Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
The following is a true story of a day in the life of your friendly-neighborhood radio DJ.
I left a few minutes later than I should, as usual. You see, I’m not the greatest at getting out of the house—at any hour—and usually wind up multi-tasking and rushing. But I always make it to where I’m going, somehow!
I race to the car and press the automatic door opener on the key fob. Not working. Open door with key. Car does not start. Try again a few more times to make sure I am not imagining things. It doesn’t work. No wonder the key fob didn’t work either. I just got a new battery about two years ago, what the…?
Last night, I parked my car across from the back way behind my place, magically also across the street from the mechanic I use for emergencies. Note to self: Call mechanic. I leave the car and start walking East toward the train while looking for a cab. Yay for options in the City of Chicago!
The cab shows up before I get to the train, whoo-hoo! 10-15 minutes down side streets and Lake Shore Drive…plenty of time to make it dowtown in an automobile.
I turn on my cell just in case I need to call in late to work if there’s traffic (there usually isn’t by this time, which is now about 9:30am). But it’s my show. It starts at 10. I have a whole system. Can’t be late.
The phone voicemail alert dings. Who on Planet Earth is calling me before 10am? I don’t normally have the phone on at this hour.
The message is from a lady named Bing at my new dentist’s office, saying they can magically fit me in this weekend instead of the one they had set me up with, a month from now. (If you knew what difficulty I’ve had finding a new dentist on my new insurance since my family dentist retired last year, you’d know what a neat twist of fate this is!) Called them to confirm. Yay for on-the-go scheduling on cell phones, and yay for Bing, too. Still in the cab.
Next I call Andy, my friendly-neighborhood mechanic, and say the car is conveniently right across from his shop, and would he mind taking it over and checking it out? “Su-rre,” he says, in whatever accent that is. Andy’s a little expensive but yay for Andy, too; he’s good. “Ver did you leave da keys?”
“Oh. Yeah. They’re in my hand. I’ll stop by later.” Oops. Thank goodness it isn’t Wednesday: there’s no street-sweeping scheduled on my block here in the city today. My 9-year-old car, whose age is starting to show but which I love anyway and just had re-painted, won’t get towed while I’m gone.
The cab drops me off in front of the Prudential building, as I’m finishing powdering my nose, at 9:40, right around the time I usually get from the parking garage to the radio station. Whew! Plenty of time to tell the story of the busiest 25 minutes in history to my boss and gather some “news I can use” for my show.
We’re both laughing—my boss mainly because he knows about my “Adventures with Dentists” search. “Life threw you a huge hanging curve ball this morning and you still have a smile on your face!!” I was sweating off the makeup I had just put on, in this cute skirt thing I decided to put on today—so, not a day you want to be sweating—but whatever.
Sometimes I rock, I must say. It’s all good.
Good thing I finally made it to work. Now that I was there, as my boss, said, I could get some rest!
Musical selections for today: “Manic Monday,” the Bangles; “A Day in the Life,” the Beatles; “Feeling Groovy,” Harper’s Bizarre
**********************************
Epilogue
My show ends at 3pm, as you might know, and I had an appointment at 4pm. Had to take a bus from downtown all the way to Irving Park Road. No big deal, got there right on time. I rock. Again.
Then I had to walk home. Now, it’s been a beautiful day. This whole mini-crisis could have been worse, had it happened during rain or snow. So I walked. In my aforementioned cutesy skirt thing. And with cute skirts go cute shoes, right? Walked nearly two miles in strappy sandals. (I know…it’s not “two miles, uphill, barefoot in the snow,” but still.)
Sure, I could have taken a cab, but a) it was warm and breezy so it felt good to be outside, and b) I needed to stop for more cash thanks to this morning’s adventure. Home was just a few more blocks from there, so I sucked it up and walked. The walking-distances-in-strappy-sandals-with- sore-feet was probably the worst part of the entire day, considering. Not really a bad day at all, which is the irony of the whole thing.
Andy’s mechanic dudes came across the street this evening to jump-start my car and move it over to the shop to work their magic before closing up.
The engine would not turn over. Not a sound. “What do you think?” I said.
“What do I think?” Dude #1 said. He reached back in on the driver’s side and twisted a knob.
I may rock in a crisis (actually, the city of Chicago rocks, with so many different modes of transport to aid me in it. But this one totally could have been avoided.
Guess which genius got a new battery because she left her lights on, last night?
