Random thoughts on personal planning

So there we were –– my wife, kids and I –– trapped last Friday in our Subaru somewhere south of the New Jersey/Delaware border, crawling along in traffic on Route 95.

All I could think was, How could I be so stupid?

It was around 6:30 p.m., and the sun had nearly dropped below the horizon. The hundreds of cars in front of us were silhouetted against the orange sky in one mass, with only their brake lights to distinguish them from one another.
My son was half-asleep. My daughter was panicking. I was panicking. Only my wife was calm.

Regular readers know that my daughter, Alexandra, loves –– I mean, loves –– soccer. She plays for the East Meadow U11 Gold Stars, and was looking forward to competing with her team in the Discovery Cup, one of the Northeast’s largest soccer tournaments, sponsored by the Maryland Soccer Association and the Discovery Channel, over the Columbus Day weekend.

On Friday, my wife packed Alexandra’s uniforms for the competition. I was responsible for her soccer gear, but in my rush to get going to avoid traffic, I forgot her cleats and shinguards. I arrived at that realization five hours into our seven-hour trip from Merrick to Boyds, Md.

Alexandra was to play her first game the next day at noon. We needed to get her to a mall to buy cleats and shinguards. I kept thinking, What if we can’t find a mall? What if we get to a mall and there’s no sporting goods store? What if the store doesn’t have cleats and shinguards in her size?

It occurred to me then that I could have used an iPhone and a GPS, which I have stubbornly refused to buy. With a couple of presses on a smart phone, I could have identified the nearest sporting goods store, and the GPS would have taken me right to it.

With my daughter practically in tears, I recited a little prayer to find a mall, and wouldn’t you know it? The very next exit on Route 95 was for the Christiana Mall. (I kid you not about the name.)