Currently driving on a scary skinny spare

This:

Is how I started off my weekend, effectively ending my unusually long streak of driving on fully inflated tires. I have a knack for driving over sharp, pointy, or solidly planted objects, you see.

My past record includes:

-driving my high school ride (a Volvo station wagon – stylin’ , I know) home on a completely flat tire, unaware that I totally bent the rim.

-nodding off as I turned into the parking lot of my summer job (Kmart) for my 4 a.m. shift, and running over a curb, shredding the tire (the Volvo wagon again)

-being temporarily blinded as I came into a dark parking garage from harsh sunlight, and hitting the curb (again)

-you know, this is starting to make me sound bad, so I think I’m just going to stop here. I really am not a bad driver, I swear! Though my step-dad’s favorite story of my teen years is the time that I fought a tree with a Ford Festiva (and won!) I’ll save that one for another day.

So I was on my way to work this morning, when I tried (unsuccessfully) to dodge what I thought was a piece of cardboard in the street. The noise my car made as it thudded over this (clearly not cardboard, yet still unidentified) object was horrifying, to say the least.

Despite the warning signs, I’m an optimistic kind of girl, and told myself it sounded worse than it was. I kept repeating this until the thump-thumpthump my car was making made me wonder if a helicopter was hovering nearby. At that point, I decided it would be best to pull into the first available drive and examine the damage. Prognosis: bad.

I reached into my car to grab my phone, and realized that, yeah. I forgot my phone today. OF COURSE I did. Ever the survivalist, I began to examine my surroundings – empty nursing home parking lot. Why I didn’t just pull into a gas station, I’ll never know.

So I began my trek through around the premises, trying doors (all locked,) until I finally was able to get inside an empty lobby area with a receptionist’s desk. I looked around and yelled “hello?” but it seemed deserted, so I cautiously went behind the desk and started to dial. That moment is when the receptionist arrived, to find me standing behind her desk, holding her phone. Awkward!

Luckily she was really nice about it and let me use the phone to call for help. I dialed Josh’s cell: voicemail. Now, I am completely reliant on my cell phone’s address book, and have a total of about 3 phone numbers memorized, so at this point I was sweating bullets.

I tried my step-dad’s number, (for some reason, he always has to bail me out when it comes to driving calamities!) and thankfully he answered and offered to come out. Unfortunately, he was pretty far from my part of town, so I had about a thirty-minute wait. I used my camera to entertain myself as I waited, and then moseyed on down to the entrance. Since it was a bit hidden, I had to plant myself on the sidewalk of on of our city’s busiest streets to flag him down. I got honked at.

I have to say, I am pretty proud of myself. No, I didn’t change my own tire (note to self: learn to do that,) or exhibit stellar driving skills, but what I did do is not freak out. That may seem insignificant to you, but had this incident happened in my past, it most definitely would have been punctuated with hysterical crying and possibly the striking/kicking of inanimate objects. I don’t really know what has changed, but throughout the whole ordeal, I managed to stay pretty calm. Maybe I am growing up. (or was just having an exceptionally mellow day. Yeah, probably that.)