So as usual, I was running on fumes. On my way home from work, I had every intention of stopping at a gas station before getting on the freeway to pick up Tayshaun.
But on my walk to my parking structure, I noticed that Shalyse and Madison had called me....within 5 minutes of each other. And being that I turn off my phone volume at work, I didn't notice the calls until the end of the day. Since I rarely get phone calls from the girls, I figured this call had to be of some importance, otherwise, I would have gotten my usual, 10-words or less, text. So as I walked to my parking area, I called and Shalyse answered her phone and explained to me that, at her regularly scheduled appointment, with her kidney specialist, she learned that her doctor had evaluated, from her regularly scheduled tests, that her kidneys were no longer functioning at a healthy level. He then, nonchalantly (i might add), suggested that she gear up for another kidney transplant in the next three months.
Well, I'm leaving this topic for another posting. But needless to say, when I got off the phone, gasoline wasn't necessarily of upmost importance in my mind. In fact, I completely forgot about it, as it was much more important to find a frikkin' napkin or tissue to wipe away the tears from my eyes before I crashed into someone.
Well, after giving myself a long talking to and pacifying myself a bit, I remembered that I was actually driving. I checked my headlights to make sure they were on, that my seatbelt was on, and that's when I noticed my gaslight was still ON.....from yesterday. Dang it!
I happened to notice this irritating, but helpful, light on i-80 westbound, just after passing the i-215 ramp. So I'm on my way to Bangerter or the airport and neither have a close gasoline station. I checked the light again and convinced myself that I've seen it this low before. So I'm sure I'll make it to Elena's.
So the gasoline light is completely forgotten as my eyes began to tear up again and I call my mother. She, however, isn't able to reach her phone right now because she's either away from her desk or on another call. So I just cry to myself. As I approach 3100 South, I decide that Tayshaun nor Elena should see me upset so I compose myself, again.
Luckily when I get to Elena's, Keenan is watching Tayshaun and neither he nor Tayshaun barely look at me. With a cheerful and fake voice, I ask Tayshaun to get into the car and buckle up. Now my mind is back onto "things that need to get done"...what to feed Tayshaun? And then it dawns on me that I HAVE to find a gas station.
So I drive towards 3500 South where I have my pick of two gas stations, each across from each other. So as I drive up, I don't look down at my gas gauger because I REALLY don't want to know how far I've pushed the limit. Since Conoco is the first station and about 2 cents more a gallon than the Holiday station, I, of course, ignore that I'm almost out of gas and wait patiently at the right light. It's now about 5:45pm and LOTs of traffic is behind me waiting for the same red light to change. When all of a sudden, my car gets the shivers. F - U - C - *!!!!!! Yup, I run out of gas and can't drift because I'm at a complete stop with a car to my right, left, and behind me. So I put on my emergency lights and wait for the light to turn green...and then I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
Hmmmm....I'm still waiting.
...and waiting. Oh did I mention that I told Tayshaun that I ran out of gas and now he's whimpering like we're going to be killed or something. It probably didn't help that I said, "hmmm, what the hell am I going to do now?"
so.......I'm still waiting. And there we go, the light turns green. And now I step out of my car and kind of look around like "can somebody help me, here?"
Needless to say, there's A LOT OF HONKING going on around me. Um, did I mention that I'm in frikkin' West Valley? The same place that when I do go into a convenience store, young men will let a door slam in a woman's or a child's face before he thinks about holding it open for anyone. Anywayzzzz, so finally a young woman and younger guy comes running up to my car and I explain that I've run out of gas if they could help me push the car across the intersection at the next green light. And they agree to. THANK YOU!
In the meantime, many vehicles are going around me and most of them were not able to make it through the green light before it turned red again. Oh, and did I mention how long the last red light took to turn green? I don't blame them for being furious for having to wait for the light again. 'Cause my stomach was growling too.
