9.17.2004

It's a New Post! Surprise!

This week I finally had some quizzes to take in my classes instead of listening to boring lectures for 75 minutes. Two came on the same day and they were both US Government classes. This was Wednesday. The day started off with a bang, I woke up a little late and it takes me 30-45 minutes to get to campus as it is so I was pushing it if I thought I was going to make it on time. Got to campus and found a place to park, which can be really freakin' hard, with 15 minutes until class started when I locked my keys in my car. Right when I shut the door I yelled, "SHIT!" Because I had realized what I had done exactly at the moment I was doing it but had no time to prevent the event from happening.
So there I am standing in the middle of downtown Houston with my car keys sitting on my driver's seat and I need to get to class. I weigh the options of going to class and dealing with the possibility that my car won't be there when I come back in three hours or I call for some help and wait by the car. I chose the latter of the two. Teacher will understand. I see one of those "Call for Help" boxes that some campuses have in case some dumbass of a student does the exact thing I've just done and call the campus police to come and save me from my predicament. The operator says it'll be 15 minutes until someone gets there. Right then I know I'm going to be really late for class.
Officer shows up and asks me if I called about the car with the keys locked inside and I think of saying, "No, I just like to stand out in a parking lot in 90+ degree heat for shits and giggles." I stop myself from doing so, because he has handcuffs. Then he asks me which car it is as I am sitting on the trunk of my car. Again I think, "It's that Blue Dodge Stratus at the end of the aisle Officer. I just thought it would be easier to find me if I sat on this car." I point out the set of keys with the SpongeBob pineapple keychain having a good time on the seat of the car and he gets the slim jim out and goes to work. For the next 35 or 40 minutes. So much for getting to that class and taking the quiz. During the half hour in the parking lot he was able to get the door handle on the inside to move back and forth, normally a car door would open when that is pulled but not the Kosmobile(!), but that was about it. I don't know why but he kept pulling on it thinking that maybe he wasting getting the handle to move all the way. He put all of his weight into it and after he saw the handle was perpendicular to the car door I think he got the idea that it wasn't going to work. Needless to say, the keys were still in the car. The Officer must have felt sorry for me because he offered me a lift up to the building. That was the first, and hopefully only, time I have been in a cop car.
Now, by the time I got to class I would be an hour late but I thought I had better go talk to the Professor and explain what had happened hoping that he'd understand my predicament and let me do a retake or something. The class was in the middle of the quiz when I walked in, surely I would be able to take the quiz since they were working on it at that moment. "Talk to me later." That's all I got. Luckily for me I had the same Professor for my next US Goverment class in just 30 minutes from then. I sat through the next class trying to pay attention to the lecture before we started the quiz but my mind kept going back to my car. I took the quiz, but because my mind was on my car I couldn't think very well. My thoughts were scattered on the paper like a child's homework after his or her dog ate it. I sat around until everyone had turned in their quiz and went to talk to the Prof about the quiz I just missed. He let me take it right then and there. Unfortunately my mind was now also on the clock because I was supposed to meet my brother in front of the building with the spare key to my car. I flat out bombed this quiz. I don't even know if I spelled my name correctly on it.
The day wasn't over there. My brother showed up with the key, my car was still there when I got to the parking lot (somewhat to my surprise) and we started on our way home during rush hour traffic. Keegan's first experience with the horror known as rush hour in Houston. We stop at Jack in the Box for dinner and that's when I realize that I can't get out of my car. First I couldn't get in and now I can't get out. I yell at Keegan standing at his car parked next to mine and he comes over and just opens the door. Thanks to all the pulling and tugging with the slim jim the cop broke the inner latch on my door. The only way to get out is to roll down the window and open it from the outside. At least that latch still works. I stopped by the Campus Police Station and tried to find out if they'd pay for the busted door, but the Chief was out for the rest of the day and I'm supposed to call him back tomorrow.
So the plans for this weekend are to: call the Chief, go see Garden State, and find a job. If I can get just one of those things accomplished... I'll have one of those things accomplished.

2 comments:

Kosmo said...

you're telling me. i smashed dan's headlight in with my explorer's car door, that thing that happened with that other car door, and now this...
man. i am the bane of car doors.

Kosmo said...

you're telling me. i smashed dan's headlight in with my explorer's car door, that thing that happened with that other car door (i can't remember specifics but i know it was a car door), and now this...
man. i am the bane of car doors.