Adventures of the car-formerly-known-as-Lucy
This was the most fucked up mini-road trip ever. Seriously. I left B'ham at 12:30 and headed south to Seattle and beyond to Orting. Traffic was nice and easy all the way through the parts that are usually hellish (aka Everett and Seattle), but then all of the sudden I hit Bellvue and things came to a screeching halt. From there all the way until Sumner on WA-167 was completely stop and go traffic. I don't think I ever got above 15 mph. And it was so gridlocked that I couldn't change lanes for my exit and had to try and make the next one. But then I found out that there were 3 accidents on the road in different places and all traffic was being rerouted. So I ended up in some sketchy part of Puyallup on a road that I followed until I finally got to a place that I recognized. By this time, I had been driving for 5 hours on a trip that should have taken 2 1/2. Finally, I'm climbing the hill outside of Bonney Lake, and what happens? That's right, my clutch goes out. No clutch on a stick means no moving. So I pull over to the side of the road. I'm about 10 miles from where I would actually like to be. Shit. It's pouring down rain and I'm stuck on the side of the highway at rush hour in the dark by myself. I call my dad and he tells me to just get Jen to pick me up and to leave the car there for him to pick up the next day. So I do, but it takes a while for her to get there, so I am sitting on the side of the road for an hour. It was scary as hell.
So I'm finally safe in the car with Jen and her boyfriend (who is the sweetest guy in the world) and heading back to her house where I was already planning to stay the night. We start talking about all the people that I used to know from when I went to Orting schools and what they are up to now. Naturally this gets us into all of her past boyfriends (and there are so many that she doesn't even remember them all); poor Darryl. We went out to Mexican food with her family (yay for mexican food! I missed it so.) and then returned to her house to look through old year books at all of our old classmates. Then came Disney SceneIt. I love that game now. I am slightly bitter that I lost to her little sister (a little sister that I have known since she was 4 and now she is 16 and has a boyfriend that was in my 4th grade class), but I came in second so it's not too bad. After Darryl left we watched Cars and fell asleep on the couches.
This morning was pretty uneventful. We went to lunch with our other musketeer Angela at Olive Garden. Fake italian food that has cheap lunch specials and tastes good. Anyway, our waitress was deaf, but she could talk a little bit in that faltering way that some deaf people can and she could read lips, so there weren't any problems. At the end of the meal, we are waiting for our checks and the waitress comes and tells us it's been taken care of. Some lady that was sitting at the table next to us saw that we were being "polite, patient and lovely young ladies" and decided to pay for our meal. That is so random, but kind of cool. That's never happened to me before. We ended up wandering around the mall while we waited for my parents to get down to tow my car home. Eventually they called and asked me to pick up some duct tape on my way to meet them. So we go into the tiny hardware store in Orting and there is a guy that I used to go to school with working there, Jake Hughs. We had been talking about him the night before (he was they guy that I had a crush in on 4th grade and who Jen dated in 11th grade). Somehow he recognized me even though I haven't seen him in about 8 years. It was strange.
Anyway, mexican food was eaten again and there was only on scary bit on the freeway when we had to stop and readjust my car on the tow-dolly, but we made it home alive. And, another good thing about this trip, in an effort to have music to listen to, I found my Ben Jelen cd and rediscovered how much I love his music. He is this amazing singer songwriter who plays pretty much every instrument in every song on the album. I've listened to that cd 3 times in the last 2 days....ah...sing along time:
All of my answers and all my reasons
And all my excuses they never asked
Cause all of my answers they keep on changing
I spend my life waiting for the next?
No, I just keep on moving
No, I just keep on pushing forward
No, I forgot what I was looking for
And all their illusions, I won't believe them
I'll always believe what I can't forget
Cause all of their reasons, they keep on changing
I spend my life waiting for the next?
No, I just keep on moving
No, I just keep on pushing forward
No, I forgot what I was looking for
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
To get away from all my lies
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
To get away from getting by
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
Just for one look through those eyes
I'm just glad to be home. And when I arrived home there was this lovely little package from Kristen! Yay! Just one more week and I'll be home at Alfred, well, sort of, briefly. I just have to knit and sing and not drive anymore until then.
So I'm finally safe in the car with Jen and her boyfriend (who is the sweetest guy in the world) and heading back to her house where I was already planning to stay the night. We start talking about all the people that I used to know from when I went to Orting schools and what they are up to now. Naturally this gets us into all of her past boyfriends (and there are so many that she doesn't even remember them all); poor Darryl. We went out to Mexican food with her family (yay for mexican food! I missed it so.) and then returned to her house to look through old year books at all of our old classmates. Then came Disney SceneIt. I love that game now. I am slightly bitter that I lost to her little sister (a little sister that I have known since she was 4 and now she is 16 and has a boyfriend that was in my 4th grade class), but I came in second so it's not too bad. After Darryl left we watched Cars and fell asleep on the couches.
This morning was pretty uneventful. We went to lunch with our other musketeer Angela at Olive Garden. Fake italian food that has cheap lunch specials and tastes good. Anyway, our waitress was deaf, but she could talk a little bit in that faltering way that some deaf people can and she could read lips, so there weren't any problems. At the end of the meal, we are waiting for our checks and the waitress comes and tells us it's been taken care of. Some lady that was sitting at the table next to us saw that we were being "polite, patient and lovely young ladies" and decided to pay for our meal. That is so random, but kind of cool. That's never happened to me before. We ended up wandering around the mall while we waited for my parents to get down to tow my car home. Eventually they called and asked me to pick up some duct tape on my way to meet them. So we go into the tiny hardware store in Orting and there is a guy that I used to go to school with working there, Jake Hughs. We had been talking about him the night before (he was they guy that I had a crush in on 4th grade and who Jen dated in 11th grade). Somehow he recognized me even though I haven't seen him in about 8 years. It was strange.
Anyway, mexican food was eaten again and there was only on scary bit on the freeway when we had to stop and readjust my car on the tow-dolly, but we made it home alive. And, another good thing about this trip, in an effort to have music to listen to, I found my Ben Jelen cd and rediscovered how much I love his music. He is this amazing singer songwriter who plays pretty much every instrument in every song on the album. I've listened to that cd 3 times in the last 2 days....ah...sing along time:
All of my answers and all my reasons
And all my excuses they never asked
Cause all of my answers they keep on changing
I spend my life waiting for the next?
No, I just keep on moving
No, I just keep on pushing forward
No, I forgot what I was looking for
And all their illusions, I won't believe them
I'll always believe what I can't forget
Cause all of their reasons, they keep on changing
I spend my life waiting for the next?
No, I just keep on moving
No, I just keep on pushing forward
No, I forgot what I was looking for
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
To get away from all my lies
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
To get away from getting by
I'd trade wisdom back in for innocence
Just for one look through those eyes
I'm just glad to be home. And when I arrived home there was this lovely little package from Kristen! Yay! Just one more week and I'll be home at Alfred, well, sort of, briefly. I just have to knit and sing and not drive anymore until then.