If your sister asks your 17-year-old daughter to do her hair for her wedding in Las Vegas…

and if your daughter does your sister’s hair so well that your sister asks her to do her hair for the reception the next weekend…

and if you make the 30 minute drive back to your hometown the next weekend so that your daughter can do your sister’s hair for her wedding reception…

and if you arrive on time, only to find out that none of the veggies for the reception have been sliced by those who said they would do it…

and if you decide to pitch in and help by slicing cucumbers…

and if your daughter leaves with your sister to go back to her house to help her do her hair for the reception…

and if you rush to get all the veggies over to the wedding hall only to discover that those who said they would help in the kitchen aren’t going to do it after all…

and if you decide to be nice and stuff the chicken salad sandwiches so that your sister will have chicken salad sandwiches for her guests at her wedding reception…

and if you get the sandwiches all stuffed and placed on the buffet table and then look around to find your sister, the bride, and your daughter who did her hair, missing…

and if you find out that they haven’t arrived yet because they have been pulled over by some cop…

and if you hear that they were pulled over because they illegally crossed a yellow line…

and if you hear that your sister’s car registration is expired…

and if you hear that it was your daughter that was driving the car so that your sister could sit in the passenger seat to prevent her wedding dress from getting wrinkled…

and if you hear that your daughter didn’t have her driver’s license with her because she’d left it in your car…

and if you hear that your daughter crossed the yellow line because your sister told her to do it so that they wouldn’t have to wait for a stopped train…

and if your daughter and sister, the bride, finally arrive at the wedding reception 45 minutes late…

and if you learn that your daughter will have to come back to your hometown, which is 30 minutes away from where you live, some time during the following week to show her driver’s license to the powers-that-be in City Hall…

and if the day she needs to go back to your hometown, which is 30 minutes away from where you live, to show her driver’s license to the powers-that-be in City Hall, is a day you had 1 million other things planned and so it is inconvenient for you to take your daughter back to your hometown which is 30 minutes away from where you live…

And if the inconvenience of it all makes you grumble to your husband…

And if you hear your husband say, as you are walking out the door, “Turn it into something fun!”  Maybe you should pause, take a deep breath, and do just what he says.

Then you will be able to smile at your daughter when you pick her up from school, and you will be able to tell her a funny story as you make the 30 minute drive back to your hometown, and you will be able to show your daughter the picture of her great-grandfather that hangs in City Hall as one of the former mayors of your hometown, and you will be able to show her the plaque that has his name showing he was the Mayor who built the City Hall that you are visiting so that your daughter can show her driver’s license to the powers-that-be in the City Hall…

and the two of you will have created a new memory to be written in your journals…

and your daughter and her aunt, your sister, will have had a shared moment that helped them to bond. 

Something they can laugh about years down the road.