2 posts tagged “job”

so don't ask me how, but we ended up with a white 2007 mustang convertible to tool around vegas in this week.  i have to say, although this is not the car i ever would have chosen for myself in a million years, i kinda dig it.  make fun of me if you will, but MAN that thing goes, you even think about putting a whisper's pressure on that damn gas pedal and it's all "VROOMdiggityjumprahhhhhr."  i've squealed those tires countless times in the two days we've had it, and i don't even have a small penis for which to be compensating.

and when you're flying up the strip in that smokin hot american muscle and "sweet home alabama" comes on the radio well...let's just say whichever van zant brother it is who commands you to "turn it up," right there at the beginning, i gladly complied.  i was hunter s. thompson's faithful attorney, advising him to take half a blue valium, put the top down, and floor it.  the skynyrd was followed closely by "born to be wild" and then "little pink houses" and i felt like i was hard charging, gunning for the american dream with all i had.  somebody send some golf shoes or i may never make it out of here.

i am in vegas.  but just barely. 

i stayed at my cousin's house in the baltimore area wednesday night, after catching a ride up to dc for a supreme court argument.  the plan was to do that and then catch my 7:55 flight to vegas from dulles in plenty of time.  my cousin is out of the country so i was on my own for getting to the airport.  with no car.  i knew my travel time to dulles from md would be 2.5-3 hours from the awesome, detailed and fairly complicated directions my cousin left for me.  there were four legs to the trip--first, a shuttle from her house to BWI, roughly a 20 min trip.  then catch the macr train at BWI to the new carrolton metro station, the farthest one out, about 25 min.  then the new carrolton metro station to west falls church, about 50 min.  finally, catch the washington flyer metrobus from WFC to dulles.  i arranged for the shuttle to pick me up from my cousins at about 4pm.  i should have realized i guess that this left me little margin of error, but the directions seemed pretty self explanatory and the only place for traffic to interfere was that first leg, as the  rest was trains and the final bus ride was on the dulles access road, a straight shot that is never too gridlocked.

than my shuttle was just over an hour late picking me up.  an hour.  a fucking HOUR!!!  he ate up all my margin of error.  had i been picked up on time, i would have made it to the airport at about 6:35, plenty of time to get through security and make my flight with room to spare.  instead, i had a white knuckle trip, no margin of error and had to make each of those little connections in record time.  the essential one was the marc train--he got me to BWI at about 5:25.  you have to take a shuttle bus from the airport to the train station, about 10-12 min, then hope like hell that the 5:43 train hasn't come yet.  if i had missed that train, it would have been all over right there.  the next marc train was at 6:20, waaaaaay too late.  i would have been able to take a VERY expensive cab ride to dulles or just stood there and lost my fucking mind.  but i made that one.

from new carrolton (the very farthest out stop on the orange line), i had to go to west falls church, two stops from the other end of the line.  made it in just about 45 min.  by this time it was about 7:10.  i was fucked, i thought.  got on the bus and told the very nice driver what i was working with and he did everything he could to get me there on time.  we hit dulles at exactly the time he said we would, 7:33.  i sprinted in, dashed upstairs, and was promptly told that i had missed the flight.  the kinda bitchy woman behind the counter said it was closed, there was no way, they could put me on tomorrow, blah blah.  my heart stopped.  my face began to crumple into tears.  i have never missed a flight before.  i was supposed to come interview here today, and already had a rental car and a hotel paid for.  had i missed that flight, i would have missed seeing the office out here.  been out about $500 all told.  oh yeah, and i can maybe get some public interest funding for the trip through the career services office (they reimburse if you have to make long trips for job interviews that are not with big muckity muck firms that pay for everything).  but only if i make the trip.  so that $500 would have come squarely from my pocket and i still would have had to come out here at some point. 

luckily, at that dark dark moment, another dude comes behind the jetblue counter.  his name tag says "piotr."  the bitch lady was already helping someone else i must have shown every bit of that desperation on my face.  he said "what wrong?" and i sputtered "i'm...late...7:55...vegas...oh god..." as i handed him my ID.  he says, in his very sexy sounding accent, "you have a nice czech name, i want to help you.  can you run very fast?"  hells yeah i can run very fast, hot czech dude!  (oh, and he was smokin hot...tall, blonde, built but not too built, and did i mention the exotic accent and the helpfulness?  helpfulness is very sexy.)  so he prints off my boarding pass and we bolt back for security.  it is agonizing.  we're in a big line  (even though he brought me to the employees only line to make it faster), and i finally just played the sympathy card ("excuse me, my flight is leaving like NOW, do you mind if i cut? thanks) to the front of the line.  then, of course, they have to check thoroughly.  take the laptop out the the bag and run the bag through again, dump the contents of my purse and chide me for trying to get a LIGHTER on the plane, etc.  then, we fucking RUN.

i haven't run this fast in a really long time.  and i hadn't anticipated how far security was form my gate, so i shot my was on the sprinting kinda early and had very little left by the time we got close, i was more kind of jogging by then, panting and red faced and feeling like i might possibly die or puke.  luckily i did neither.  made it on, and as a nice twist, there were two people who came on after me (a cute couple--it was the dude's birthday and the girl came on crying thinking he wouldn't make it but they waited for him anyway).  so my "good czech name" got me here, by the grace of piotr.  thanks dude! 

man, it's gorgeous here too.  i came in late at night so i got to see all the lights and stuff.  then i hit up my hotel (the one that looks like a castle) and even got upgraded to a "view room."  i could see most of the strip from my window at night, and today it's even more breathtaking.  you can see the surrounding mountains, the sky is beautiful, and i need a coffee pretty bad.  plus i haven't even gambled yet (unless you count my trip here, which could have crapped out so easily).  i am meeting up with another girl from my school and we're heading to the office in about 2 hours, so i'm gonna go put $5 on black and let it ride until we have to meet.  walt says we'll either be totally broke or have a million bucks by the time i'm finished.