Parking Wars

This weekend was one for the records books. I'm trying to put a positive spin on things, but after the weekend I had, I'm just glad it's Monday. Let's start out with the positive....Guess who's going back to Pebble Beach?!?!?!?! That's right, it's me! I received a post card in the mail a few weeks back and remembered all the permanent employees talking about how fun this one AT&T Tournament was. Since I really only have two part time jobs, I thought I would look further into the situation. Come to find out, not only am I being flown out there, but they want me to come out early to interview for a full time spot out there!!! How awesome! The most recognizable golf course in the world wants little ole me to come out there and work. Now, for those of you following my dog day care process at home, this is not stopping that dream. I will still be pursuing that, only now, I will have some financial security that doesn't have me picking up dog poop for 5 hours a day. Oh, and it gets me out of my parents house, which by the way is driving me nuts. We all know how amazing the stories were from me when I was out there before, can you just imagine what this trip will bring? Thank God I won't have to run into Captain Poop his Pants and his Mom Redneck Rita. Oh, I'm so excited for this opportunity, I can just feel my life changing already.


So, now that the good is out of the way, let's focus on the rest of the weekend, because let me be honest, this Pebble Beach information came early evening on Friday. Ahhh Saturday, a day that will go down in the record books. It all seemed normal when I woke up. I was excited that the only thing I really had going on was that I had to work from 2-6. I mean, anyone can do anything for four hours, right? And even that was going smoothly. The dogs were behaving, there weren't too many terrible dogs, so it seemed like this was an easy night for me. As five o'clock rolled around, my "manager" told me to start crating up my dogs for the night. Let me go on record by saying that technically we aren't supposed to leave work until 8 to allow the dogs extra time to play before they go in their crates, so five o'clock is EXTREMELY early for dogs to go down for the night. Especially if they aren't supposed to be out of their crates in the morning until 8:30. That's a really long time for a dog to stay in a crate and I hate when this guy asks me to put these dogs up so early. But, I'm a doer so I did. But then I realized that he was just crating these smaller dogs so that he could bring the bigger ones in. Which made absolutely no sense, nor was it fair to the dogs to allow them to have to sit in a crate while watching the other dogs play. So I spoke up and said, you know what Chris, just leave them out, I'll watch them all play. It's only fair. Well, only one dog was left in the crate because Chris was trying to fix a screw that had fallen off. Now, please keep in mind that the dog in the crate was an adoption dog, not trained, and not fixed. So all you animal lovers out there know that this dog was a wee bit hyper. Can't help it, doesn't know any different. So, as a hyper dog, he started jumping. He wanted so much attention, he couldn't even stand it, when out of the blue, Chris had had enough and smack the dog on the head so hard it yelped. I was standing there in shock. I had to immediately grab my dog and walk away from the situation. This is NOT the type of place that I want to work, nor would I EVER recommend that anyone I know send their dogs to this establishment. How dare you put a hand on another persons animal! How dare you touch something that is so helpless and so excited to be around people that he has to jump to get close to you! Clearly I am still very upset with this whole thing. And to make matters worse, he showed no remorse. He actually said to me, "guess he won't be jumping up anymore" and laughed. I simply said, yeah, because you beat the shit out of him, and walked away. The very next morning I ended up calling the owner because my intention was to quit, but before doing that I had to let the owner know what was going on in his establishment. I've met this guy a total of one time in three months and that was for five minutes. If this were my place, I would want someone to tell me what one of my "managers" was going. Our conversation ended up being 45 minutes and within it he offered me a manager role. I said I would have to think about it, and I will. So, we'll see what happens tomorrow when I show up to work and see if this guy is still there. If he is, I'm walking out and they can deal with the repercussions of it all. I'm at this job to be an advocate for animals, not to blame them for things they don't know better about.



