First, now I'm not sure if I had told y'all what my plans were for when I finished paying off my smallish credit card debt. I may have, lord knows I sensor myself so little in my posts. In any event, after only about 4 months of working with Princess Cruises, I was able to fully pay off my credit card debt. It felt great. I confess, it was a true feeling of adult accomplishment.
Now, I know that for reasons I refuse to discuss, that I need to keep a certain amount of money available on that credit card, but one of the things I was advised is that keeping the card active and paying it off as soon as you can helps your credit rating greatly. My credit rating needs help...not quite as much as I thought it did, but we'll get to that shortly.
I recently faced a perfect storm for me to take action on a front that I knew I wanted to get to, but because of that perfect storm, I was no longer willing to make it a "someday" thing and felt the need to make it more a "now" thing. Being a telecommuter does not mean that you never have to go into the office. I mean, I guess it CAN mean that, but it's not supposed to. There are times that due to technical issues, you may have to bring your computer into the office and if you can't, well, you can't earn your pay. No hours working means no dollars in your paycheck. And then there are times when there are things going on in the office that you may be truly interested in attending. As an example, recently there was a very special guest speaker whom I would have loved to listen to and maybe even interview for an article, but well, I couldn't get there.
So anyway, that's the backstory to this...I finally bought a car. Well, I didn't buy it, I leased it. It's an adorable Kia Soul. Now to bring you into my headspace at the time and all which followed... I'm sitting on my sofa watching TV a few days after a missed day due to technical issues and I had received an email inviting me to a special event at the office taking place in a few weeks.
We have those kinda goofy car sales commercials here, and one of them was for a specific Kia dealership. It promoted a 2017 Kia to lease for less than $100 a month. Impressive, but not the best deal I'd ever seen come out of this dealership. The year before they had an ad for what amounted to a two-for-one deal. I had told Ray about it at the time, but in our position at that time would have required it to be more like a two-for-free sale.
I guess you can say I'd already made my mind up that I was going to buy a car, it was just a matter of going for it with this sale or waiting to see if the two-for would go into effect in the near future. I discussed it with Ray and to be honest, I needed more than one opinion. This one was going to be all on me. My first solo big girl purchase in basically 30 years. So I called my daughter, Jessica, to tell her about it and get her opinion.
Now let me remind you, Jessica had been driving my car for quite a long time now. Literally years. It's a truck. I don't mean that literally, but I do mean it's a big damn car. Jessica is maybe 5'1ish and this car is truly too big for her. And since it's a bit older, it eats gas as though it was candy.
Anyway, I explain the deal to her and ask her opinion and her reaction was to pack herself up and drive up from San Diego to get one too. She's earning good money and can afford it, and she was more than ready, especially since moving into her new place which brings her up and down a mountain every day meaning she's spending a small fortune in gas.
Fast forward to dealership. We've test driven the cars...I don't know if a Soul is still considered a car or a mini-mini something else. Two different models were on sale, Optima (I think) and the Soul. Jessie knew what she wanted right away. I had other considerations. After I tested each car I dragged Ray outside into that oppressive heat and had him get into and out of each of the cars to see which he felt most comfortable in. After all, should something happen with his car, mine can now be a backup. There was no question that the Soul was easier for him, decision made.
As it turned out, Jessica and I both wanted the same color. At first I was just going to go with my second choice, but after giving it a moment's thought I asked myself why. Ninety-nine percent of the time, Jessica is in San Diego. With the exception of her visits, who would know - or even care - that we both got the same color of the same model car. Right?!
Now brace yourself for some really shocking shit. I wasn't even sure I'd get approved for the car, and I did have a specific dollar limit in my mind because I knew they weren't going to come back with glowing reports on my credit begging me to take that lead-in offer. The guy turned to Ray at one point and told him that his help may be needed to help get Jessie through. Ray just nodded. When he came back he said that yeah, Jessie would need a co-signer and asked if Ray was going to do it. To my surprise Ray asked the guy if I could do it instead and it turned out I could. We were presented our deal and shook hands on it and with that done, I stepped outside.
