Tammi's World

On Notice!

So yesterday is in the books.

Thank Gott! Not a great day. Seriously. Oh, there were moments that made me smile, but over all? Yeah. Let's just not do that again, okay?

All afternoon, while I was at the corporate office, every where I turned there was talk of the Monster Storm that was heading our way. Even though the weather was fine at that point, flights were being canceled, just in case. It was a known fact that I was heading out to a training class and some folks were a bit worried.

Trust me, no one was more worried than I was.

So....of course when I'm on a deadline and folks are actually traveling in to work with me, I get delayed in my last meeting. I made it perfectly clear that I had to be on the road by 3:00. Had to. Finally made it at 4:15. Not a happy Tammi.

4:15, with 2 hours driving on a normal day. Not good. Cause once you factor in Chicago rush hour traffic, sleet and ice and well, that drive took just a bit longer.

I called ahead to my customer's store, gave them my credit card number and told them to order pizza. We were scheduled to start at 6:00 and there was no way in hell I was going to be there by 6:00. I wanted them to start eating and that would buy me the time I need.

The roads just kept getting worse. I can handle bad roads, but all I could think about was how much WORSE it was going to be, and the fact that I would be driving 4 hours home, in the dark, after a VERY long day....

Class went fine. Sales people pumped, product explained, pizza consumed. Yeah, it's all good.

Finally at 8:30 I start home. I had several voicemails asking that I call to let folks know if I'm ok. So I wake Lee up and tell him it's time to go to work (my Garmin) and started making calls.

Now....let me just say, I do know how to find my way home from this dealer. But I usually end up going a bit out of my way, so I was interested in seeing Lee's version of the "direct route".

Yeah....that was NOT my brightest idea......

So.....I'm callin' a few folks back and realized that I was going a route that had me COMPLETELY lost. OK....now it's a matter of trust. The roads were SLICK. Rain and sleet. And it was dark. Really dark. And the farther I drove the darker it got.

Eventually I ended up talking with Bou. She had agreed to bring me up to date on how things were going with Super Tuesday. Even with all the work shit going on, I was really concerned with the primarys. To the point I was slightly distracted.

So...we're talking. I'm driving. It's getting darker. And slicker. I'm getting farther and farther out. When....IT happened.

Lee told me to take a left. I'm lookin'....I don't see a road. All I could think of was THIS damned post from T1G and I was so terrified of even accidentally proving him right. But Lee was insisting...Turn Right LEFT Here. *THIS is why I have problems. Left? Right? West? East? yeah...I have issues....

But it's a dirt road.

Turn Right LEFT Here.

So.....I did.

Poor Bou. She's trying to have an intelligent conversation with me, giving me details and I'm waffling between laughter that I'm on some flippin' dirt road in the wilds of rural Illinois and panic because it's becoming a damned WASHBOARD dirt road, shaking and rattling Lana and I to the point I was only able to drive 5-10 mph. Did I mention the rain and sleet? Yeah...comin' down like crazy.

1.6 miles. 1.6 miles that took FOREVER.

Finally I'm able to turn. By now I have NO idea where I am. None. I'm more lost than I've ever been in my life. I now HAVE to trust this damned machine.

Eventually we got on a highway that I've never heard of and I thought it was gonna be just fine.

But noooooo.....are you kidding?!?! Now, like I said, I'd never heard of this highway, cause if I had, I would have never turned off when HE told me to. But because I'm.....challenged I followed his directions.

Finally FINALLY I make it, via the weirdest route ever in life, to I88. NOW I'm in control. Or at least I was in my mind. The hysterical part was I was actually in agreement with the directions I was given, so I guess that's a mute point.

As I'm heading towards Paradise, the roads get worse. And worse. Now we've added snow to the mix.

And I'm tired. I'm so very tired.

That was when I heard the worst of the storm was going to be delayed. They originally thought it would hit around 3:00 in the morning. Now they were calling for it to arrive during rush hour. Oh....and several towns/cities have announced they are completely out of salt for the roads. So.....I made the decision that there would be no traveling on Wednesday for me. After THAT drive? Are you KIDDING?!?!? No, I can work the phone and finish up a few projects.

But I made it home. Finally. I really don't remember getting in the house. Hell, at one point during the night I got up to make sure I had closed the garage door.

It is rather ironic that *I* managed to get a Garmin, a machine, with the warped twisted sense of humor that I so admire in a friend of mine. Cause I just gotta figure that route he gave me to get home was some form of revenge for ignoring his directions during other trips.

But Lee's on notice. Pull a stunt like that again and I'll change your gender, and it won't be pretty!!!!!

Posted by Tammi at February 6, 2008 08:10 AM | TrackBack