Once in a Blue Moon

Finally, the first week of school is finished. Done. Now forever a memory. Thank goodness.

I dropped off my sister, Nikki, at school and my dad at Starbucks. Then got stuck in traffic and arrived at the school, my spot stolen once again, and I had three minutes until the bell rang. And let me tell you, speed walking and going up 6 flights of stairs is not easy to do in three minutes when you're wearing heels. So it did not happen in three minutes. Instead I was late but thankfully my teacher didn't count me tardy.... I don't think.

Anyway, the rest of the day went by smoothly. Even the end of day traffic. Yes it was long, but not too bad.

Got home, watched Friends and How I Met Your Mother. Which, I know, is a crazy afternoon in itself.

Then my Mom and Dad went out for a date night and Nikki and I ordered pizza. After eating the yummy food, we saw a commercial for cookies and we agreed that "Wow, cookies sound really good right now."

We cleaned up some and were on our way to the Grocery Store. Nikki got the pre-made cookie dough and I got Ben and Jerry's Phish Food and some blister band-aids to ease the pain on my food from the four blisters I collected from the shoes I had worn earlier. It also didn't help that I spilled Pizza Sauce on one. It took me a few minutes to realize that "my toe hurts" and look down to see it covered with horrible red sauce. We decided that this was our "Once in a Blue Moon" Feast.

We got home, watched The Lorax, which might I say was an excellent movie. I was expecting cuteness, which there was plenty of, but I was quite surprised and the plot line and I loved it.

By the end, however, I look over and I see Nikki curled up sleeping on the couch with Ellie, our new puppy who was also sleeping, cuddled together.

I figured it was time for her to go to bed and I helped her up. She stops suddenly, "Wait," she shakes her head, "I thought we were watching The Lorax, why was Friends on?"

"It's over, Friends has been on for a while now," I answer.

"Oh."

Minutes later, my Mom and Dad get back and here we are. Me half awake writing. So forgive me if something is spelled wrong or I've made a grammar mistake or I just don't make sense. I guess we'll find out when I read this again after I've slept.

G'night!

Facepalm.

You remember me saying that I had sung Jesus, Take the Wheel?

He should have taken ahold of my break.

I woke up early, again, because I did have to go in at normal time. One of my friends, Julie, texts me asking for a ride. Ugh, alright. I pick her up and off we go. Headed for school. Woopee.

We’re in the same traffic, however it wasn’t nearly as bad as the day before. We’re talking, catching up when I notice that the gas is rather low. I take a picture of the gas gauge and begin to text my dad.

“Rose? Um, Rose? ROSE! ROOSEEE!”

Bam.

Break.

Facepalm.

Follow the white car in front of me to the side of the road.

He gets out and I get out.

He looked a lot like one of my friends in the city I lived in before I moved back. Scary alike. I actually had to do a double take. “I don’t see anything, so we’re good?” he says.

“Yeah,” and like that we were back on the road. And I was still behind him. Great.

I stayed as far away as possible. No lie. And vowed then, to quote Taylor Swift, to “never, ever, ever, ever” text and drive again. “Like ever.”

The gas light is now on and thank goodness Julie was laughing at our situation rather than brooding like I was yesterday, otherwise I don’t think she’d ever speak to me again.

We pull into the school and one of my other friends had lent me her spot for the week so I immediately go there. Looking for the number. Looking for the number.

Now granted, I was going to stop even though Julie was yelling, “ROSE STOP!”, the white car, the same white car, backed out and pulled back into their parking spot right in front of me.

Facepalm.

Find the number. Find the number. Ah, there it is. Pull in. Only 3 minutes late, not bad. Go to homeroom, pass by the guy in the car again, facepalm, sit down in homeroom, plan to sit for ages like yesterday, only to be told to go to first period yet again.  Phew, that was a lot of effort.

I find one of my friends and I follow her to the College and Career Center for something or another. By this time, I was about to cry. I confessed to my mom and dad about the whole deal and I felt truly horrible. I never drive that badly. It was a horrid feeling. My mom called and I excused myself to the bathroom, which thankfully was empty. She talked to me about it and calmed me down. Which made me feel better, but still I felt pretty awful. To be honest, I still haven’t looked at the front of the truck.

My dad tells me it’s a good lesson and we made a pact to (quoting Taylor Swift) “never, ever, ever, ever”  text and drive again. “Like ever.” Then I wrote my concerns about the gas. There was no way I could sit 45 minutes with the gas light on and not run out of gas. So I planned that as soon as school ended I was running, no matter how funny I looked, to the truck, to get out of there first and skip all the traffic.

Economics was next on the list of classes so I headed towards the portables where nothing exciting occurred. Nothing exciting happened in the portable either to be quite honest. Other than putting on my heart necklace that I swear I had last seen in my bathroom, but found in my backpack. Weirdly enough from then on, things got better.

Lunch was great.

Choir was great.

Music theory was awesome and I’m really excited for that class.

But when they dismissed the students, I half ran, half walked to the truck. On the way there this girl asked, “Do you know when school lets out? 30 or 35?”

I replied, “Well, its out now.” Then I realized she probably didn’t mean today, “But 35 normally,” I called out to her.