To say I was in a little bit of shock would be an understatement. I stood outside with my mouth hanging open. Part of me was thrilled that I was adulting well enough to have the ability to help myself AND my kid get something we needed so badly. Another part of me was shocked that I had credit good enough to even be considered a co-signer. And an itty-bitty part of me scared of the responsibility of being a co-signer. Of course I know that Jessie is a good worker which makes her a good earner, but still, there's always that little inkling of worry. But even if she has a bad couple of months, we're still good since the price we got was so good. Granted, it's not the $89 lead-in, but it's not so far above that that I couldn't handle it with my own pay if I ever needed to.
So now I have my car. It sat idle in that driveway for an entire week. I finally decided to break her in by going to get my haircut because I decided that I was going to that event in Santa Clarita. I was scared to death because I hadn't driven anything nearly that far in a lot of years. At least I knew I had reliable transportation and good hair. I had considered taking her out on the freeway and maybe going to the mall for a new top for the event, but the sky was darkening and I didn't want to be out there if we had one of our vicious little storms which had been popping up. I also didn't need to be spending more money on tops when I have plenty. I had just purchased both a car and a new mattress. (Both desperately needed.) The top can wait. The my breaking in of the car wasn't any great shakes.
So, my workday starts at 7am and I live roughly 2 1/2 hours away from Santa Clarita, and that's with Ray driving. I'm not nearly as confident as he, nor do I know the roads as well as he, so I knew damn well it was going to take me more than 2 1/2 hours. Now, if I were to leave the morning of, I'd have to wake up at about 2am to leave by 4am - at the very latest - to get there for 7am. There's a distinct problem with this plan. My night vision sucks. Even with the GPS on my phone telling me what to do, if I can't read the signs until I'm right on top of them, things may end up badly.
Must come up with plan B. My new schedule gets me off of work at 3:45pm, assuming I'm not on a call. If you're on a call, you see it through. There's no question about that. No matter what, you see that call through. This becomes important in a little bit. Plan B was decided upon. I'd drive in the night before and stay at the hotel I stayed at for training. I further planned to pack the night before and when my shift was over, I'd just grab my bag, pack my computer and head out. I also figured this would be a great plan because I'd be going against heavy traffic. LOLOL I do crack myself up.
The night before I passed out in front of the TV and the packing didn't get done. When it crossed my mind at some point between the sofa and the bedroom, I just reminded myself that I do get up obnoxiously early and can easily pack while having my coffee. It was only one night for heaven's sake. Sure nuff, I get up crazy early and I sit on the sofa drinking coffee and feeling completely wiped out. I mean it. Wiped the frack out. The coffee is not helping. I laid my head down and passed out until my alarm went off for 5am. I freshen my coffee and go over my list. Aside from getting the boxes out for my headset and cords and finding the appropriate overnight bag, there's really nothing I can prepack. My little makeup bag is always ready and my little toiletry bag is at the ready also. I can't pack my clothes for the next day yet because that would put them under my computer, making them wrinkle. I don't do irons, so I can't have wrinkles.
And obviously, I can't pack my computer until after my shift ends. So while it's not my favorite thing, I was just going to have to do last-minute packing. Okay, that should have me out the door at about 4...I'm good with 4, it's still light out at 7. I'm good.
I work really hard that day. Not because I had difficult calls. The hard part was keeping my anxiety about making that drive under wraps. I didn't care if the associates I work with knew, but I couldn't allow the guests to hear or sense any tension on my part. I'm supposed to be the soothing support who makes things better whenever she can.
If you know me at all you can only imagine how closely I was watching the clock as the shift was nearing it's end. After my second break, it all became an obsession over the time on the computer. I felt like a death row prisoner awaiting her time. There's not a damn thing you can do about it and that clock just taunts you, counting it down for you.
I think I should mention something very heartwarming and important here. Ray knew how I was feeling. He offered several times to drive me in. I kept saying no and repeating that if I'm to grow at all, I need to learn how to drive those freeways and be more independent. I think he may have thought that there was a possibility of my changing my mind, and the thought did cross, but I was bound and determined to do this.
