Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Details

Yesterday I ended up going to a city council meeting in Yadkinville with Matt. The company is considering buying some land there and Matt had to go to present our rezoning request (which was denied, but the vote was split). I was just along for the ride.

First of all, Yadkinville is quite a bit farther away than we thought. The problem is that Matt thinks of it as being right outside of Winston-Salem, and he thinks of Winston-Salem as being basically the same town as Greensboro, and Greensboro actually is only about an hour and 15 minutes away from home.

That's why we didn't leave for a 6 p.m. meeting until about 4 p.m. -- which is what time it was when Matt printed out directions and saw that MapQuest estimated it to be a two-hour-20-minutes trip. He flew into my office and said "We have to go right now" and we were out the door before I got to change into jeans or even use the bathroom.

I drove so he could review his presentation materials, and my bladder was about to burst by Greensboro, but I didn't say anything because he was clearly stressed that there was no way we were going to arrive on time. I was going 80 or 85 mph the whole way, hoping that might buy enough time for a bathroom break.

I was so thankful when the gas light came on in Winston-Salem and we were forced to stop for gas. Of course, I picked the worst exit ever -- the gas station was like a mile away, and there was a wait at the pumps. He pumped and I went inside ... only to find that the bathroom was "out of order."

It really bothers me when employees tell you the bathroom is out of order. Maybe the public bathroom isn't working, but there IS another toilet somewhere on the premises. Surely they don't work all day without a bathroom break, right? Why don't they just have mercy and point me through the "employees only" door?

No such luck. I got authentically teary-eyed and walked back outside. Matt was sympathetic but did not offer to stop somewhere else. Of course he would have agreed to if I'd asked, but I figured I needed to take one for the team because it was obvious that, best-case scenario, we'd be right on time.

So we kept booking it and arrived at the Yadkinville Town Hall about a minute before 6 p.m. The parking lot was empty. The front door was locked. I really was about to cry. Matt found an open side door and a man inside. The man told him the meeting started at 6:45 p.m. As Matt pointed out, at least we didn't get a ticket trying to make it there by 6. And at least we were there on the right night.

3 comments:

Kaitlin said...

that's some willpower when you are in desperate need of a bathroom! i might have cried.

glad it all worked out!

Ken Loyd said...

It makes me want to cry right now! If you had presented the request and told them all this they might have granted the rezoning out of sympathy. Maybe not.

Amanda said...

Lady, you are a stronger woman than I! I would have wet myself before making it to the bathroom. Why is it the bathrooms are always out of order or not there when you need one??