And then we go from bad to worse... I was so excited to go out to dinner with a friend of mine. I hadn't seen her in such a long time and even longer since she went out by herself. We have a wonderful meal and decide to go have a nightcap to end our evening. We pull up to a bar and park at our neighborhood Rite Aid. There were no signs, that I could see telling us that we couldn't park there, so we did. Head into the bar for a few cocktails and around 11:30 head out into the.....HOLY SHIT WHERE IS MY CAR!?!?!?!???!?! You know that feeling when you've already had a bad day and you think to yourself, what else could possibly go wrong? Have your car towed! So, we call the number on the sign, which was apparently outside the parking lot, only to discover that the "nice" lady on the phone didn't have our cars on their lot. To make matters worse, apparently the lot where are cars were, didn't have a phone. So, essentially, we were screwed. With the lot address in our phone GPS, we try to hail down a cab. I'm going to go ahead and say that this cab driver was a God thing because we were passed by about 14 cabs before one actually stopped. Of course he didn't take credit cards, but he was willing to drive us around to try and find this place. My initial thought is why, wouldn't he, he's a cab driver. So, we follow the GPS to a location which happened to be in the middle of a river. No way, can't be correct. So we turn right and go down a very scary ally to a Hertz dealership where the security guy came out and told us he had no idea where we were trying to go. This is when I was starting to have to pee. I could probably only last a few more minutes before I might explode. So, we head up to the local gas station, because let's be honest, I'm not going to last much longer and if anyone is going to know the area, it would be someone that works at a gas station, right? Well, I was half right. Peeing was instant relief which bought us a few more hours of time. However, the attendant was a little less helpful. Not only was his English a little rusty, but his directions were even worse. He had no idea where we were trying to, so off we go to call the "sweet" little lady at A1 towing. Thankfully this time, she picks up. By now she has recognized Jenny's voice and is beginning to get irritated with us because clearly her directions have worked up to this point. She "politely" gives Jenny a different address because "if you're putting the address into the GPS, you have to put in this one". OMG, you have to be kidding me. Did you think we were walking there? However, low and behold, IT'S THE SAME DAMN SPOT WE'VE CIRCLED FOR THE LAST 45 MINUTES! It was as we were making our 4th turn past Big Ben and Parliament that our cab driver spots a tow truck with some cars on the bed. Being WAY more clear headed than Jenny and I put together, he decides to follow this maniac. This guy is weaving all over a parking lot and driving like a complete moron. I honestly can't believe that we're following him as bad as he's driving. He finally pulls over in front of an IHOP (well of course the poor soul has to eat), where he hops out of his truck, HIGH as a kite and we roll down the window to see if he knows where this place is. He is a tow truck driver so if anyone is going to know.....oh for the love of God, this bozo doesn't know either?!?!? WTF! Did someone just take my car? At this point it would have been easier to call the cops to report my car stolen than to continue through this mess. Although "helpful Hal" did point us in some direction, we're just not sure where it was. So, without much option, we followed where he told us to go. "You go down this one road here (main highway), than take this first left, I don't know the name of the street (major intersection), take your first right by the bus terminal, and take it all the way down where it ends on Balls street". Okay, now I know he's making shit up. There is no street in Crystal City named Balls street and to be honest, if I wanted to mess with people, I think that would be an extremely creative way of how to do it. I just wasn't in the mood. At this exact moment, I'm starting to get really pissed, really tired, and really worried that I'm going to have to take this cab home, wake my parents up to try to help me find my car. So, we head down following the directions. We still haven't stopped at an ATM to get cash and since we actually knew where we were, we decided now was as good a time as any. So, Jenny hops out of the car and the cab driver and I begin to have our heart to heart. He starts telling me how bad he feels for us. That last week he was robbed, at gun point, in his cab, then his cab was actually towed the same exact day. I felt that I was either drunk and hearing this story incorrectly, which I really don't believe I was, or this guy had the worst possible luck. But through all that he continues to tell me that it was a God thing. He believe that God was either saving him from something worse that could have happened to him that night, or building him up for something wonderful that is going to happen to him in the future. My mouth was literally agape when Jenny walked back into the cab. This wonderful human being had been driving the two of us around for the past hour listening to us bitch about our problems and he was held at gunpoint. Kudos my man. My problems are anything compared to that. So, we continue our journey, following the half ass directions we received from the tow truck driver, when we never came upon Balls St. Shocking, I know. So, we turn back around and head to the hotel where maybe we could find a desk clerk or another cab driver who might know where this place is. We pull up and find a guy sitting in his cab right outside the hotel. Another shock, HE has no idea where this place is. Now, our cab driver is calling the tow place. Luckily we get our "friend" on the phone again and in the nicest way, he starts asking for directions. Clearly, this lady has had a long night and not in the mood to deal with the language barrier she is coming across with him. So, he hands me the phone and I start talking. Although a majority of my life has been spent in customer service, I do not expect someone on the other end of the phone to EVER be rude to me at 1:30 in the morning, when I've been driving around for an hour and a half trying to find my car on the BS address you gave us. So, I simply asked for directions. In the middle of her giving me the address again, I simply said, please don't give me the address again. We've been driving around for half the night....when I was cut off "If you want directions, you need to shut up!" I was floored. Not even my own family speaks to me that way. The edge in which I was teetering on had been decided. I am now full on pissed at this C U iN Toledo. And I HATE that word, but in reality, it's the only one that fits for her. This grown-up just told me to shut up, when I'm trying to find my car. I'm sorry, YOU took this from me. YOU! And I've been driving around this city, in which I lived a majority of my life and have no idea where you are. Thankfully, she handed the phone over to someone that knew where we were and got us to the actual lot. The one lane, dark, deserted road in which this place was located was only missing fog and the scary music for it to be my complete nightmare location. There is NO way, on a double dog dare, that I would EVER go down this street by myself, at night. I know I can be dramatic, but there is a reason scary movies exist. So, our extremely kind, saint of a cab driver, drives us up to the lot, which was monitored by a Biggest Loser contestant in a very small shack, that I was convinced was an outhouse at one point. He waits for us to get our cars and never even turned the meter on. This guy was and is an amazing human being. Jenny still gave him $60, which will never be enough for what this man did for us.

The moral of the story is this kids: No matter how bad you think your day can get, if you haven't had a gun pulled on you, it's a pretty good day!