So, the tonight I left the library at midnight. This is never fun. Not only was I trying to shuffle out as fast as I could to avoid eye contact with everyone else because I feel like such a loser being in the library until the school has to kick me out and threaten me with criminal punishment to get me out, but I had been editing the paper of death. I had been working on one of my capstone papers (that I really think has taken years off of my life) for a mere 9 hours.
I headed out of the library, threw up my hood, zipped up my jacket and stepped into the frigid cold (which always puts me in a lovely mood) and headed out on the long trek to my car. That morning, when I drove from work at 9am, I had to park out by the Marriott center.
Across campus I plodded. Dreading the fact that I was going to have to go home, boost up old Bertha (my computer) and start working on this paper some more. Slowly but surely I made it out to my car. This sight made me feel even better about myself...
Do you see him out there? Good 'ol Peter was the ONLY car left in the whole freaking parking lot. Ya know, I try to make myself feel better by saying that lots of college students are as dumb as me and have to stay this late and work this hard. The HUGE empty parking lot doesn't really help me out here...
I get to my car and call my cousin Lindsay. We have a nice chat and I decide that I'm going to Sonic to get a Diet Coke. (Sonic has that pebbled ice that is DIVINE). I head on over to Sonic and hear a funny noise in my car. My car is old though, I disregard the funny noise.
I get to Sonic, roll down the window to order my drink and realize that the sound did not go away. I pull forward to get my drink and it is much worse. I get my drink and go to pull away and then the smoke comes. Cruelly billowing out of my car. I inch my way around the corner, trying to get out of the drive thru and my car shuts down completely.
I put my head down and sobbed.
Now, for those of you that are not familiar with Sonic, it is a fast food restaurant where people pull up to a parking spot and order their food from their car. A cute little worker on skates then rolls their food out to them. On this blessed night, we have an array of people ordering their food. A few couples, groups of friends (that actually get to go out and have fun) and one or two single people.
Well, the smoke coming out of my car smells. It smells bad. As I'm sobbing I look up to see everyone staring at me. They are all downwind of my car and I'm sure that their cars were starting to bring in the lovely smell of my smoke. Windows are rolling up. Dirty looks are given. Some people drive away.
My head went right back down on that steering wheel to cry. Sometimes, I just need a good cry before I get into problem solving mode.
After about a three minute sob I compose myself and call my Daddy (duh). He is groggy but answers his phone (I knew he would) and says "Rach, is something wrong? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay Daddy...but my car....it...is...(sobbing starts again)....not"
"Okay honey, calm down. Did you get in an accident? What is going on!?"
"It...is...broken. It started smoking. No accident. I'm sorry I don't want to be crying"
We continued to talk for a few minutes. He explained that there was not much we could do at 12:30 at night and that I need to park my car there. (All things, I'm sure, I should have figured out on my own. Maybe someday I won't have to call him during a crisis.) As we were talking some men came and asked me if I need help. I called Jessica to pick me up. We pushed my car into a spot in the nearby parking lot and Jess took me home.
I'm done crying now. I refuse to touch that godawful capstone paper. Instead, I am baking cookies. One might ask, "Why?! You just said they don't turn out!?" To which I would respond,
"Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
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