A Lucky Set Of Circumstances

Sorry about the lack of posts as of late. I've been working a good amount lately. If you include this Saturday, I will have worked six out of seven days this week. Also, I had two 5 a.m. shifts this past week and I've been trying to get some sleep instead of staying online late (which is usually when I write posts). Speaking of work, I'm going to relate an interesting set of circumstances that resulted in me not having to do what I didn't really want to do.

Thursday was supposed to be my second day off this past week. However, on Tuesday, I was offered the opportunity to get some more hours by working on Thursday at another store out in Aurora. Aurora is way out there from where I live. It can take nearly an hour to get there from where I live. I know this mainly because you have to go through Aurora to get to DeKalb, where NIU is. I don't have a car of my own, but another employee was going and I would have gotten a ride with him. Even though I did not want to go all the way out to Aurora, I accepted because I needed the hours after getting off work early on Sunday to help my sister move back to school.

On Wednesday night, I talked with the other employee who I would've been riding with. We set a time to meet at his place so we could make the trek to Aurora. He mentioned that he had some trouble with his back during our conversation, but I didn't make much of it. Ironically, that would become important the very next morning.

On Thursday morning, I got up, got dressed, and headed to the employee's house. I was online for a little while before I left (I was quite paranoid about receiving some packages and making sure that I didn't get double charged on one of them) and since I was online, I didn't get the fellow employee's message. So, my dad and I left to go to his place so I could go to Aurora. We got there (he didn't live too far away) and I called his cell phone. I got his voice mail and the house looked pretty dark. I called the house voice mail and discovered his message...his back had tightened up and he decided to stay home. So, the trip to his house was a waste and my dad and I headed back home.

While on our way back, I called work from my cell phone, mainly to see if I still had to go to Aurora. I talked with the manager over me and he told me that he had already let his boss know that I wasn't able to come since everyone there knows that I don't have a car of my own. He then asked me to come in for a few hours at the store and I agreed.

Now, here is where the luck really comes in. First, let me tell you what I did after talking to my boss. I called the guy I was supposed to get a ride with again to confirm with him that I got his message. Then, Dad and I stopped at a grocery store and got some breakfast food since it didn't make sense for either of us to go to sleep since I only had a couple of hours before I had to be at work. My dad cooked us some pancakes, sausage, and eggs. After we finished eating, we left so I could get to work on time.

When I got to work, I found out how close I was to still going to Aurora. After I talked to my boss, he called me again to let me know that I could've gotten a ride with a manager who took the employee's place. I never got that message. Why? Because he called my home phone number. The phones at work don't have outside caller ID which means that there was no way for them to tell that I was on my cell phone and not my home phone when I first called. Plus, neither Dad or myself checked the home voice mail when we got home. I never heard the message my boss left. My dad heard it when he checked after he had already dropped me off at work. One thing about this that could've been bad was that my boss assumed that I just didn't answer the phone when he called me again. But since he's cool, there was no problem with that. As he put it, "I wouldn't answer the phone if I saw our store on the caller ID."

So, in the end, I got to make up the hours I missed from Sunday by working at the same store I normally work at instead of having to travel a long way away. If any of the stuff I mentioned happened differently, I could've been relating my possibly screwy experience in Aurora instead of telling of how luck went my way.