Thursday, April 6, 2006

Ahh! So Embaressing!

I had the most embaressing experience ever at Sonic yesterday evening.

So I pull in to the little booth thingie, push the big red button (WHICH by the way is so fun... I love to push buttons, and big red ones are extra thrilling... although this tendency is along the sames lines as to how I got myself into this embarresing perdicament about to be disclosed...) After I ordered my two corndogs with mustard and a medium cranberry limeade, I decided to pay with my debit card at the new little machine attached to my speaker. Well they don't give you an option to leave a tip, so I went fishing through my wallet for 75 cents to give the carhop when she came. Then the waiting began. The college station Sonic is particularly slow when it comes to bringing orders, but I assume that this being a college town, they assume their clientele will be mature enough to patiently wait it out, or else find something safe and constructive to do in their waiting time. They made a big oversight in not counting on the likes of me. So these three shiny quarters are just sitting in my hand and I start to fidget with them... stacking them, balancing them on my fingers, and eventually I think... hmmm I wonder if they would fit in these funny little crevices on my steering wheel. Thus my middle school tactile tendencies emerge. Much to my immediate pleasure, and momentary horror, the quarter does fit in the hole. Oh it not only fits, it fits ALL the way in... as in it has now fallen somewhere inside my steering column and I can hear it rattleing around. DUMB Cheryl. So I start investigating a way to get the quarter out, seeing if I can somehow unattach the front of my steering wheel... nope. So I start turning my wheel trying to get it to fall out somehow (I guess I thought it may fall out like a guitar pick in a guitar) and as would be my luck the quarter shifts, lodging itself squarely behind my horn. Which proceeds to go off blaring. And I can't make it stop. I commence panic fest 2006 doing all sorts of measures of things to my steering wheel... i.e. screaming at it, hitting it, trying to pry it practically off... all while a crowd of fellow patrons grow increasingly annoyed and curious. Thirty seconds or so go by. Horn is still blaring. I begin to get very upset and decide the only thing to do is pull out of my spot and drive away, so that I won't be attacked by a vicious mob of irritated sonic-ites. Fortunately, this seems to do the trick... as I reverse out of my spot, a sharp turn of my wheel seems to dislodge the quarter and end the pandemonium. I throw the car in park and sit there in disbelief for a moment. As I look up I see a terrified car hop standing sheepishly in front of my car. I all of a sudden realize what she, and the other 6 employees must have been thinking as they heard my horn and witnessed my thrashing, screaming fit of panic that had happened moments ago. I look up and with embarresment and regret start apoligizing profusely... "I'm so so sorry ma'am... something is wrong... my steering wheel... it's messed up... I'm sorry!" She replied with a very confused look and a worried "We thought you were mad at us!" Soooo humiliating. I quickly took my corn dogs and drink and fled the scene as soon as I could. The thing is, that dang quarter is still stuck in my steering wheel and I can hear it rattle when I turn. I'm afraid it's only a matter of time before this traumatizing episode gets a sequel.

Sooo... the moral of the story is... never assume just because a girl is 22 she is "grown up" and will know better than to stick small objects in dark holes just to "see if they'll fit." She will. And all hell will break loose. Bring her her darn corn dogs quickly before something goes terribly arwy!

Formal statement of apology to Sonic employees and patrons as of 8/3/2006: "I, Cheryl Cox, want to take this moment to formally apologize for any undue stress I caused you Thursday evening while waiting for my order. I promise next time to keep my hands folded neatly in my lap and wait patiently for my food."