Is it Friday yet?

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OK, so I told you yesterday that I would let you know how bad my Tuesday was so here it goes...

I was heading to work for what I thought was going to be a normal day when my car decided to have a hissy fit. It started yelling at me and when I checked the dash to see what was going on I saw that it was over heated. Now, I'm cruising along in the express lanes on the interstate so I have no where to go and there is no exit. So, I decided to talk nicely to my car in an attempt to calm it down. I also rolled down the windows and blasted the heater trying to pull the heat away from the engine. I read somewhere that you were supposed to do that with the heat, but the talking nicely part was all my idea.

Well, the talking nicely part didn't work and I was losing my patience so when my car kept yelling at me I started yelling back. Here's how that conversation went...

CAR: BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
ME: OMG! Stop yelling at me! You're hot! I get it! It's August in Miami! We're all hot!
CAR: BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
ME: STOP! Why are you acting like this? STOP!
CAR: BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEPITY BEEP
ME: I love you, but I will trade you in for a newer model.
CAR: (silence)

The car didn't get quiet because I won the argument or scared it. I had just made it to school and turned it off. LOL!

Now, here's the confusing part...my car wasn't really hot. There was no smoke coming out anywhere and the hood wasn't even warm.

ME: Mean car!

I go to work and when I get a chance I call the VW place and tell them that I think my car is sick and that it has been yelling at me. They had no service appointments available so the best they could do for me was have me drop it off.

ME: Do you have a courtesy car I can use while you've got mine?
VW Place: No, the courtesy cars are given with the scheduled appointments.
ME: OK, do you have a shuttle that can take me home after I drop the car off?
VW Place: No, the shuttle stops at 3 o'clock so it won't be available at the time you said you would be arriving.

NOTE TO SELF: Make sure car understands it must give advance notice the next time it decides to have hot flashes or whatever so that I can get a courtesy car or at least a ride in the shuttle van.

I get off the phone with the VW place and call to get a rental car. They have nothing available until 7 PM unless I want to upgrade to a better more expensive model. I'm just finishing up summer vacation which means I haven't seen a real paycheck since June so I make it quite clear that I want the cheapest thing they have and I'll wait until 7 PM to get it. lol!

After school, I get the car to the VW place and call a taxi to take me home because I just hated the thought of making someone drive all the way out to where I was in the afternoon traffic rush. Big mistake!

The taxi arrives and like a LOT of the taxi drivers around here the guy has a very thick Haitian creole accent. It was hard for me and my southern accent to understand what he was saying. I tell him where I live and ask if he knows where that is and he does.

FYI: I have NEVER gotten into a taxi and had a driver that didn't know about my neighborhood. One time I took a taxi to the courthouse (don't ask) and the driver didn't know where that was, but they all know where I live. Someday, I'm going to give some serious thought as to whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, are we famous or infamous? Since this is South Beach and there are taxis parked outside the gate 24/7 I'm leaning more toward infamous.

Any way, the taxi driver was very talkative and I mostly just agreed with everything because I didn't understand what he was saying and I didn't want to be rude. Here's how some of that conversation went.

TD: blah, blah, blah
ME: I know
TD: blah, blah, blah
ME: yes
TD: blah, blah, blah
ME: OK
TD: blah, blah, blah 195 blah, blah 395
ME: I'm sorry?
TD: blah, blah, blah, should I take blah, blah, blah, 195 or 395
ME: Ummm, I don't know what those numbers mean, but you can get off at exit 4 or exit 2

(You should know that I really don't know street names or numbers. I can go someplace all the time, you know...like home...and while I can drive myself there I can't tell you how to get there.)

TD: blah, blah, blah, comfortable blah, blah, blah and good for you
ME: ...Ummm...I'm usually in the express lanes so I go to exit 2

There were several more exchanges with the taxi driver and a couple of times he actually turned around in his seat to stare at me after I said yes to whatever his comment was. Trust me! It's pretty scary when the driver of the car you're riding in takes his eyes off the road to stare at you in the 5 o'clock traffic on 95 in Dade County.

By the time the taxi driver dropped me off he was very happy and I have no idea what we had talked about. By the smile on his face I'm guessing that I had either promised to never get in his taxi again or we got engaged. Of course, he could have been smiling about that $60 cab fair too.

I go hunting for Orange Croc Guy to tell him about my day. I think he's going to be proud of me for handling everything all by myself, because normally, I don't do well under pressure. He wasn't nearly as proud of me as I thought he should have been. Here's part of that conversation...

OCG: Why didn't you call me?
ME: I didn't want to bother you.
OCG: OMG! You should have stopped that car the second the light came on and called me.
ME: What would you have done?
OCG: I would have come and gotten you.
ME: oh, and leave my car sitting in the middle of the interstate?
OCG: Ginger, you have Triple A for a reason, use it!

(OMG!!! Why didn't I think about Triple A?!?!)

ME: Quit being mean to me. I've had a bad day.
OCG: I'm not being mean. I'm just saying that you should have called me...or Triple A.
ME: I'm an independent woman and I took everything all by myself. (using a nicer voice now) Will you drive me to the airport so that I can pick up the rental car?
OCG: Yea, let's go, Miss Independent.

Everything was pretty quiet in the car as we drove toward the airport until OCG asked me a question...

OCG: After you get this rental, do you want to go get something to eat?
ME: No, I think I'm engaged to the taxi driver.

The rest of the drive was really quiet.

We get to the car rental place and of course they make one more push to get me to upgrade. I explained that I drive a VW so this 4 door Focus already looks like a sedan to me. lol!

As I'm on my way home with the rental I realize that since I don't have my sticker for the parking garage that I pay to use I have to either valet this rental or look for a parking spot on the street. We've had a lot of rain lately and I've never parallel parked in my life so I know that I'm not parking on the street. lol! This means that I am now paying $14 a day to valet a car that I'm only paying $28 a day to rent.

I was really hungry when I finally got home. I had told OCG that I didn't want to go eat with him, my new taxi driver fiance wasn't around and it just was not a good day to order fajitas. So, I had comfort food for dinner----Fruit Loops and Strawberry Daiquiris. lol!

Wednesday morning I needed to go back to work so I'm walking around the parking garage pressing the button on my key chain trying to find my car for a good 5 minutes before I remember that I need to go to the valet and get the rental. lol!

I can't use the rental car in the express lanes because it doesn't have a sunpass. That means I have to use the high stress lanes where people may or may not actually go the speed limit, they will probably put on their brakes for no reason at all and on a good day there's only one driver who leaves his turn signal on the whole time he's driving on the interstate. SAVE ME!

And that's my story. I told you that you would either feel really sorry for me or that you would be laughing at me. So, tell me, which one is it?