Okay, so back to that afternoon. I was looking at my last half hour of my shift and the calls were relatively slow. All I needed was for uncomplicated calls to come in. Easy stuff, please. At about the fifteen minute mark when my phone rings. Now as much as I'd love to bore you with all the gory details, I will say that this was not an easy call and I was put in the position of waiting for the requested change to go through even though the caller dropped. I had no choice, the changes were in the process of being made per the guest request and another department was involved, so I couldn't just say "oh well", write the notes and call it done. At the time the caller had dropped it was already 4:20ish. The changes turned out to be a little more complicated than expected and I'd conservatively say I finally logged out at about 4:30. Now I'm nearly an hour off-schedule.
I still have to change my clothes, disconnect the computer, and pack. Full-fledged panic had set in. I text Ray that I need help. As I dress he takes care of packing the computer and cords as well as my two bags and clothes. He's carrying the bag out of the door for me as I finished getting myself ready to go out the door. Pee? check. Adapter thingy for the Bluetooth? check. Phone? check. I get outside and as I plug my phone in and do my GPS thing, Ray is standing in the driveway. (Probably thinking I'm going to change my mind!) Anyway, so I'm starting go down a few roads on instinct and I realize that I'm not hearing my GPS talking to me at all. Obviously there's something wrong. I tell my phone to call Ray and let him know that there's a problem and I need his help. I turn around and head back to the house, it's about the time I'm rounding my corner that I realize that the volume button must have been really low, cause that seemed to be the fix I needed. One more "I'll call you when I get there" to Ray and I'm off.
I discovered something important that night. There is no such thing as driving against the rush hour traffic. It's rush hour on every freeway in both directions, period, end of story. So I'm basically REALLY driving my car for the first time to a place I've never driven myself to before and I have heavy traffic and about four freeways to face. Before I hit the first freeway, I tried but couldn't seem to find how to make music play and get the directions at the same time. I was taught, but I was doing something wrong and frankly, the music was of very little importance at that point in time, I was far more interested in the GPS. It came back to me the next day when I wasn't as frantic.
And you wanna hear something funny...I'm not so sure I would have been as nervous if I'd have been driving my old car. I think part of my tension was making that drive alone for the first time in a brand new leased vehicle. That may have added a little bit of anxiety for me. I usually don't catch myself white knuckling it. There have been times when passengers in the car would mention how tightly I was holding the wheel, and I'd be forced to relax it a bit. But during this drive I was more than aware of how tightly I was gripping the wheel. I also became increasingly aware that my leg muscles were super tense.
I couldn't help but remind myself that this was just one leg of it. I was going to have this trek back the next afternoon during Los Angeles rush hour traffic. I literally haveta go through the LA area -- during rush hour -- to come home the next day. I began to curse myself. In all reality, I couldn't tell you when I was going through the LA area on a bet. Everything was bumper to bumper on the road number I was supposed to be on in the direction I was supposed to be going. Nuff said. But the news makes it sound as though driving through that area is a suicide mission.
One of the fun things of driving in on that night at the time I was dealing with was the sun. My hands are firmly strangling the steering wheel when the road would veer slightly and I'd be getting blinded. I began to rethink not getting the windows tinted. What I would have really enjoyed was to have had someone videotaping me as I drove in and play it on fast-forward just to see how many times I played with the visor throughout the drive. It could become a hand dance, I'm sure. The new "shoulda put a ring on it", or you can just add a shuffle-heel-toe and you've got Broadway.
The drive in to Santa Clarita took about 3 hours 15 minutes. It was very trafficy and a lot of it may have been looky-loos at the recent burn areas and fender-benders. All I knew was I had no idea where I was, that my hands were cramping and that I basically hurt from the waist down.
But I did it. I may have been scared to death the whole time, but there is no disputing that I accomplished it. I got myself there. All I had to do now was to get some dinner and rest before going into the office the next morning before facing the drive home.