birthday at the lucky nail

david's birthday seemed like an episode of my name is earl-- full of irony and karma (and even some my name is earl like characters). friday night we went out to maricopa to have cake and ice cream with dave's family. we watched a movie and since it was late when it got over we ended up staying the night instead of making the 45 minute drive home. we woke up early on saturday morning to hurry home and get ready for the day because i had surprises in store. when we woke up dave's mom asked if we would mind following her to big o tires to drop off her car and then drive her back to her house. we did but birthday boy wasn't too happy--he was excited for his surprise. we took her to the tire store which was packed of course because it was saturday. we had a bit of a delay but were finally on the road home!
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we weren't too far along on the freeway when we looked at each other, "do we have a flat tire?!"

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we pulled over to discover that we did not have a flat tire but we did have a huge bolt stuck into our tire. irony or karma? we turned around back to the tire store. we waited and waited and waited to talk to someone only to learn that there was about a 4 hour wait. we really didn't have a choice. birthday boy really wasn't happy now and either was i. so much for my plans. we didn't wait too long when the lady who was in front of us in line came over to talk to us. she was wearing pajama bottoms and a shirt cut a little too low which revealed a nice marijuana leaf tattoo. we didn't catch her name but for the sake of the story we'll call her mary jane. she let us know that she knew of a guy in town who could repair our tire and if he couldn't he would be able to sell us a used tire for only twenty dollars. she offered to let us follow her there. sounded a little sketchy but at this point we were desperate.

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we followed mary jane to lucky nail tire. at first glance it looked just like an ordinary double wide but as you pulled along to the side there was a tire leaned up against the 'house' that had "lucky nail tires" painted on its side. luckily there was only one vehicle in line before us-- a van advertising "party rentals". Mary Jane was ecstatic. Apparently this party rental company didn't have a website or phone book listing and the only advertisement they had was this van. Mary Jane had used them in the past and had been driving all around town looking for the van so she could call them for her daughters birthday.

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"I never would have found them if I hadn't helped you!" Mary Jane exclaimed, "Do you believe in karma?"

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After the days events we definitely did.

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There was a slight language barrier but our tire fixing friend knew enough english to tell us "cash only" (i wonder why)? so after a run to the atm for some cash we were on our way. Luckily it took less than 4 hours.

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My plans didn't happen but we were still able to go out for dinner and a movie and had quite a bit to laugh about!