Running Late

Wednesday March 17, 2011
4:35 PM

Krissy hops in her shinny grey 2006 Nissan Altima, rush to turn the ignition, and bolts out the driveway. "Ok. So, if it's 4:35 now and I have to be at the restaurant at 5:00 then, I can make it on time if I go 80 miles per hour." Speeding down N. Lakeside Drive, Krissy is sure not to run into any parked or moving cars. Being extra careful, she darts her eyes from left to right being aware of any kids on the street. She makes it on to El Dorado Circle without any incident. Only upon her exit she sees a car driving dangerously close to her in her rear view mirror. "My bad." She says out loud, as if the people behind her could hear her apologies. She gets to the Rancho El Dorado exit and speeds to make a turn onto Maricopa Highway.

"I don't understand why this keeps happening." Krissy thought to herself. "I can't be late anymore. Its bad enough that I was late on my first training day because I thought I was supposed to be there a half hour later than I actually was supposed to be. If I'm late again, they're gonna look at me like I'm the 'late black girl' and I can't have that." Being sensitive to her own thoughts she pushes her right foot down on the gas petal going even faster. A few miles up the two lane 16 mile stretch, she runs into a problem. Day drivers. People that want to cruse and have no reguard for the people behind them. "I've been driving down this road for three years. If I don't know anything, I know how to get people out my way." She thought. First she thought she'd be patient and go with the flow. But after three minutes of the not getting anywhere 'slow' she put the matter into her own hands. Switching lanes, flashing her high beams, and tailgating always works so she threw in a combination of the three and less than five minutes later she broke from the pack giving her enough time to get on to I-10 before 4:50.

"DAMN!". Looking from the overpass, Krissy, sees a backup on the freeway. "I forgot they got the 202 and Chandler [Boulevard] closed for that HOV (high-occupancy vehicle lane) construction." Thinking of an alternate route she came up short. Looking at the clock looking back at her. 4:50 is what the clock reads. She screams in frustration. "I ain't never gonna get there in time!" Debating on if she should call to tell management she was gonna be late or just go through the motions was like being between a rock and a hard place. She decides to go through the motions. "Ray Road is just three miles away. I can get there in time." The freeway was on gridlock but something told her she'll make it. And she stopped stressing.

4:55 PM
Krissy finally made it to the light at the Ray Road exit ramp. She's three cars behind the pavement and all she can say out loud in a jokingly way is, "Go-go-go. Go-go-go. Go-go." imulating Ben Steller in Meet the Parents when he was repeating "Bomb-bomb-bomb. Bomb-bomb. Bomb-bomb." to the flight attendent to the cars ahead of her that seemed not to have any concept of time. She thought, "Yes there's a red light but you can turn! Go-go-go. Go-go. Go-go." Still being anxious she shouts out, "Come on. You could've turned five times already." to the three cars ahead of her. Three minutes pass. "OMG! Why is this light so looooooong!?" She felt like she was sitting on the exit ramp forever. "What makes this so bad." She thought, "is that I work right there! All I have to do is get on to Ray Road but these people act like they don't know how to turn!"

4:58 PM
She made it on to Ray Road. However, there's another light in her way. "Go-go-go. Go-go. Go-go" is all she kept repeating to the cars ahead of her laughing to keep her stress level down. "So close but yet so far." she whined. Then, finally, green. She sped to make a left turn and she sped to make another left. Once in the bank parking lot next to the restaurant she finally feels a slight sense of relief. Until..."Who the hell is that and why are they following me? Maybe they work for the restaurant. Wait. No they don't. They're old." Krissy rushes to get out of her car. The people in the blue vehicle role down their window. "Hi. Could you tell us how to get to Dick's Sports?" Krissy smiles and says, "Sure" to the elderly couple. But at the same time she's a little creepd out that they followed her into a vacant parking lot. She thought, "What the hell. How long have they been following me?" While telling them the directions to Dick's Sports, "You just have to get back on to the freeway" pointing to I-10 "and go up one street and it'll be there to your right." Talking to the elderly couple seemed to be taking a lifetime because they wouldn't stop asking questions. "Can't they see I'm in a state of emergency?!" All the while, she was thinking of when her cousion, Yvette, doing a internet search on 'Dicks' two years ago thinking she was doing a web search on 'Dick's Sports'. She ended up with something much more if you catch my drift. After telling the elderly couple how to get to Warner she ran like she was on the high school track team to the Take Out door. "I'm here! I'm here! I'm here!" she says to the building. "I'm here." She says to the Take Out door. She runs around the corner to clock in. "I'm here." She says to the time clock. "I'm here."

5:01 PM
Made it just in time. "Wooo! Never again."