On to part two of the story (from two weekends ago)…
The next morning (last Monday), I woke up early and made my way out to SLU Law campus. To beat the rush hour traffic, I left 20 minutes earlier than I thought I need to in order to get to the law school on time. Little did I know that St. Louis drivers drive much slower and more congested when it rains (probably how Iowans drive when it slightly-to-moderately snows). Thus, I was five minutes late to the law school. They wouldn’t let me sit in on the first class because of it, so I went to their law library and answered a few e-mails in the hour-and-a-half wait until the health law class I was going to sit in on.
When the time came for me to go to the next class, the admissions counselor said that the room she thought the class met in was occupied with another class and that they had no idea where the actual class would be. Instead, I sat in on a Contracts class with a professor who used the word “um” a lot. I never realized quite how much those verbal fillers annoy and detract until specifically that class. They weren’t able to get me into any other health law class, which made me very disappointed since that was the main purpose of my trip. A 1L class is pretty much the same all around the country, but the specialty courses are what set apart certain programs. I left SLU a little less than happy, but I still feel like the overall school is a good fit.
The traffic leaving downtown St. Louis was crazy. There was an accident that took up three out of four lanes during the lunch rush, leaving traffic at nearly a standstill for 20 minutes. All I wanted was an Imo’s pizza (a St. Louis-area specialty) on the way home, and it took forever to get to one because of the accident. I ordered a lunch special 9” mushroom and waited for the tasty goodness.
I was not disappointed. What really sets Imo’s apart are the simple sauce and Provel cheese (a hybrid of provolone and a velveeta-like cheese). It is the only pizza I have found to be just as good (and maybe even better) cold than warm. A good thing, since half of it would be eaten on the ride home.
Driving home was rainy (as the whole trip had been) but not so bad, until I hit Kansas City rush hour traffic. But even that wasn’t as bad as what was to come an hour later.
On I-235 North, all of a sudden, my car began to hum really loud, and the RPMs increased significantly. I slowed down by 15 mph to make sure I wasn’t hydroplaning or something due to all the rain. That didn’t help. Instead, the car started to sputter and stall. I pulled over at the DD exit and pulled onto the exit’s shoulder right as my ’07 Ford Focus gave out. All I could think was FML.
I called up my parents and then the auto club AAA thing. Then I called Ford 24-hour roadside assistance. Neither service knew where I was. It was cold, rainy and traffic-less on this exit in particular. I couldn’t understand how no one would believe that I was off exit DD from I-235 N. A family friend’s relatives lived near Kansas City, so they were out looking for me, too.
By this time, I was being searched for by the Missouri State Patrol, a tow truck service and a family friend. I even called 911 just to find my location, and they couldn’t even locate me on GPS because their system had been hit by lightning a month ago and was yet to be repaired. All I could think was, if 911 can’t find where I am, what if something gravely terrible had happened to me – would I just end up dead?
So I sat there, intercepting calls from my parents, the family friend, the state patrol, the tow truck, the towing service office, the auto club … and I had to turn off my hazard lights, (obviously my heat), headlights and everything but my car cell phone charger just to keep my phone working. I was so cold, since it ended up lightly snowing later that night. I had on open-toed stilettos, leaving my feet freezing. I had on a light fleece jacket, but quickly put on an emergency blanket that offered very little warmth and found a pair of gloves from last winter sitting in my car. I also had to use the restroom, but I was obviously miles from the nearest restroom and the rain was coming down really hard. I didn’t want to get wet and cold at the same time, so I took an empty coffee cup and did what no girl should ever have to do in a car … pee in a cup. So disgusting and demoralizing, even if no one’s watching.
Finally, three and a half hours after my car died, the family friend found me. The state patrolman followed suit about five minutes later. It took the tow truck another 30 or 40 minutes to finally arrive. Cold and tired, I sat in the family friend’s SUV as we followed the tow truck to a Kansas City dealership and turned in the keys. Since I was 75 miles outside Kansas City instead of the 20 miles the auto club and patrol thought I was, my tow service (which only was covered for the first 50 miles) cost me $160. We then drove another 20 minutes to the family friends’ house in Overland Park, KS, where I promptly thanked the family a million times and fell asleep.
The next morning, I found out that my car had some climate control thing break down. It thought I was under sea level, and it shut down my car system. I’d never heard of such a thing, but maybe it was due to the 15 hours of driving in the rain in the past 48 hours that made the sensor system malfunction. It, of course, had to be replaced, but the extended warranty only made me spend $60 instead of the actual $500 cost for repair. Fortunately, they had the part in stock, and I was on my way by noon.
On the way home, it continued to rain. I filled up my tank and got a coffee, then went through the McD’s drive-thru and ate an entire Big N’ Tasty meal in about five minutes. While going through the drive-thru, my still-hot 20-ounce coffee spilled in my lap. I wonder how I get this anti-luck. Driving, I held my breath as I passed mile marker 72, where I had broken down the night before. I made it this time! An hour later, I got really drowsy and pulled off to sleep for a half hour in a Dairy Queen parking lot.
The rest of the drive was just fine, save for being sick of driving and tired. I got home and realized I had forgotten that I had to do PR phone bank calling for two hours and rushed to that. Even more tired after getting home from that, I wrote a few more e-mails, did a little homework and went to bed. In one word, “interesting” is still not a completely accurate word for that weekend.
