Let’s Try This Again, Shall We? in Open Diary 2001-2018 (Pre-Prosebox)

Guess what? I didn’t make it to Miami. No. I made it as far as the exit ramp from the freeway onto the airport highway. That’s when I slid on the sheer ice and onto a median in between two lanes and somehow jumped back onto the ramp, barely missing (by mere inches!) two other cars that had slammed into the guard rail ahead of me!!

Whee!

Yeah, so I thought I’d completely jacked up my car. I figured that was the end of the little black mobile. But when I hobbled into a nearby parking garage and got out of the car (just as another car slammed into another guard rail), it appeared that everything was fine….just a few nicks and scratches.

So I assured myself that I still had enough time to catch my flight. In fact, I had plenty of time. Got back into my car and slowly inched down the road and across the bridge. That’s when I noticed that something was really wrong. Something that I couldn’t see. Internal injuries or something. Because the steering wheel was really loose.

I went further down the road, but I heard a scraping noise. And then it stopped.

Please, just make it to the airport.

Then I noticed that I really didn’t have any control of my steering. In fact, I’d turn the wheel one way, but the car really wanted to go another…and the car was winning. Decided that it was not safe to go any further. So I pulled off the road and into a gas station/food mart.

Called my daddy.

Called the insurance company.

Got the tow truck headed in my direction.

Missed the flight.

Changed my flight reservation to tomorrow (to the tune of 800 more dollars).

Tow truck picked up my internally wounded little black mobile and me.

Called rent-a-car place.

Couldn’t find my blasted driver’s license!

Dropped off car at garage (not open…had to leave little black mobile *sniff*).

Had to have tow truck driver drop me off at my apartment. Nice guy.

Frantically searched for my driver’s license (Okay, to tell the truth: I knew I didn’t have it to begin with because it had been lost for a while. Have been using my passport as ID because I never had time to dig through all my crap to find it. Hello, Disorganization!).

Found it in the nick of time (rental car place closed at 12:30) in an old airline envelope. Just happened to be from the harrowing and terribly stressful moving flight. Musta been trying to block that fateful night from my memory!

Called rent-a-car place for a pick-up.

Picked up by an extremely cheerful, jolly, large guy. We talked about Christmas shopping and Trivial Pursuit and the fact that you can’t find the new version anywhere!

Got rent-a-car all squared away and drove back home.

Called my daddy again to tell him that everything was under control.

Left message with my counterpart, who is already in Miami. She called me back and told me that it’s the curse of the position that we have. She told me that she totaled her car a month after she moved here from LA!

Called the kitty sitter, who was so sweet to call me back to make sure I didn’t need anything.

And then….

My body just shut down. It crashed harder than my car did! Just woke up from the most soothing nap since I can remember.

I’m going to attempt the trip to Miami tomorrow. Afternoon.

Honestly, I’m relieved. It’s the strangest thing. I hate to say this, but I was really dreading this whole pre-meeting party stuff. I was just not feeling into it, which is so not like me. But for some reason I was actually wishing that I could stay home this weekend. Of course I tried not to admit this to myself. I tried to psyche myself up for the festivities. Tried to tell myself that I was going to have the blast of all blasts. But my insides just weren’t as jumpy and thumpy as they usually are when I go there.

Not the best way to get out of going early, but hey….it works for me.

Now I’m going to finally finish writing my notes for the meetings and settle myself down with a cup of tea and then snuggle into the sofa and watch TV. Maybe a nice holiday movie or something. I’m sure I can find one.

And I’m going to sleep in tomorrow, have my coffee and read the paper like I really wanted to do…and then drive myself safely to the airport and have a nice, successful week.

There. Now you can wish me luck!

Thanks. Again!