I continued to half run, half walk to the truck, determined to get out of there before any traffic. Only when I had stopped in line to see how much gas I had left did I notice it. The needle pointed to Full. I tapped the gas gauge to check if it was lying. It wasn’t. I wanted to text my dad to ask how he did it and say thank you, but it was going to have to wait. I had learned my lesson that morning. I drove all the way home and got home extra early. I watched Friends, but happily this time. We met my mom to go school shopping that night as well.

It was amazing how horrible my day started, how much I learned without being in class, and how much it got better.

But you know, I’m going to see that kid everywhere around school now, right?

Facepalm.

Hi.

My name is Rose Smith. Although, I would have hoped that you would have known that from the name of the blog, but in case you didn't, there you go. To make matters more confusing, that isn't my real name, nor will I tell you my real name or friends or family's name. That way I can be completely honest and you can read this totally unbiasedly (If that is even a word)(Just looked it up, it isn't. But you get what I'm saying, right?). Therefore, I will remain unknown, but known at the same time in a matter of speaking. So for these purposes you will know me as Rose.

Also, I would go through the long, boring backstory I have about how I got to where I am today, but to be honest I think you'd fall asleep. And nobody wants drool seeping into a keyboard. So instead of getting the whole, wacky story of my existence, we begin on the first day of my senior year. That's right, folks. SENIOR YEAR. Of high school. Not college.

Skip all of the mundane routines of getting ready in the early hours of the morning and you'll find me in the car, my very first day of driving myself to school. I was rather nervous, although I wasn't sure why I was. But, I was. I got my music playing from my iPod and projected through the speakers. I told myself, everything will be fine, don't worry. It'll be fine.

It wasn't fine.

After 40 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic, I arrive at the school in one piece, ready to park and get inside the school. But that was no good. There in my spot was the most inadequate parker I've ever seen. Sideways in my parking spot was somebody else. I decided to check the visitor parking even though they made it extremely clear that no student was to park there under any circumstances. My mom calls as I'm driving passed all of the taken parking spots.

"Hey," she starts, "Is everything okay?" I had called her earlier when traffic was particularly horrid.

"No, somebody stole my parking spot and I don't know where do go, what to do..."

"Well, just park anywhere and go to the front office," she suggests as I stop behind other cars waiting for their turn after the stop sign.

"There's nowhere to park, I've looked in all of the visitor's parking spots and they're all taken," at this moment I see someone back out, "Oh, wait. A spot just opened up. Hurry up, cars. Let's go! ... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!"

"What? What? What happened?" My mom panics through the phone, "Just take a deep breath!"

I try but it isn't working. "Someone. Stole. My. Spot," I manage to get out in a quieter tone.

"Just park anywhere, you can always move." And I followed her advice. Parked in someone else's spot and walked, very frustrated, to the front office.

"Hi, someone parked in my spot, or they double booked it. I don't know," I say calmer than I would have five minutes earlier.

"Well, why don't you go up to Grade Level Office and you can tell them there."

After a long trip up the stairs, I reach the counselors. "Can I help you?" asks one of the secretaries.

"Yes," I start, "Someone stole my parking spot or they double booked it, because I never got a tag."

"Well, did you see the tag?"

"No, I didn't look, but I know they had one."

"Well, I suggest you get here earlier in the future and go see Mr. Horpall at lunchtime."

"But I have late arrival," I counter.

"Well, just get here earlier," she reinforces. I turned and left, headed for homeroom.

I sat there in advisory; brooding and I had a hard time calming down. Get there earlier. Sure, I'll wake up at 5am to get my parking spot that I paid for and then sit at school until 9. Sure, that's why I got late arrival.

By the time advisory was over (which was an hour and a half later) we had to go to first period.  First period, as I so clearly stated earlier, I have late arrival so I just sat there with a few friends and waited for it to be over.

Next was Physics, which really didn't last long.

Then College Algebra, which really did last long.

Lunch was good, but we decided to sit outside, so I'm pretty sure we sweat. Lovely, right? Also, we went to figure out what to do about my parking spot. They told me to send the license plate to Mr. Horpall through email.

Then somehow between the last 5 minutes of D lunch and the 7 minutes before Fourth period, I lost my schedule. So I showed up to my Spanish class' door. I was pretty sure, not 100%, but pretty sure that it was my class. The teacher said, "Well, I can't let you in without a schedule. I suggest you go to the Grade Level Office," I turned to leave, "You know where that is?"

"Yep," I muttered and left for the Grade Level Office yet again. After many minutes waiting for the other secretary to print it out, I headed down the hall. "See, I was right," I muttered to myself.

"Hi!" a girl I had a couple of classes with last year spoke.

"Hi!" I replied.

I get back to the class and hand her the schedule, "You get it all fixed?"

"Yep."

"They knock some sense into you?"

"Nope."

"I was hoping they'd kick you in the head," She pointed to my seat and added, "Only joking."

I was not amused.

Nor was I amused when I waited half an hour in line and moved about 10 feet from the parking spot I stole. Another half an hour later I was home and watching Friends. As any long, frustrating day should wind down.

Lastly, I went to my voice lessons and wound up singing, "Jesus, Take the Wheel" by Carrie Underwood. My voice teacher, Ms. Laurie, told me, "I never, EVER, let anyone sing this song, Rose. Nobody. But I let you sing this song, because you can do it justice." And I left feeling much better than I had all day.

I've just accepted that all of my first days are going to be terrible.