By the time I left for dinner at Tammy and David’s house tonight, I wasn’t sure they’d even want my company. I was kind of a mess, after a day of picking up the jagged pieces. I would have given them an opening to opt out, but I was selfish. I needed a little dose of something different, with a dash of magic thrown in.

Little did I know the chaos I was stepping into. They were in worse shape than I was, and while that didn’t make me feel any better, it took a little of the edge off. Nothing I could complain about could compare with tired, fussy babies. And while I had a near-miss in my car yesterday, David actually got rear-ended at a stoplight tonight.

He’s okay, except for the aches and pains where his chest banged into the steering wheel. He was a little stunned by the fact that the woman who slammed into him tried to make it out to be his fault. That wouldn’t have washed anyway, but it was an especially weak argument in light of the fact that there was an off-duty highway patrolman there who saw everything. David didn’t have to defend himself, because there wasn’t going to be any way to blame him.

So I took it upon myself to forget my own troubles and lighten the evening as much as possible. That’s not hard for me, because my own mood is lifted whenever I’m around them. I let D.J. go on and on about the Power Rangers, and I let Aiden feed me soggy croutons. It might not have been anybody else’s idea of excitement, but it did the job for me.