But if I get a new car, how will I get my workout in?

Side note about my last blog-- I'm disappointed that more of you didn't tell me how you would have spent a million bucks. Unless Jason is really the only one who reads my blog, in which case this is rather embarrassing...

But anyway. Let me tell you about my adventures on Wednesday.

Before I do that, you should know some things. 1) My school schedule on Mon/Wed starts at 9:30 am and ends at 7:45 pm. I have one class, then a 3+ hour break, and 3 more classes all right in a row. It's not that bad, if I don't have a lot of homework to do between classes, I usually go home. 2) My car is sad. It takes all of 5 miles for it to overheat, and it doesn't go in reverse. It has other problems, but they're pretty minor. This "overheating" thing and the "only goes forward" thing are the big problems it has. And the "only goes forward" thing is the one important to the story today. A lot of people ask me how I get out of parking lots when they find out my car lacks that ability. I drive around until I find a place I can pull through (usually not too difficult, but ensures a far walk) or, if I'm at church or something, I just wait out whoever's parked in front of me. In rare cases, I've pushed my car, usually with the help of some friends.

So on Wednesday, I had a test in my first class-- history-- and I had to buy a Greenbook before class (just a little booklet with a bunch of lined paper to write essays on), so I made sure to get up early enough to catch the bus that would get me to campus about 15 minutes before class started. I managed to hit a bunch of red lights, so I was about to miss the bus, and as I pulled in to the parking lot, I could see it was just pulling up. So I hurried and parked as close as I could and ran up (turns out that wasn't my bus, and the bus driver was running a little late, so I still got to school on time). Well, parking as close as I could means that there was a car in front of mine. Not a problem, actually. I had some homework I needed to do, so I should stay anyway, and by the time I get back to the park-n-ride at night, there's usually only 5 other cars there.

And, if I really wanted to go home, I could just push my car. Done it before.

Well, I took my test (which I think went well, but I really hate essay tests), and I finished about 20 minutes before I would have usually gotten out of class. In my rush to leave in the morning, I didn't bring anything to eat, so I decided with the extra time I had, I could still push my car out of the parking space and head back home for a while. My homework didn't need to be done that day, so I would be fine.

As I'm walking toward my car, I just kept hoping that the car in front of me had already left. Make my life easy. But as I knew deep down, the car was still there. I get into my car and put it in neutral, and I start letting up off the brake. Aaand... I start sliding downhill aka toward the car in front of me.

This is a bit of a pickle. I decided to go ahead and gently love tap the car in front of me and push my car out while it wasn't rolling downhill, but pressed comfortably against the car in front of me. (As I get out and I'm pushing, I had horrible visions of this episode of Grey's Anatomy where someone's legs got pinned in a car crash. I was just really careful.) Oh, and does everyone remember how it was cold and a little snowy out on Wednesday? That made this so much more fun.

After 15-20 minutes of pushing and two people walking past me, I had made it about 6 feet. Something I'm proud of, but it wasn't far enough to actually leave. I sat there thinking... I was really tired. Pushing a car uphill for a period of time is not something I've been training for. Do I want to keep pushing and hopefully make it out eventually? Will I get enough time at home for it to be worth it? Should I just give up and go back to campus?

Unfortunately, I decided to get back in my car and put it back where it originally was. 20 minutes of my life wasted. I sat in my car being cold with wet knees and dirty hands, listening to music while doing some Chinese homework, then caught a bus back to campus. Incidentally, it was the same bus driver that I had earlier. I sat by my physics classroom for an hour waiting for the class before mine to be done, then proceeded on with my day.

Actually, because it was so cold, my Chinese teach let us go 45 minutes early. Told us to go home and eat dinner and be warm. Really cool, right? WRONG. Haha. I had another class an hour after she let us go which I had to stay around for. That's ok, I went up to this candy and soda shop that I've always wanted to go to and bought some Twix. This was the coolest store I've ever been in in my life. Very retro and awesome.

Results of pushing my car: Very sore forearm for the next several hours (which you can really feel when you turn the wheel of your car haha.) and a sore back the next couple days. Made for a kinda fun story, and I got a sure workout in, so I guess it was worth it.

Even still, I will be happy to get a new car. Someday...