The days all run together

I got too busy and waited too long to blog. Now I'm behind, I can't remember details and I am overwhelmed trying to catch up. Urgh! Last week was a whirlwind, movers packing us out, leaving the house for good, my last days of work, saying goodbyes to people, craziness! Leaving our house was so sad. We loved that house and it, along with the neighborhood, was home. Leaving work was also very hard for me, I loved my job. I am not sure if I will get work at the school here because it is so small, but if I did I don't know that it would be the same. Once Friday rolled around and I was out of work, we were out of the house and living in the hotel/apartment things calmed down a little bit. We took in a movie or two, enjoyed a lot of last meals in Germany, spent time with friends and did a few going away deals. Then came Monday. What a disaster of a day! We had a lot of last minute loose ends to tie up and appointments and such. I started off the day dropping Shelby off at his final outprocessing appointment and then went to run some errands myself. I had to stop at the Youth Center on base and run in to pick something up, Colin didn't want to get out of the car, I didn't feel like fighting with him, so I let him stay in the car, strapped in his car seat with his ipad watching a movie. I was parked in the shade, it was 9AM and it was MAYBE 60 degrees outside. Any idea where this is going??? I returned to my car a few minutes later to find two security forces police talking to Colin. Crap. According to the cops someone saw me get out of the car and leave him and decided to call the base police to alert them. (Seriously, some people have no life.) They asked if I knew why they were there and I said of course I did, because I am not supposed to leave him in the car and they did a little shame on you, don't let it happen again and walked away. I back out of my parking spot and the cop walks back up and tells me that I need to wait a minute, that he thinks his supervisor is already en route. Lovely. You just let me go and now I have to wait to be yelled at again? So his boss rolls up and she seems to be on a power trip and she has a newbie Airman in training tagging along behind her. Fantastic. So she decides to use this opportunity for some training and decides she is not going to let me go, that she is going to take me in for questions. So off I go to the police station with a police escort in front and back of me. We get there and they are not asking me any questions, they are reading me my rights and telling me they are charging me with child neglect! You have GOT to be kidding me right? I played all their games and gave my statement and Shelby had to walk over and spring me from the base slammer. Colin was charming the cops left and right and giving them autographs and asking for tours of the station and water. He seemed totally abused and neglected I tell ya! So after I get out my main concern is how far up the chain does this go because I have a teaching license and a job and I'd like to keep them both. Is this going to stay a little base infraction (like our speeding tickets that don't actually get reported to insurance or incur a fine) or does it get filed in a real state court. Within 3 hours the base legal office had called to tell me they had already thrown it out and they were not filing any charges. They pretty much thought it was stupid of them to haul me in for this too and so everything was tossed and as far as they are concerned it never happened. Thank God. Now I would NEVER leave my kid unattended in a car in the US or if it was even remotely hot outside, but ON BASE, in Germany is different. Did I know I wasn't supposed to leave him in the car, sure. Was he in any danger whatsoever? Not a single bit. So yes I was wrong for leaving him there, but the whole thing got SO blown out of proportion it was beyond stupid. But wait, it gets better! When the supervisor with a chip on her shoulder came up to my car in the parking lot she asked for my ID card. I gave it to her and she never gave it back to me. Later on I realized she had not returned it when I was signed out of the facility and they let me go. So Shelby called and they said they did not have my ID. I went over there and they told me they did not know what happened to it, but to leave my phone number and they would call me if they found it. I politely explained to them that I was getting on a plane THE NEXT DAY and needed to have my ID, so calling me when they found it was not exactly going to work for me. They continued telling me they could not do anything but let me know if it was found, so I started the process to just get a new ID card made. I sat and waited in the line for over an hour while Shelby ran around collecting signatures and gathering the required paperwork to get a new ID card when you lose your old one. Even though it was straight BS because I did not lose my ID card, the cop did! So sure enough the last signature Shelby had to get was from the police station and when whe went to get that guess what they had waiting for him? Yep, my old ID card....they found it I guess. Thanks for the phone call! (Grrrr!) By the time Shelby arrived to me I was the next in line so I figured I may as well just go ahead and get a new ID made anyway. So many things to do and instead I spent the day dealing with police and lawyers and trying to get a new ID card made. Aye yi yi. What a way to spend my last day in Germany!