At four a.m., my alarm blares off, and I reach over to shut it off. I have thirty minutes to shower before I have to leave for the airport. I shower and halfway put on my suit to be presentable enough in public. By 4:30, I am out the door headed for Hobby Airport, slightly arriving a little before five a.m. for my six a.m. flight to Dallas. Despite being half-awake, my heart races, the line for security is way longer than I thought, but maybe a lot of people are leaving these early morning meetings or something, I don’t know. Despite the anxious time in security, I make it safely to the gate.
My flight lands in Dallas around seven, and I deboard and head to the Whataburger for a taquito and more caffeine in the form of Dr. Pepper. I catch the rental bus and make my way over to the counter. Now, the reason I flew was I noticed rate of only fifty dollars for a rented car, and with a free flight courtesy of my dad, it was cheaper.
I go up to the counter and they guy asks “Did you get this price cause you need a truck or cause it was fifty dollars”
I nodded, “Cause it was fifty dollars.”
He does some work on his computer and replies, “I think I have an Altima available. Let me see what I can do.”
Whatever, I did not care as long as it was for the price I paid and could get me around. The man returns to his computer for a moment before handing me my paperwork, telling me to go to number “F7” or whatever number. I thank him and head towards the spot. When I reach F7 and look up, and it’s a red Ford Mustang. So, I pause for a minute and I think, “no, it can’t be right.” I double-check and sure enough, everything matched. I went “okay,” and got behind the wheel of my dream car. After settling in, I took it all in for a moment and snapped a picture of the steering wheel before driving off, excited to spend all day in a Mustang. However, it is not long before I realized that I dislike driving Mustangs; the body felt bulky, drove stiff, and like I could not see over the hood.
My first stops were at two apartments; after all, I needed a place if I planned to live here before driving up to Denton for the first interview. Now, that morning I discovered something, Denton is far from Dallas. The same Metroplex, sure, but I severely underestimated the distance. Since moving here, I’ve realized just how small the world is as three things happened that morning: First and second, I drove by my current parish on the way to the first apartments, and then from the second apartments to my interview, drove by my now girlfriend’s neighborhood. Thirdly, I work with people who lived in those second apartments at the time I looked at them. It always amazes me how small the world is.
Anyway, I make the drive, do my interview, and leave to head out to my second one. It’s twelve-thirty, but my second interview is at two and an hour away so I skip lunch and head straight down back to Plano. On the way there, not only does a lady almost hit my beautiful rental car, but a school in Wylie calls and asks if I can interview there as well. I told them I was in town and actually on the way to one, and they said to come by after.
The second interview ended about three. At this point, I had had nothing to eat or drink since my Whataburger at the airport. I never skip a meal, especially with an early breakfast. However, I needed to get this done, so I went off to Wylie but did not make it far before realizing I need something. So, I stop for another Dr. Pepper before making the drive over to Wylie, it’s all I had time for, and I knew eating would make me hungry unless I could get my fill.
I finish there about five and head back to the airport for my flight. As I fought traffic, I could only focus on getting to the airport to get food. After making through security, I was so hungry, genuinely thought I was going to collapse there in the middle of Love Field. I remember feeling faint. However, I did and ate an entire serving of fajitas, which I never do. I got home a little after nine-thirty, exhausted and slept.
A CLICKING OF KEYS 