Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Car Wash

Post Edit: I just want to clarify that this is in fact an automatic car wash we are talking about here. Read on.

Let me set the stage for the story I am about to tell that took place last Thursday evening:

As you can see from my last post we are already out one car (which is currently being fixed and that is another story of it's own).

I am pregnant.

It was late.
I was tired.
And my car was dirty.

Got it?

I was just getting ready to drive home from a long, particularly challenging day of teaching (teaching is hard). I got to my car and realized that I still hadn't made time to drive through the 5 minute car wash. Every night that week I had left work too late to even take an extra 5 minutes to get home! Terrible. Thursday night however, I was determined to make time. I thought that if nothing else positive came out of that day, at least I would go home with a clean car.

I pulled up to the machine.
I rolled down my window.
I paid my 5 dollars.
I pulled forward.

But as I pushed the button to roll up the window all I heard instead was a very disconcerting grinding noise. I tried again. The window was absolutely not rolling back up. In fact it was sinking farther down!

My mind raced to solve this problem, but after a few short seconds (and after the window sank all the way down into the door) I gave up. I could come up with no way to fix the situation and was too tired to do anything but wait to be rescued. I hung my head in defeat as I sat there pointed toward the car wash with my window down.

Then came the car wash man. Noting my distress and with a hint of concern he asked, "Are you okay?" With a shaky voice trying to keep myself somewhat composed I told him that my window was stuck. He tried a few car wash man tricks like having me turn the car off and back on a couple of times, but it was all to no avail. He too had to admit defeat and moved a cone so I could turn out of the car wash lane and get a refund for the car wash I never got.

Funny? Yes.

Hysterical even. I was honestly chuckling to myself on the inside, but all that came out was a day worth of bottled up emotion in the form of unstoppable tears.

As I drove away I called Justin and immediately lost what composure I had. I sobbed the whole way home with the wind blowing in my face and five extra one dollar bills in my purse.

5 comments:

Caryn Allen said...

Hahaha yes, it's hilarious, but when you're pregnant, those things just aren't funny. You can't help it. I probably would've cried even if I wasn't pregnant. Hang in there, girl!

Elisabeth (and Tyler) said...

Oh, Crystal!! You have so many trials.

Joshua and Rachel said...

Oh Crystal that is terrible and a little funny. I probably would have cried too.

Dani said...

I would have cried too! Tired + pregnant + any minor setback = tears.

Alicia said...

You haven't suffered enough!! Nice to know that even cute, married, pregnant teachers have bad days too. :)