Bees, and spiders, and flies...oh my!

I have a terrible fear of unwanted insects entering my car while I am driving on the highway. I should warn you, this is not an infrequent occurrence in my life, as my mom can attest to the fact that I called her panicky one day a year ago while driving in Michigan having been stung by a bee while driving on the highway.

The darn thing had blown into the open window, lodged itself in my long hair, and when I went to run my fingers through my hair, it stung me. I managed not to swerve off the road in shock as the thing fell madly about. My finger swelled up to the point where it was too puffy to wrap around the steering wheel.

For about a month after, I opened my windows with extreme caution.

But this fear passed, and thinking about insects of any kind was last on my mind as I headed out this morning for another six hour drive.

Until I thought I saw a fly traipsing around my car. It was really just annoying, not scary, but my eyes caught it so fast I thought maybe it wasn't anything after all.

I went back to singing along to the Wicked soundtrack, when suddenly I feel something crawling on my stomach under my fleece jacket. Again, I tell myself I must be crazy. I peek down inside my shirt carefully to see the fly wandering it's way around my skin. I won't admit to screaming, and I swear I kept my eyes on the road. But I did try to take my shirt off. It was instant reflex, like when you feel something ice cold and jump away. Until I realized if there were any truckers around (luckily on the empty highway there was not) I was about to give a free show, and quickly pulled my shirt back down.

In the crazed panic over a completely harmless fly, I didn't notice until that moment that the dratted thing had fallen and DIED in my iced coffee. Let me tell you before this incident, I was considering the idea of writing about the difficulty it takes to FIND iced coffee in the middle of the nowhere, rural, back woods area I travel through to get to my recruitment territory. We all know the importance of coffee while on the road. Just yesterday while sitting in my rental car before a college fair, I watched as a gentleman set his coffee on top of his car eyeing it carefully as he pulled out his travel brochures. I am pretty positive if it had spilled he would have looked like the little kid whose ice cream fell off his cone onto the sidewalk.

Back to finding iced coffee in the middle of nowhere. I mentioned this to a friend of mine while chatting on the phone... "How do people get coffee around here - they MUST go somewhere, I am not expecting a Starbucks, but maybe a Dunkin Donuts or a local something?! What to people DO?!" To which he responded, "they make it in their coffee pots?" A thought I hadn't stopped to consider...

I had settled for Iced Coffee from McDonald's, was happy to have some form of caffeine, but now I was forced to look longingly at the coffee where my new friend the fly had just perished.

All I could think was...You have got to be kidding me.

Needless to say, I will be keeping my windows closed from now on. For both my sanity, and the sanctity of the coffee.

Safe travels, and Guard your coffee!
Alexandra

Hide and Seek: Hampton Style

The Admissions Counselor Is Back on the Road.

Today kicked off my spring recruitment season, sending me off in a rented Chevy Impala on a day-long drive with a stack of CDs and audio books from my local library.

When I pulled the large boat-like vehicle out of my driveway this morning, I had a nagging thought in the back of my mind that kept bothering me. What if, now with my first fall travel season under my belt, what if I have ironed out the kinks, learned from my mistakes. What if there are no more funny stories to be told, experiences to share?

Oh, how I should have put those thoughts aside! Certainly in a world where I constantly entertain myself on a daily basis...I should have known better.

For as you all know well - where there is a GPS, there is an adventure to be had.

It started with...6 hours of perfect road time. I even tried a new route to my territory. Listened to an audio book. Took in the sunshine. Then I made the mistake of thinking that I was invincible, that I could drive anywhere, arrive at any destination, not only in good time, but without flaw. My ego was in need of a reality check.

And Rhoda, my GPS, was happy to provide.

I can't place all the blame on the poor electronic GPS, however, for I seem to fail, even as a grown-up, to know my left and right. I was never very good at this. I remember my piano teacher when I was seven, looking at me astonished during one of our first lessons because I was a bit unsure of which hand was which, an important distinction for playing the piano. There was a brief time after that when someone would make a reference to left or right in school, and I would put my hands on my desk as if playing the piano to figure out which was which. But that is a whole other story.

So Rhoda told me to turn right today, and I would be at my hotel in 4 minutes. 4 minutes! I made it! Success! And then I turned left. Which is not my right at all. And this silly road was like a mini highway with a barrier in the center so even if I wanted to make an illegal U-turn, I'd have to have a flying car to do so. Or a boss who doesn't mind paying for damaged rental cars.

But my panic was immediately calmed by the fact that all GPS devices know to "recalculate the route." No big deal. I will get off at the next exit and get back on going in the RIGHT direction. And then I hear the voice say, drive 6.5 miles to exit 11. WHAT?!?!?! NO. WAY. I could practically smell my hotel and now I was forced to be stuck in this direction for ... WHAT!?!

I have always wondered what would happen on the roads with the barriers if you went the wrong way. I knew I should've learned my left and right!!!! Or not quit the piano.

Yet, I followed the directions, went the 6.5 miles, doubled back, and before I knew it I was turning onto a street that would lead me to the hotel. I even saw a sign at the red light "Hampton Inn and Suites" with an arrow pointing straight ahead. I drive up a curved hill, round the corner, see a business park and a gas station and an Applebees. I follow the directions exact. Rhoda says "You have arrived at your destination." I do not see a hotel. Instead of panicking or getting angry I find myself shouting "I want my comfy white bed!" Then I calm down. It has to be here.

I had seen a building behind trees across the street that looked like a Hampton...so I double back, through a corporate building parking lot, but the small sign over there says Marriott Residence Inn.

Oh Sweet Mother of Troy.

OK. I am talking to myself now in this boat of a car as I turn it around again. I am going back to the spot where Rhoda claimed there was a hotel. All there is is a gas station. And a building that looked like it burned down. I really hope that wasn't my hotel.

And then I think, what is that road leading to the side of the gas station...hmmm...I follow it past more corporate suites, past a water tower and more business store fronts. And suddenly there it is. Not looking like a Hampton at all, hidden in a nook around the corner down a small hill. A Residence Inn like building with a tiny sign saying Hampton Inn and Suites. I yelp in happiness!

Now, happily planning tomorrow's high school visit atop a super comfy king size bed, I must tell you this hotel, with the largest rooms I have ever seen, was worth the game of hide and seek.

And I can sleep well knowing that there will always be adventures to be had; I am looking forward to sharing them with you during this spring travel season and hope to continue them this time even when I am off the road and back in the office.

Safe travels and Be Well,
Alexandra