somebody up there loves [messing with] me.

dread.dread.dread.dread.dread.

passed skills testing this morning. but first, twenty minutes of despair, tears, hugs, and generalized panic occurred. blood draw from a central line.you mean the only skill I was nervous about performing? FFFFFUUUUU----

I needed no prompts of the allotted three. though others claimed tunnel vision, I couldn't help but notice that I was speaking the loudest of the six other students also being assessed. Perhaps I was speaking loudly enough for both my laryngitis-stricken instructor and I? Though it pained her to say it (speaking literally here -- she doesn't know me well enough to hate me), I asked her to confirm the words I thought she insinuated. "Yes, Caitlyn, you passed."

happy dance. happy dance. Keltic Kitchen. Keltic Kitchen. fab company. fab company.

I volunteer to pick up little brother from college because nothing could kill the happy dance.
The Universe said, "challenge accepted."
Little brother and little brother's friend packed up, and we headed out. Traffic in Worcester was a gorramn nightmare. One particularly irksome individual driving a yellow Protege received the concentration of our rage. YOU SAD, DOWN-GRADED BUMBLEBEE, DRIVE RIGHT.

Ten minutes out of Worcester, and the accelerator pad got stuck. I thought, 'perhaps I just forgot I have the cruise control on.' toggled the button. no deceleration. I took a deep breath and tapped the brakes. The entire car started to shake. Even though two teenaged boys were jabbering on and the entire car was shaking beneath me, I could not hear. I turned on the emergency lights, uttered some hugely heroic phrase like, "OH SHOOT!" and pulled over on the side of 290. Not without considerable effort, however. Flooring the brakes and pulling the emergency brake only slowed our progress. I threw my whole body weight into shifting to park and cut the power. only then did we grind to a halt.

We three sat in shaky silence for a moment. "Wouldn't it suck if we were still behind the Protege when that happened?"
"Gorrammit, must you find the silver lining in EVERYTHING?"

[we kid -- but yes. ten minutes earlier, and we would have been a donut. dead meat. not alive to tell the tale. somebody up there loves us. or just wanted to hear how we would tell this story.]

And just like that, the tension was lifted. A tow, a taxi, and a ride home -- activate! A Ford Taurus that vaguely resembled a decommissioned cop car took us to Herb Chambers Honda in Westborough, approximately two hours from home. AAA assured me that said taxi accepted credit cards because I don't typically carry cash. We pulled into the lot, and I double-checked that he did indeed take cards because the inside of the car did not make that readily apparent to me. The driver reluctantly pulled out a paper slip and took down prominent billing information. He tore a piece off the end, a handwritten receipt for twenty dollars.

In retrospect, it was probably an idiot move to trust that a handwritten receipt with my credit card number was a legitimate business interaction, but at the time? it seemed the only way. A little being ignored here, a little frustration there. after some time, I had next to no answers, but at least I had a numbered key-chain. So little brother, little brother's friend, and I braved the wilderness between the Honda dealership and Target in search of hot foods.

highway dance party. unexpected elevation change. almost fall into a ditch. highway dance party. highway dance party. coping mechanisms! highway dance party. adventure time in Target.

>.> Apparently, all Targets of the super variety do not contain Subways. Starbucks, it was. breakfast sandwiches. Coke Icee is a regular fountain beverage, right? omma nom noms. adventure time in the dark. back to the dealership we go. Aunt Mary Kay was waiting for us like a knight in shining armor. we raided the Honda for valuables and were once again, Cape Cod bound.

and now we are home. and now we are safe. and now I have taken far too long writing this semi-coherent post. and now I am going to bed. good night!