freezing rain

I was kind of confused about the concept of freezing rain until last night's experience and this morning's confirmation.

When I got to finally clock out from the coffee shop (after "can you do just one more thing?"), I was so excited to get to go home. My feet were hurting and it was kind of a long shift. I was supposed to be training, and the first day is supposed to be a sit down with the store manager and a tour of the store and going over some basic things. I only quit working for this company in September, so it wasn't all that long ago, but who knows what I've forgotten? For example, I used to have my boyfriend's employee numbers memorized and it was only last week that I could remember them again because I overheard him saying them. Also, my last store did roughly half the business this one does and this one is a drive-thru. It's been over a year since my last drive-thru experience. I was glad to have a refresher course, even if it was abbreviated.

Except, what actually happened was my manager briefly (as in what normally takes two hours took twenty minutes) went over some information, had me sign all the forms I needed to fill out, and then I assigned a till. I was on register the rest of the night. I could handle that, but I couldn't really handle side tasks on top of it. Obviously in a couple of weeks I'll be back up to speed, but it's not entirely fair for the person running the shift to be annoyed that I wasn't done with tasks I haven't done in at least four months, if not longer. Basically, if the rest of my training goes like this and I don't get any tips, I will probably throw a controlled fit.

I'm tired.

But anyway, I went out to my truck, thrilled to get to go home and take a shower and then sleep. Mmmm, sleep. I love my bed. I love snuggling down into it, under the sheet and two blankets and a lovely soft comforter. I like to turn down the heat slightly at night just so I can thoroughly enjoy the being wrapped up in all the blankets part of my bed. As I walked out to my truck and my hands and face instantly became cold, I was even more excited about getting into bed. And then I got closer to my truck.

It was covered in ice. It had this really cool texture from how the rain had fallen and then froze, but my truck being covered in ice was definitely going to delay me getting home to my bed. I kind of know how to live in cold weather and I knew I had an ice scraper inside my truck. Why, I don't actually know, but I don't ask questions like that. I yanked open my door and turned my truck on with the defroster on full blast and then looked around for the scraper. I didn't find it immediately so I went around to the passenger's side to look there and I could not get the door open. It was frozen shut.

That's when I realized it was going to be awhile.

I was tired and frustrated and realizing that even after I got enough ice off my windows to be able to see, the roads were going to be at least mildly treacherous if not just plain awful. And then what about the next morning when I had to drive to work before sunrise? What if when I got to work they just sent me home because no one had to come in? What if the electricity was out when I got home? What if...? When my mind started going crazy like that, I realized I need to just sit in my truck and talk to someone while waiting for everything to defrost. It probably wasn't as bad as I was suddenly making it in my head.

K to the unknowning rescue. I told him about everything I was frustrated about and he told me about his day and then wanted to stay on the phone with me until I got home to make sure I was going to be okay. It took half an hour of sitting in the parking lot with my truck running and scrapping ice and everything else to be able to leave.

And do you know what freezing rain is? It's when it's raining, but when it hits your windshield, it freezes. It's completely fabulous while driving home after a long day. By fabulous, I of course mean that frustration one feels inbetween panic and despair. I parked illegally under one of the car ports and made sure to leave my wipers up so they couldn't freeze to my windshield again.

I turned my heater from it's normal 68 ish to 75, hopped in the shower, and got into bed. I did finally get to snuggle down under the covers.

I think I get to do it all again today. Awesome.