Monday, May 27, 2013

The Story of My Life

Last Monday was rough.

But not in a bad way. If you are one of my good friends, you should know by now that I am a bit . . . absent-minded, clumsy, and the more tired I am, the more I struggle with the English language (the only language I know). With these facts fully in your mind, prepare yourself for a brief look into the Embarrassing Life of Elena.

It was already starting out to be a long day. Work from 10-5 was relatively busy, and because of the end rush, I left about 10 minutes late. My friend's car was completely empty, so I stopped off to put some gas in on my way back to campus.

Upon pulling into the gas station I realized I didn't know which side of the car contained the gas tank. Parking in the mini lot to the side I hopped out to check. Right side. With no pumps free, I decided to take a lap around the block. I pulled out onto the busy street, then turned right to start my circuit. Noticing that there were two lanes I quickly switched into the right turn lane. The light in front was red, so I slowed to a stop behind the car in front of me and began to wait.

And wait.

I jammed alone to the radio for a song and a half.

That's when I looked more closely at the car's lights in front of me (off), and eyed my proximity to the side walk (real close) with suspicion. A moment later, I realized with the wave of embarrassment that only comes when alone-- this was no turning lane. It wasn't a lane at all. The cars in front of me . . . were . . . well . . . parked.

Do you know how painful that was for me to type?! Just keep reading. It gets worse.

I pulled back into the actual road, finished rounding the block, and turned back into the gas station. Out of the car I got, ready to tackle filling this car with gas. Since I hadn't filled a car since Christmas time-- in Hawaii might I add-- I was a bit apprehensive. But I soldiered on, and was promptly stumped with how to open the door to get to the gas tank. Long story short there, I got it open, (after a phone call to my friend).

Now, to get the gas. I put my card in. Didn't work. Oh, that's because it was backwards. Re-try. Pressed credit. Wouldn't work. Pressed debit, several times. Finally, it worked. Realized I didn't know my pin so I cancelled it. Then I had to go into the store per the gas pump's angry red letter directions. -__- Went in, paid with cash. Got back out ready to roll, and happily placed the nozzle in the tank, so ready to get the ball rolling. But, when I gripped the handle to start the flow of gasoline, surprise, surprise, nothing happened.

I double checked everything that I knew to check. I even went back in to ask the cashier if he gave me the right gas! All was in order, so after a couple minutes of struggling while the other three people at their pumps watched me, I leaned around and asked the guy across from me for help. Bless his heart, he came around and with one glance, leaned over and flipped up the little handle on the pump itself.

It worked.