The Balloon That Didn't Get Away

So Happy Belated Birthday to Amanda - I meant to post something yesterday, on the actual day, but the day got away from me. We had a nice little dinner get together at Zengo, in DC, in celebration of all that is Amanda. I'm usually HORRIBLE with birthdays but for Amanda, I started wishing her a Happy Birthday on Saturday....just so I wouldn't have to succumb to my inevitable 'Happy Belated Birthday, sorry I'm late' explanation like I do with other people.
I got held up at the office before heading to DC so I decided to make a quick stop at Wegmans (I love that place) to pick up a little bouquet of flowers and a balloon to bring with me to dinner. I figured I was already going to be late. I ran into Wegmans and was walking at my brisk pace (as witnessed by a co-worker that saw me , but apparently I didn't see her because she said I was walking really fast) to get the stuff and be on my way. It had just started downpouring so I wanted to get on the road. I ended up buying some really cute violet-bell like flowers and a small balloon on a stick - I wanted to get a big mylar on a string but I didn't like any of the choices at the check outs and I didn't want to wait for someone to inflate a new one. So I got a baby mylar on a stick and proceeded to check out.
By the time I was exiting the store, it was a torrential downpour. Thank goodness for golf umbrellas cause I had one with me -I'm no dummy. I walked to my car and started throwing things inside to get out of the rain. That's when I noticed the baby mylar was off the stick. It didn't fall into the bag...OH NO - it fell off and Lord knows where it is now. I thought for a quick second if I should go back and look for it. That would have entailed walking back through the rain and the cars and possibly back in the store to see where it went. I decided, huh, well, it's the thought that counts, I'll just give Amanda the stick and the flowers - she'd get a kick out of it.
I got into the car, sopping wet, and thought I'd retrace my steps with the car to see if I could see the baby mylar from the car. Sure enough, I pulled out to the end of the aisle and there it was, in the middle of the main road, not getting swept anywhere, but instead, getting poured on by the harsh rains. So I drove down the main road going the wrong way, opened the driver side door and did an 'Amanda/Jen golf cart circus stunt' and scooped up the baby mylar from the street (all without getting out of the car) and threw it under the floor vents to get it dried off. Thankfully, there were no oncoming cars, but I didn't care...I saved the baby mylar.
Traffic was great going into DC - the rains started letting up the further East I went and 30 minutes into the ride, I was able to pluck baby mylar off the floor and reattach it to the stick. When I finally made it into DC and got out of the car, I was afraid the winds would blow the balloon away again, so I kept it close to my body so I wouldn't lose it. Thank goodness I didn't buy a big mylar balloon on a string - wouldn't I have looked silly with that, in the rain?!