Story of the Day

I like telling stories so I want to incorporate this here on my blog. This is an oldie:

I used to have a nickname. I have a feeling if I ran into this old school mate to this day he'd call me it but I haven't heard it in years. I was 15 and in Driver's Ed. I had told my grandma that I would be getting my driver's permit this particular day and she had determined in her mind to let me drive home when she picked me up. Somehow I was mistaken or something changed and we weren't actually going to get them until the next class. Grandma was sitting in the passenger seat when I came to the van after class let out. She explained that she was going to let me drive because I had gotten my permit. I might've hung my head down a little and said, "Oh, well...we're actually not getting them until next time. She didn't want me to be disappointed so she said, "That's okay. You can go ahead and drive us home anyway." Thrilled, I got behind the wheel! I drove to the exit and put my right blinker on. The next thing I knew my grandma was saying, "Amber...! Suddenly sideways, I was looking down at her and she was looking up at me. "What?!" "You're driving in a ditch!!!" She told me to put the van in park so I did. Then she understood her dilemma because I didn't actually have my driver's permit. She said, "Trade me seats!" We traded and somehow got out. I no longer had to deal with the humiliation because it looked like my grandma had done it. My friend, Dennis, and his parents had been behind us so they said we could sit in their van until the wrecker arrived to pull ours out of the ditch. Sitting in the back seat with Dennis he said, "Amber?" "Mmhmm?" He looked at me with knowing eyes and a smile and said, "You did this, didn't you?" "Mmhmm." The next day at school there he was in the hallway and here came my new nickname that I would hear echoed most any time I saw him through the years, "Hey, Ditch!" ;-)
My grandma and I hooted and hollered all the way home, all the while the back bumper hanging sideways from the car. Grandma had tears in her eyes. All the way until we got home to face my grandpa's furtowed eyebrows. Grandma stopped laughing. And so did I.