamingo while others reprimand us with wagging fingers.
As we pulled off I explained that stealing on every level is wrong and how bad it was to do something like that. You can get shot for taking other peoples property or end out in jail!
Her response “I SAW THE FLAMINGOS AND WANTED TO GET OUT AND DO SOMETHING FUN WITH THEM, BUT WHEN I GOT TO THEM, I COULDN’T THINK OF ANYTHING FUN TO DO.” HAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA
We pulled off and I played AJR’s song ‘100 bad days make 100 good stories. 100 good stories make me interesting at parties!” HAHAHAHAH
