Monday, January 31, 2011

Being thankful for oil leaks and high heels

One of the things I've come to appreciate about living a few blocks from work is the fact that I don't have to drive far, or at all most days. With the freezing cold temperatures of late, I finally trudged over to public safety to get a parking permit so I wouldn't turn to a human icicle on the way to work. Last Tuesday, partly because of the weather and partly because of the super cute Nine West heels I decided to wear that day, I drove to work. I got a little power trip from parking in "Employee Parking," which quickly wore off for the last few minutes of the walk to the library.
I was in the middle of my training in Technical Services, specifically Digital Projects, when I get a phone call from the Circulation desk. Call public safety, they tell me. I mentally went through a list: did I forget to hang my parking permit? I was allowed to park in Employee Parking, right? Did I leave my lights on? Feeling like a child caught with her hand in the cookie jar (it probably comes from getting too many parking tickets at Alvernia...), I called public safety.
The news? Way worse than forgotten lights or parking in the wrong lot. Apparently, my car was leaking oil. Big time. Enough to leave a trail from my house to campus. In my mind, the worse thing was that the day before I had just scheduled an appointment for my car back home. I really did not want this to be bad; I had enough work that needed to be done on that car next week. Thankfully, I was able to get an appointment and my car was fixed in two days. Apparently, it was the oil adapter gasket. I am still working out exactly what that is, but the good news it it's fixed.
At first, I kept praying, "God, I really don't have the extra money for this! Why is this happening??" Then I realized how bad it was. All of the oil had drained out of my car. All of it. I wouldn't have driven anywhere until I was ready to go home this weekend, and then? I probably wouldn't have made it home. After I realized that, I said a different prayer. A thankful prayer that I decided to wear heels to work that day.

(In other news, my car is back from it's second originally scheduled appointment. All is well with it. At least for now.)

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Whew! Yay for cute heels and a God who answers prayers differently than we often intend.
Thank you for sharing your story.
Also? You are a fantastic writer, Miss Laura.