A new job and my new problems.

For a lot of my friends, none of this is new information.  Some of my friends have no idea that I work full time, but split between two part time jobs.  Of course, I am continuing my work in the media library as that cute girl who checks out DVDs (one of many cute girls, I should say).  I did secure an awesome position as a clinical research assistant last February.  This job has been ridiculous, and it is definitely going to be an experience I will remember throughout my life.  I am gathering data for a pilot study, and our end goal is to formulate a newer and briefer intervention to prevent drug overdose in a population at risk (people who have shown a recent history of pain medication misuse and a lifetime history of drug overdose).  I am required to drive up to Flint (from Ann Arbor) and talk with the patients of the Emergency Department at Hurley Medical Center.  There are so many crazy stories from within the ED, and those I will save for another juicy post.  Here, I will share with you my terrible travel tales.

Thank goodness my parents were gracious enough to give me a car.  I am so grateful.
I love my Ford Focus.  She is so cute, she only had maybe 18K at the most when she was given to me, and she's a sparkly bright blue.  I have named her Candy.  Anyway, some crazy things have happened during the four hours a week in which I drive for work.  My poor Candy.

Morning commutes are tough, especially when there's no one around to speak with you and keep you awake.  The damned radio never plays music in the morning, and I have no f*cking clue why.  This is when I need to stay awake the most!  Naturally, I have fallen asleep on the drive, before or after work, and it is terrifying.  I suddenly snap back into reality and realize that I'm driving in the middle of the highway and the cars are starting to honk at me.  Yikes.

My first accident (with Candy, I regretfully admit) came with this job.  It happened when I first started to drive to Hurley by myself.  I got lost, and my dumba$$ TomTom was taking forever to recalculate.  I looked at it, and suddenly--
BAM.  I rear-ended someone.  Dammit, I rear-ended someone.  And OF COURSE, I had to rear-end a big-a$$ SUV.  My poor little Focus had a bent hood, a popped grill, and other damages that ended up totaling $3000.  The SUV was missing two square inches of paint on its bumper and that was IT.

And this is why I f*cking HATE giant cars.  It is so unnecessary.  If everyone drove smaller cars, then no one would have to drive a large car because they're worried about "safety."  It's ridiculous.  You might be safer in a larger car but you might also f*ck the person who happens to be driving a smaller one.  Ugh.

While Candy was in the shop, my father let me borrow the car that was supposed to be mine.  See, he had bought me a used 2008 White Ford Fusion, which I named Betty White, but then he decided that the car was "too big" for me.  Anyway, I borrowed this car from him to go up to Flint next week.  What happens?

I got lost.  I got INCREDIBLY lost.  But I didn't get lost because I was an idiot.  I got lost because all the roads were closed off.  These roads were closed off because they were all flooded.  These roads were so flooded, in fact, that there were cars that had been halfway submerged and had gotten stuck.  As if the flooding itself weren't bad enough, things got worse.  3 hours later, I'm finally on my way home when I notice that I hear a scraping sound every time I make a turn or go over a small bump.

I pull over, conveniently next to a dusty looking auto/body shop, and I try to look under the hood.  Of course, I also look like an idiot with my nice work shirt and my nice work skirt and my chicken legs and nice shoes, trying to bend over enough to look under the car without having the rest of the world look under/into my skirt.  It turns out that, while my own car was in the shop, I also ruined my dad's!  Apparently you're not supposed to drive through large puddles, which I wasn't aware of.  I cracked some sheet of something underneath the car.  Oops.

Two damaged cars and many frustrations later, I have gotten used to the commute, maybe.  I still fall asleep every now and then, but loud CDs and strong coffee definitely help.  And at least I get paid money for the gas!  But ... yikes.