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