The next morning (last Monday), I woke up early and made my way out to SLU Law campus. To beat the rush hour traffic, I left 20 minutes earlier than I thought I need to in order to get to the law school on time. Little did I know that St. Louis drivers drive much slower and more congested when it rains (probably how Iowans drive when it slightly-to-moderately snows). Thus, I was five minutes late to the law school. They wouldn’t let me sit in on the first class because of it, so I went to their law library and answered a few e-mails in the hour-and-a-half wait until the health law class I was going to sit in on.
When the time came for me to go to the next class, the admissions counselor said that the room she thought the class met in was occupied with another class and that they had no idea where the actual class would be. Instead, I sat in on a Contracts class with a professor who used the word “um” a lot. I never realized quite how much those verbal fillers annoy and detract until specifically that class. They weren’t able to get me into any other health law class, which made me very disappointed since that was the main purpose of my trip. A 1L class is pretty much the same all around the country, but the specialty courses are what set apart certain programs. I left SLU a little less than happy, but I still feel like the overall school is a good fit.
The traffic leaving downtown St. Louis was crazy. There was an accident that took up three out of four lanes during the lunch rush, leaving traffic at nearly a standstill for 20 minutes. All I wanted was an Imo’s pizza (a St. Louis-area specialty) on the way home, and it took forever to get to one because of the accident. I ordered a lunch special 9” mushroom and waited for the tasty goodness.
I was not disappointed. What really sets Imo’s apart are the simple sauce and Provel cheese (a hybrid of provolone and a velveeta-like cheese). It is the only pizza I have found to be just as good (and maybe even better) cold than warm. A good thing, since half of it would be eaten on the ride home.
Driving home was rainy (as the whole trip had been) but not so bad, until I hit Kansas City rush hour traffic. But even that wasn’t as bad as what was to come an hour later.
On I-235 North, all of a sudden, my car began to hum really loud, and the RPMs increased significantly. I slowed down by 15 mph to make sure I wasn’t hydroplaning or something due to all the rain. That didn’t help. Instead, the car started to sputter and stall. I pulled over at the DD exit and pulled onto the exit’s shoulder right as my ’07 Ford Focus gave out. All I could think was FML.
I called up my parents and then the auto club AAA thing. Then I called Ford 24-hour roadside assistance. Neither service knew where I was. It was cold, rainy and traffic-less on this exit in particular. I couldn’t understand how no one would believe that I was off exit DD from I-235 N. A family friend’s relatives lived near Kansas City, so they were out looking for me, too.
By this time, I was being searched for by the Missouri State Patrol, a tow truck service and a family friend. I even called 911 just to find my location, and they couldn’t even locate me on GPS because their system had been hit by lightning a month ago and was yet to be repaired. All I could think was, if 911 can’t find where I am, what if something gravely terrible had happened to me – would I just end up dead?
So I sat there, intercepting calls from my parents, the family friend, the state patrol, the tow truck, the towing service office, the auto club … and I had to turn off my hazard lights, (obviously my heat), headlights and everything but my car cell phone charger just to keep my phone working. I was so cold, since it ended up lightly snowing later that night. I had on open-toed stilettos, leaving my feet freezing. I had on a light fleece jacket, but quickly put on an emergency blanket that offered very little warmth and found a pair of gloves from last winter sitting in my car. I also had to use the restroom, but I was obviously miles from the nearest restroom and the rain was coming down really hard. I didn’t want to get wet and cold at the same time, so I took an empty coffee cup and did what no girl should ever have to do in a car … pee in a cup. So disgusting and demoralizing, even if no one’s watching.
Finally, three and a half hours after my car died, the family friend found me. The state patrolman followed suit about five minutes later. It took the tow truck another 30 or 40 minutes to finally arrive. Cold and tired, I sat in the family friend’s SUV as we followed the tow truck to a Kansas City dealership and turned in the keys. Since I was 75 miles outside Kansas City instead of the 20 miles the auto club and patrol thought I was, my tow service (which only was covered for the first 50 miles) cost me $160. We then drove another 20 minutes to the family friends’ house in Overland Park, KS, where I promptly thanked the family a million times and fell asleep.
The next morning, I found out that my car had some climate control thing break down. It thought I was under sea level, and it shut down my car system. I’d never heard of such a thing, but maybe it was due to the 15 hours of driving in the rain in the past 48 hours that made the sensor system malfunction. It, of course, had to be replaced, but the extended warranty only made me spend $60 instead of the actual $500 cost for repair. Fortunately, they had the part in stock, and I was on my way by noon.
On the way home, it continued to rain. I filled up my tank and got a coffee, then went through the McD’s drive-thru and ate an entire Big N’ Tasty meal in about five minutes. While going through the drive-thru, my still-hot 20-ounce coffee spilled in my lap. I wonder how I get this anti-luck. Driving, I held my breath as I passed mile marker 72, where I had broken down the night before. I made it this time! An hour later, I got really drowsy and pulled off to sleep for a half hour in a Dairy Queen parking lot.
The rest of the drive was just fine, save for being sick of driving and tired. I got home and realized I had forgotten that I had to do PR phone bank calling for two hours and rushed to that. Even more tired after getting home from that, I wrote a few more e-mails, did a little homework and went to bed. In one word, “interesting” is still not a completely accurate word for that weekend.
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