What's that smell?

It was a banner day today. I got up early to try to get some work done before the boys got up, but of course one thing after the other...yada yada yada...and then we're 15 minutes late getting out the door and I didn't even have time to log on. This was my first clue of the kind of day in store.

Now on to my second, and most favorite, clue. It smelled like something curled up and died inside the car at some point overnight and then radiated in the heat of our garage until this morning when I opened the doors to quickly strap the boys into their car seats and race off to Mimi's, only to be greeted with the most horrid putridness racing its way right up into my nostrils.

"AAAAHHHH!! WHAT'S THAT SMELL???" I asked the boys. They looked at me like I was crazy (I've seen that look before). (And by the way, do babies and toddlers not get sickened by bad smells? They never seem to care! What is the deal?)

My eyes immediately began darting around the car, looking for the spilled sippy cup of milk, the forming cottage cheese, the half-eaten...something? But I couldn't solve the riddle. There was nothing around. No culprit. Just a horrid smell that we had to sit in, windows down and A/C on in the humid heat of a late June day.

Third clue. About five minutes from Mimi's house, the cell phone rings. Mimi is stuck at the car dealer, where she had dropped her car earlier, expecting a shuttle return to her house before our arrival. No such luck.

"You might as well pick me up. They don't know how long it will be. I'm at 103rd Street."

ONE-HUNDRED-AND-THIRD? It hit me like a lightning bolt. I'm now officially going to be at least a half hour late to the office. My breathing turned shallow and I imagined the headline: "29-Year-Old Mom Dies of Stress-Induced Heart Attack." I could hear the mountain of work waiting on my desk laughing at me, louder with each block that passed...56th Street, 57th Street, 58th...

The day went on like that. I won't bring you down with the details.

But now it's night. The breathing is still shallow, but no heart attack today. I made it! I even carved out a few minutes this evening to Febreeze the car. Please, God, don't let that smell greet me tomorrow morning. I might hit the breaking point and drive the thing right into the dealership. One a little closer than 103rd Street...