Help a friend was recently added to my list and I am happy to report that it is already accomplished! I added this to my list because I love my friends (and family) and would do ANYTHING for them; so why not help one out!
This thing took place on Thursday, February 3, 2011 when I helped my friend Caitie. (Caitie, who works for me at Six Flags, is a really kind, generous, sweet and overall amazing human being – just had to throw that out there.) On this day I was running around work like a manic, which is my normal routine because I do way to much there; but that is for another time. It was 3:00pm and we had a training class starting at 4:00pm and I was trying to make sure everything was ready to go. Caitie and I were going to be working the check-in table at class, which starts at 3:30pm and is where we give everyone their ID number for the Season and have people fix mistakes from their employment packets so we can hire them into our systems. Caitie was scheduled to arrive at 3:05pm but I received a call from her right around that time and she told me she was having trouble getting her car started and that she might be late. I told her that it was not a big deal and that I could handle the check in. A few minutes later she texted me saying she wasn’t going to make it in because her car was dead in the commuter lot at AIC. I texted her back to tell her not to worry about work and make sure that she was ok. We texted back and forth, me telling her to use AAA, and she telling me she didn’t have it, that no one was coming and her phone was about to die…so she was stranded. I know that NO ONE likes to be stranded, it’s the worst! I had to figure something out. I racked my brain and tried to figure out how I could get her towed with my AAA but still be at the training in less than 30 minutes. I kicked it into help mode and decided that I was going to get her, we would come back to work to finish what we needed to for the training class, then head back and have her car towed. I ran out to Jen, my officemate, co-worker and trainer and told her that I had to go get Caitie because her car was dead and so was her cell phone. With some scrambling I was able to call another employee, Britney, who was going to be in the training class and who has done check in before, to come in early and help with the table while I ran to get Caitie. I figured I would get Caitie and we would be back no later than 4:15pm. I jumped in my car at 3:15pm and headed to AIC. Once in the car I realized that I forget that the roads in Springfield are a DISASTER. With some bobbing and weaving thorugh the terribly plowed roads of Springfield I was able to make it to AIC sometime after 4:00pm; and rescued Caitie from her car in the commuter lot. We headed back to work down a side street near AIC, which was not even plowed, and almost got into 3 accidents in the matter of 3 minutes because of all the snow still on the ground. (Side note – Springfield, you really need to do something about your plowing – YOU SUCK AT IT.) After some more time spent in the car we made it to work 4:45pm. Once we were done with work we headed back to AIC with jumper cables in hand. I decided to try that out first before calling AAA, even after my mother told me that if I did it wrong I would blow myself up…thanks mom for the scary warning. YIKES…blow myself up, that sounded painful. (No worries, I am blogging so I did it right! High 5 Dave!) I called reinforcements…my dad…to ensure I did it correctly and to find out how to know it was working. After a few minutes, I turned the key and it almost started, so I knew we were good to go! We waited a while for the battery to charge a bit then gave it a go…IT STARTED! And we were off! I told Caitie I would follow her home to make sure she made it all the way. Good thing I did because her car started to die again 5 minutes into the ride. I found an apartment complex in downtown Springfield to turn into to charge that battery again. We parked, got all hooked up and took our position in my warm car, then noticed some interesting people sitting in the car next to us STAREING. This freaked us out so we detached our cars and headed down the road to a nicely lite church parking lot and charged that battery for about 20 minutes. That was finally what we needed to get her car home and parked safely in her driveway! The whole ordeal lasted about 5 hours but I am so glad that I was able to help Caite out! She does so much for everyone else, and it was nice to be able to do something nice for her for once!
Caitie – if you ever need help again, I’m your guy to call!
Thanks for reading this entry! Next up, Learning to ski!
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