"I'll take a couple more $100's please."

A few months ago Grandma and I went to the bank. It was supposed to be a quick trip because Grandma just needed to get some cash from the ATM machine to hold her over until she could get her new checks in the mail.

But it wasn't quick.

First we had some difficulty just finding a place to park. There was about 12 parking spaces and about, um, 20 cars trying to get in and out. You do the math. That's right, not enough spaces. Grandma decided she'd do a fancy little half-turn-around/half-back-up/something that I totally thought wasn't going to work. And it totally didn’t work. But I admire Grandma for her efforts because that was some very interesting maneuvering she did. At one point I wanted to melt down in my seat and not be seen by all the other drivers but I thought that would probably be breaking the Never Leave Your Grandmother When She's in the Midst of Difficulty code of honor. And I would never break the code and leave my Grandma. We finally got into a spot after backing up, going forward, backing up, going forward, backing up, going fo.....I think you know whats coming next.

Once we made it inside the bank, we had to wait for the guy in the blue shirt and baseball hat to finish using the ATM. He was rather interesting to watch because he was talking to the machine while he was using it. What is it that you say to ATM machines? "Come on, you can do it! Just give me a couple more $100's! "

We also pondered the sign hanging on the wall behind us. It showed some smiling Spanish people and proclaimed loudly, in Spanish....................who knows what it said? That's just the point. We don't know what it said cause we don't speak, read, or barely understand Spanish. For all we know it could have been telling us not to stare at guys in baseball hats who talk to the ATM machine.

Finally we progressed into the ATM room; you know, that little room with two doors and about 2 feet of extra room to turn around in. Here we faced a new problem: the machine would accept her credit card but not her top-secret password numbers. This might happen to other people but those people can say "well, maybe I just don't have the number right." We had the number right. We know it was right because Grandma produced, on a little piece of paper from the bank that she always carries with her, her top-secret numbers.

Because we like to be high-security with our top-secret numbers.

We never were able to get the money, even after repeated tries. I thought we were going to ask the bank tellers for help and then once again produce that top-secret number paper in front of the same people we met out in the parking lot. But we didn't have to.

Grandma and I had a fabulous time at the bank, thank you for asking. I'm sure she was so glad she asked me to go with her because, in her words, I "know how to run those kinds of machines".

I guess I just don't deal well with top-secret numbers.