So Tayshaun is still whimpering in the back seat and says, "What are we going to do Mom?" I said, "Don't worry babe, we've got a couple of people who are going to help us.", and I'm looking to my right as I'm talking to him and that's when I noticed this BITCH in the vehicle to the right of me imitating me and throwing her arms around in an exaggerated motion like "I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO DO" and she's got this frown on her face like she's about ready to cry and she's moving her mouth but I can't read her lips because she's probably jabbering in Spanish....but I got the jest of what she trying to do.
If there weren't so many cars behind me and if I hadn't already made them wait through the last red light, I was ready to walk over to her car and knock on her window to ask her if there was something she needed to say to me in English. But...Tayshaun had already heard me call her a Mother F***ing biatch and I didn't need him to witness me giving that lady a black eye. So I just dared her to look at me...but she wouldn't. Thank godness the light turned green and she sped off.
So me and the other two people pushed my car across the intersection fine but couldn't get it across to the east side of the street nor into a parking area because of the traffic. So we just pushed it to the curb so I could run across the street and get a can of gas to start the car again.
So I thanked my helpers and calmed down Tayshaun and we walked over to the gas station. At bout this time, I noticed Madison texting me if I've found out what her blood type is yet. AM I HOME YET? Um, that's a big fat, NO!!!!!!
Well, when I get in the station, I ask the attendant how much gasoline I'll need for the container and he asks if I want to borrow theirs instead of buying one. So he and another attendant go in the back and look, and look, and look, as the line behind me is backing up again at the cashier area. Did I mention that it's quitting time and everyone behind me has a case, or six-pack of beer and other items to purchase. And I'm not kidding. Well, the attendants make it back witha container and I'm hoping no one has ripped them off at the pumps while they've been trying to find it. Anyways, so they're both struggling to take off the nozzle so I can fill it with gasoline. And the line behind is getting longer. Finally one of the attendants asked the other if he'll help the customers at the other register.
So I'm thinkg if they're having this much trouble opening the damn thing, then I certainly won't be able to close it so I tell them that I'll just purchase the one I had brought up to the cash register. Well I thought I better be safe than sorry (and the people were already used to waiting in line behind me) so I tried to take the cap off the one I was purchasing and with my long fingernails, I couldn't. So I asked for some assistance. Well, the attendant couldn't take it off either. So I suggested that he cut off the plastic thingy attached to the cap and handle. After he did that, the gas bottle was ready to be filled.
So I got my damn 2 gallons of gas and walked across the street. Did I mention that I have EXTRA long fingernails that were supposed to be done last week. In fact, my middle fingernail has NO acryllic at all. Nevertheless, I put that frikkin nozzle in my gas tank, and I'll be damned if there was more gas spilling on the street than going in my tank. So I take the frikkin thingy out and squeeze down where it says "secure the nozzle" and I push where it say "push" and I pull down where it says "pull down" and try it again. Well, the damn thing is still having spillage all over the place including my hand, wrist, and acryllic-less fingernail. And then I realize that I'm in West Valley and practically in the middle of the street so I figure that I have enough drips of gasoline to make it across the street to the station. I'm hoping that I won't blow up my car when I turn the ignition on with the spillage down the side of my car and roadside.
I get in and turn the ignition and my car kinda jiggles and starts, really weakly. So I look behind me and there's all that 6 o'clock traffic coming towards me....so I wait. Well, by the time the traffic clears, I softly put my foot on the gas pedal and my car kinda farts and shuts down. F-U-C-*~!
So I get back out. Now it's slightly dark. Did I mention I'm in West Valley where men don't open the doors for women/children and Mexican ladies try to belittle a fellow-driver whose run out of gas. God I hope that woman blows a tire....in the winter....in a deserted area.
Anyways, I finally get the frikkin' bottle car secured so that it drips instead of pours on the pavement and it pours instead of drips in my gas tank.
And FINALLY I drive across the street to the gas station.
Oh, shoot! I forgot to post what I was thankful today.
