My car started making scary sounds. It groaned, it clicked, it sounded as if metal was grinding against…. other… metal. Clearly, I know absolutely nothing about how the mechanics under the hood work. The horrible possibilities built up in my mind. My brakes would fail on me and I’d go careening out of control down the hill from school, or the car wouldn’t start and I’d be late. The worst case scenarios got more and more unrealistic. I needed a mechanic.
Mom made me an appointment. It was Friday at 8am. Sure, I’d have to sluff part of a class, maybe even an entire period, but it was my easy day and there would be no repercussions. Safety or school? And a stupid graduation requirement class at that. I wasn’t going to sacrifice the opportunity to fix my baby car for some dumb Government class. The teacher is a push-over anyway. And it’s not like I slept through Early Morning. I went! I was on time! Ok, I was like a minute and a half late, but who even counts that?
Quite literally, one thing lead to another. First off, no one in my family was available to come and get me after I handed over the keys to Doug (yes, the mechanic’s name is Doug.) Secondly, Doug’s Auto is down by the cemetery, approximately 6 miles away from my school. Do you know how long it would take me, a whole 4’ 10”, to walk that far? Well, me neither, but a pretty darn long time... Then it also happened to be bitterly cold, which made it infinitely more daunting and unpleasant. I finally came to see I had made a mistake. Without planning a ride or being nervy enough to bother anyone, I got myself into the stupidest situation ever. If you think public transportation could be a solution, you’ve obviously never been to Provo. The bus routes and schedules are so cryptic and the stops so awkwardly placed that you can’t get from one side of the city to the other without, “Planning your Trip!” on the internet. No, I don’t have a smartphone. I also had just 6 cents shy of bus fare: $2.50 (yes, absolutely absorbitant!) I used my mental phone-a-friend pass and called my sister. She was completely willing to help, but I had to wait an hour for my brother-in-law to finish his class and then spent another hour driving him to work before I got back to school.
In short, I took an errand that should’ve taken 45 minutes tops and it took me 3 hours to complete it. FOUR TIMES AS LONG! How do you even do that? It takes a certain kind of person. What would you call it? Skill? Cunning? No, it was purely my own special brand of stupid; and as far as stupidity goes, I definitely take the cake and ice it too.
Life likes screwing with me. I try to laugh at it. Sometimes, it works.
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