Delayed

Ok, sorry about the...well...falling off the face of the earth. Yeah. Camp will do that to you. Speaking of, camp has been pretty awesome. I enjoy working with the kids, and most of the staff are cool (and some of the ones who aren't cool are only uncool some of the time). I'm a little bummed about the coming (as in...in 11 hours away, holy crap) session because they split up our unit from last session. Cricket, Pink, and I really enjoyed working together, but apparently that didn't mean as much to the powers that be as it did to us. I'm pleased, though, with the people who I'll be working with...it won't be the same.

As promised to Andrew, and as just a fun story for the rest of you...on the way back from camp last week, my car started acting funny. As I was getting on to 75, a light came on, and my car wouldn't shift into fourth gear. I coasted down to the next exit, pulled into the nearest parking lot, and turned the car off. Upon searching in the manual, I found out that the light, a yellow AT, meant there was a problem with the transmission, and that I should take it to the nearest dealer. I called my father, who said, upon learning that the light was off when I turned the car back on, that I should see how far I could get. We agreed that, so long as I didn't go faster than 55 and therefore didn't need to be in fourth gear, I could probably make it home.

And so I got back on 75, cruise control set to 55. If you ever want an exciting highway experience, go 55 in a 70 mph zone. I kept my flashers on as an apology and a vague explanation in hopes that people wouldn't be pissed at me for going so slow. For the most part, it worked. And, for the most part, so did our plan. I was nervous, especially when it began to rain and even more so when it got dark, but things were going well. That is, until I merged onto 285. I'd just gotten on to 285 when the car, disregarding the cruise control, began to slow down. The rpm's redlined, and the car started to shake. I pulled over as quickly as I could and turned the car off.

Feeling brave and not really comfortable with being stuck between four lanes of fast traffic and a concrete wall, I asked my car if it had any magic left and merged back into traffic. The answer was a resounding no, and the Mazda and I made our way to the outer edge of an on-ramp.

Apparently, I knew exactly what to do when broken down on the side of 285 on a dark and rainy night. Without panic or even thought, I locked the car doors and called my father, and began figuring out where I was. I got lucky, because I could just barely make out the exit sign from the east-bound side, so I was able to tell him, within about 100 yards, my location. He started heading my direction and I called Mazda Roadside, the number to which had been programed into my phone for such an occasion. They made sure I was ok and put me on the list to be towed. Once I'd hung up the phone, I started piling my stuff into the passenger's seat so that when dad came to get me I'd have it all ready.

Then I shook and cried a little. Not for anything in particular, but it's kind of how I handle things. It's like, once I knew things were going to be fine it was ok to freak out. This lasted about a minute, but it was nice, in a strange way. Dad showed up maybe ten minutes after that, and sat with me until the tow truck came.

Turns out, the transmission was burned all to hell. The guy said the only other mazda three he'd seen even close to mine had almost 100,000 miles on it (keep in mind, this model didn't come out until 2004). I had just over 15,600. This was not my fault. More importantly, this was under warranty. They gave me a loaner car for the week, and I got to trade it back for mine today. In addition to feeling confident that I can handle myself in high stress situations, I really appreciate my car. The Mazda 6 they gave me was just weird. My car is awesome.

I will take this moment to say that if any of the drivers reading this don't have some sort of roadside assistance, he/she should get it. It's worth it.

There was going to be more to this post, but it's already pretty long and I need to go to bed. So goodnight. Maybe I'll find the time to write you from camp. Speaking of which, my address for the next 13 days:

Franklin
Camp Misty Mountain
490 Lake Marvin Rd, NE
Armuchee, GA 30105

Mail is love.