It Had to End This Way

Go figure. I should have even called it or bet money on the fact that my travel season would end in a most unusual way.

First, this week I had the privilege of driving fleet car #12. For those of you not familiar with fleet car #12, let me elaborate. Fleet car #12 is one of the oldest cars in the fleet, and as a Taurus, as most of the fleet are, it would usually be considered reliable even at 160,000 miles. And I will admit that fleet car #12 has never stranded me anywhere, it has had some hiccups that I would prefer not to deal with while dealing with Chicago traffic. For instance, the gas pedal sticks at the top, so most often in situations where one would be required to accelerate, nothing happens until *bam!* you're catapulted into hyper-drive. And a problem that is fantastic to couple with acceleration challenges, are the brakes. The breaks are the opposite of touchy, and practically standing up in the driver's seat is required to make a full and complete stop. Besides that, fleet car #12 smells something terrible...it reminds me of rotting food, but from a distance...the smell of approaching a dumpster from a half mile away, downwind. And finally, fleet car #12 has a strange bar or cord that I would imagine is holding the driver's seat together, but it is on the person side of the padding rather than the inside. Most days after driving fleet car #12 I feel a slight bruise on my spine...quite uncomfortable.

Although the fact that driving fleet car #12 was not especially pleasing, that was not the most strange part of my day (note, it is only 10:00). I began my day by picking up said fleet car #12 at 6:45 and got on the road to head to my last school visits of the semester. By 8:00 I had two voicemails on my phone. I would have caught the calls had I not been singing extremely boldly in said car. Within fifteen minutes this morning both of my last two schools had called and told me not to bother showing up. No students were signed up, and it wouldn't be worth my while. By doing some quick mental math, one can gather that I had already driven for an hour in the south and easterly direction. An hour. So, with an exasperated, "What the heck!" to Tara, I turned around in Nora, Illinois, where the local (there may only be one in that town) was walking to get his mail and provided me with a curious look while I was making a u-turn near his house.

So, now, at 10:00, I have already been "working" for three and a half hours and I have accomplished absolutely nothing but wasting gas. But hey, gas is cheap, right? Welcome to my daily life in recruitment. The spring travel season had to end this way.