I nearly had a heart attack last night. Seriously.
Our office holiday party was last night. Because our office is located NOT NEAR my house, it was a good 30 plus minute drive to the party. I picked up Geertje and her husband, Ben. Good thing too because it ended up snowing during the entire party!
The party was nice. The food was great and everyone seemed to have a great time!
I dropped G & B off at their place around 11:15 pm and started my journey home.
Nearly 2 (or more?) miles from home, I heard my car making a funny noise near the back passenger side. Then the car started vibrating.
Flat tire.
In the middle of the night.
While it was snowing.
In the middle of nowhere. Literally. Pitch dark.
After a couple of drinks at the holiday party.
I did what any stupid, yet sensible young lady in my position would do. I continued driving. At that point, I figured that I would risk ruining my rim in exchange for getting home safely.
I can down the giant hill to my town (river town) and stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill and lo and behold our friendly law enforcement was sitting at the gas station waiting for someone to break the law.
Or drive by with an OBVIOUS flat tire.
I made my turn and immediately parked on the side of the road as she swept in behind me with lights flashing.
She comes to my window:
Me: Hi. I know I have a really, really flat tire but it was the middle of the night and it's snowing and to be honest, I didn't want to get stuck on the side of the road by myself.
Her: It's really flat.
Me: I know! It happened a couple of miles back but I was so close to home I had to try to get home!
Her: You know that's really bad for the rim, right?
Me: Yes.
Her: Can I see your registration, license and insurance?
Me: Yes! *start digging in a panic into the glove compartment for said documents - can't find registration - start to panic more*
Her: *looks at license then at me* Have you been drinking?
Me: Yes, I had a couple of drinks at our holiday party, which is where I have been all night?
Her: How long ago was that?
Me: The party was about 5 hours long. I guess a couple of hours then.
Her: Is that open? *pointing to wine bottle in passenger seat that my bosses gave us as presents that I COMPLETELY FORGOT WAS THERE*
Me: No! *grabbing bottle* It was a gift from my boss!!
Her: Can you recite the alphabet from A to Z?
Me: The alphabet? *thinking to myself that she's going to make me recite the damn alphabet BACKWARDS while standing on my head*
Her: Yes.
Me: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST....*pause* UVWXYZ. *applause in my head*
Her: Well, let me check this out. You don't need to drive on this tire. I'll be right back.
Me: *begin gathering my things including the wine bottle*
I get out of the car as she's coming back.
Her: Come take a look at this tire. *we walk to look at the badly mutilated tire*
Me: I realize that it seems stupid that I drove on it, but I've been stuck on the side of the road with a flat for hours before and I was just scared of getting stuck in the dark without help.
Her: Well, I can drive you home.
Me: Oh no! I can walk! It's only two blocks!!
Her: It's no problem!
Me: Oh! I'll walk!! It's not snowing anymore!!
Her: Do you know what kind of tire you'll need? Here, let me write it down for you. *after I give her a look of obvious stupidity on how to find what tire I need*
Me: *taking the piece of paper from her little notebook* Thanks!
Her: Take care.
Me: * walks off swiftly in ginormous stiletto heels and call Mom - God was surely looking down on me tonight!*
So I walked home! Who wants to ride a police car home after nearly having a heart attack thinking I would get a DUI? I didn't drink much: two or three drinks within 6 hours that also included a large dinner (fantastic dinner, mind you), but I'm not a big girl!
The officer was very helpful. I'm so glad.
The good news is that Andrea's husband, Joe, came and helped me (okay - he did ALL the work) put the spare tire on the car. The spare tire is located UNDERNEATH the car, so he had to crank it down and crawl under the back of the car to get to it, making me even more happy about my decision to keep driving. The spare was HORRIBLE. I drove 20 miles to a Walmart (after calling to make sure they had the tire) and they changed it. Lucky for me, the rim was steel and not aluminum and was hardly even harmed in my excursion home.
Thank goodness for good friends and understanding cops!
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