And all I wanted to do was go!

I remember waking up on Monday morning, February, 28^th, thinking “ok, all you gotta do is make it through the next four days and you’ll be on a plane.  Just four more days!”  This became my internal pep talk for the week.  Any time I felt overwhelmed or underinterested the little chant played in my head, “just three more days,” “just two more days,” until finally Thursday morning rolled around.  On Tuesday a series of events resulted in no class meetings on Thursday, which meant that I would be able to leave for Detroit even sooner than anticipated!  I woke up on Thursday and quickly set out to complete my to do list before hitting the road.  I had to pack, straighten up the house, take out the trash, set out extra food and water for the cat and the hedgehog, swing by the pharmacy, go to the dealership to get my title work, and lastly go to the license branch to title and plate my “new” car.  I thought, “sure, this should be a cinch!”  WRONG!  All the stuff around the house took a little longer than I anticipated mostly because I didn’t want my friend who would be stopping by to check on the animals while I was away to think that I was a slob. But I was optimistic when I finally got out the door. I was still ahead of schedule.  So I called the dealership on my way to the pharmacy, and the lady, who is entirely sweet but incredibly disorganized, said that she would do her best to have my paper work ready.  Mind you, I live near Jefferson Pointe and it was that Wal-Mart pharmacy I was going to, and the dealership is in New Haven.  I bought the car on the 12^th of February and was told to come back in ten days for my papers.  I returned to the dealership roughly 14 days later only to find that my stuff still had not been taken care of.  My temporary plates were going to expire upon my return, a day the BMV is closed, so I had to make sure I had this taken care of before I left.  I called on my way from the pharmacy, and was again assured that everything would be ready to go when I got there…  On the contrary!  She had not even so much as pulled my file when I walked in, and after sitting there for a half an hour listening to her babble on about schtooping the owner did she finally realize that my paperwork had not even been notarized.  Not only had they not said anything about the car having been wrecked or having a rebuilt title, their customer service sucks—they’re friendly but quite lacking in the efficiency department.  She proceeded to ask if I minded waiting while she drove a half an hour away to get it notarized, and well, what choice did I have?!  So there I sat…  waiting…  and waiting…  Finally she got back and I was out the door and off to the BMV.  I was in an out, but not before I realized that I did not have my bank card in my wallet.  I sat out in my car and desperately tried to remember where I had it last.  I remembered I shoved it in my coat pocket after getting gas one day.  Unfortunately, it was my big winter coat that I wasn’t taking on vacation, so I had to drive all the way back to my house to get it…

Finally, with bank card in hand and back in the car I was on my way to Detroit.