Previously in my life, Friday the 13th was not an unlucky day. I was born on Friday the 13th. I met Casey on my 17th birthday, which fell on Friday the 13th. I had started to think of the day is kind of a good luck day, until this week.
I had to go to work early that day, and we had decided that Charley should go to Day Camp at PetsMart for the day since I wouldn't be home to let him out to go to the bathroom. He would get to stay overnight, just in case Casey's flight was delayed or anything. I dropped him off at the PetsHotel, and headed to work.
My day at work was pretty crazy. The phone rang off the hook. Everyone had problems. I had some of the strangest phone calls I've had so far (one man sounded like he had a trach tube; another wanted to tell me his life story about why his rent check bounced...). Anyway, it was crazy enough that I took a break around 4:30 so I could get my mind straight before Michelle left at 5. After 5, things slowed down considerably. The phone only rang 2 or 3 times until 7 when I left. I was really happy to get out of work on time for once. I deposited my paycheck at the bank, and then started to head towards the highway so I could pick up Casey around 8:30 from O'Hare.
I realized then that I had left our I-Pass at home, and didn't have enough time to go back to get it, so I rerouted the GPS to avoid tollways. I got on 56, and only made it a few miles when I started to hear this weird squealing noise on the right side of the car. I tried looking for a gas station, but the nearest one was 3 miles away, and I didn't know if I could make it that far. Luckily I was in a familiar part of town. I missed the entrance to the shopping center I recognized, so I attempted to do a U-turn because there were no cars coming. It was then that I realized that my power steering wasn't working at all. My car already doesn't turn very tight, but this time it was so bad that I had to make a 3 point turn on the highway just to avoid going into a ditch (on the opposite side). I did a lot of praying outloud as I saw the cars start to come toward me. I was lucky enough to get the car turned around and into the shopping center parking lot without getting plowed into. I called Casey's voicemale to let him know about the car trouble, then I called his dad to try to find out what I should do. It was just as I thought- a belt broke. I decided to call AAA for a tow truck. Meanwhile, I went inside Old Navy so I wouldn't sit outside in the dark in my crappy car.
AAA told me that a tow truck would come get me, but it may be 2 hours before anyone could come. Craptastic. So I agreed, and while the lady put me on hold, I realized that my phone was almost dead. I couldn't find the car charger before I left the house that morning... go figure. I could see the situation getting much worse at this point, until I remembered that Casey and I had gone to a Sprint store in the same shopping center... only 3 stores away from Old Navy. I decided to walk over to the store, tell them my situation, and see if there was any way I could charge my phone. The guys at the store came to my aid, and let me sit inside while my phone charged. Casey called me back, and decided to get a rental car because that would have been the only way he could get home at that point. Around 8:40, I figured my phone had been charged enough, and since the Sprint store was closing at 9, I decided to go next door to Chili's for a drink to calm my nerves. I thanked the Sprint guys for bailing me out, and headed next door.
I got a glass of wine, which didn't calm me down quite as much as I had wanted. I still hadn't heard from the towing guy, so I loitered around Chili's for a bit. Finally, the tow truck guy called and said he would be there to get me in about 30 minutes. Casey called back a bit later, and we had a discussion about the car situation. Hertz didn't have any rentals without a GPS system, so they made Casey pay more money for the rental than he really needed. Both of us were pretty upset at this point. We got off the phone, and I decided to go to FedEx Kinko's which was located in the parking lot of Old Navy. I figured then I could see the tow truck guy when he arrived.
At this point I'm so frazzled, all I could do was sit in a chair in Kinko's and try not to cry. I was thinking about how crappy the night had gone, when I see Casey walk in the front door of the store. I immediately felt better, just seeing his face. I knew then that everything would be OK, no matter what else happened that night.
We sat around waiting for the tow truck guy to come. He finally showed up around 10:10. He had no idea where he was going, so he followed us to the Firestone that we've used before. After Casey gave him directions to get to his next destination, we went to Hooters for some dinner. (Thought it might make Casey feel a little better...LOL... and it was right down the street from Firestone.) We ate dinner and tried to laugh about the way the night had gone. It was nice to have him home again. We came home and crashed after the super crappy day we'd both had. I think at this point we both realized that it was probably a very good thing that Charley had gone to the PetsHotel for the night, or he may have left us a mess to deal with when we got home that night.
The next morning, we got up and around, and went to pick up Charley from PetsMart. He had done just fine, and he was pretty tired from getting to play so much the day before. We went to Firestone to let them know why the car was there, then headed home to hang out with Charley for a bit. Firestone called us back... the car technically needs about $2,700 in repairs, and we don't even think the car is worth that much at this point. Casey told them to just repair the belt and do a system flush; they told us the car would be ready at 4:00 pm. To get our minds off everything, we decided to go to see Watchmen around 1:00. We got out, got the car at Firestone, and then went to return the rental car in Naperville. The crappy GPS that the rental car had sent us to a parking lot. Casey figured out where the Hertz place was (with no help from the GPS), and we went there, only to find out that it closed at noon on Saturdays. We tried to go to another Hertz drop-off location, but they were closed as well. We called AAA again, only to find out that the only places that were open late were Midway & O'Hare airport. Great.
We were both in less than spectacular moods at this point, so we came home to figure out what to do. Finally, we decided that it would save us more money if we took the car back to O'Hare. And that's exactly what we did. I am happy to say that my car made the drive to O'Hare without any problems... if only I could have said that the night before, I wouldn't have written this novel of a crappy story, and the weekend would have been much more enjoyable. Anyway, I am happy to say that besides having a slightly smaller bank account, things are back to normal now. Whatever normal is.
That is more than enough for now.
Love,
Ash
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