fiascos abound when family is near

i know i told demetra that we should just never again speak of the incident we got ourselves into, but then she went and told zoe all about it, so i feel safe in telling the whole world the great "christina is so stupid" story of thanksgiving 2005. trust me, it's a good one.
after thanksgiving dinner, demetra (my sister) and i were talking about what we should do the next day. we decided to drive to san francisco (two hours from her house, not bad) and take the kids to the aquarium. i had my camera, so i could take some pictures of the beautiful houses in the city. then maybe have we could have lunch in chinatown. it sounded like fun to me.
we get there, and the first thing we do is drive by my brother's house so i can take a picture, since it's been newly painted. then demetra took me to some ritzy neighborhood to see all the stunning houses. and they were stunning. i wouldn't ever want to live in one, because even though the houses are great, those people are missing out on the best part of living in the city, which is being in the midst of it all. being able to walk down the street to get lunch at some tiny little dim sum place. that sort of thing.
next, demetra thought it would be fun to stop the kids by the beach. for the record, i didn't think it was a very bright idea to take the kids to the beach. i have been to the beach in san francisco before when i was little, and i did not have fun. it's a cold and windy beach, and i hate cold and windy. also, at least two of the three kids had drippy noses, so i didn't really want to take them there, but demetra's their mom and she should be the judge of those things.
we got to the beach alex refused to stand on the sand. so he had to be carried the whole time. chris refused to wear his hood, so i was afraid he'd get pneumonia. demetra took chris to see the water, so i followed holding alex in my arms, and daniel came too. i stood at the edge of where the last wave came for a few minutes and thought it was boring because no new wave was coming even close. demetra walked up to the new waterline to show it to christopher. then the big wave hit. i got wet up to the knees, and so did daniel and christopher. demetra got wet up to the crotch. alex was safe because he was in my arms. i think my doc martens are ruined.
so what were we to do? we came all the way to san francisco, and now we can't go to the aquarium because we're wet and sandy? no, let's find a cheap clothing store and get some dry clothes and take the kids to the aquarium.
demetra found the nearest ross, and since the traffic was so bad, once we had a red light right in front of the store, she shoved her wallet into my hand, and yelled for me to get out quickly and do the shopping. i, always wanting to obey quickly, jumped right out of the car and ran into the ross, not thinking to ask her what sizes to buy, or where we would meet back up. it occurs to me that i don't know these things as soon as i get into the store, but no matter, demetra's already gone, so i do the shopping. it's a madhouse in there, because as i said before, it's the day after thanksgiving. the line took as long to go through as finding the clothes did.
i get back outside and wait.
for an hour and a half.
i started to think she had just left me. or worse, gotten pulled over without her license, since i had her wallet. maybe she had gotten arrested and that's why she wasn't there to pick me up. in an hour and a half, all kinds of thoughts can go through your head. like, my toes are going to freeze off in these wet shoes.
finally she found me, and we just drove straight home. it was almost dark at that point and the kids were all asleep.
the only reason we missed each other while i was waiting was that there were so many people and cars it was impossible to pick each other out in the crowd. we were doomed from the start.