"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade"
This post is all about optimism. I try to be an optimistic person, however I will admit that I myself am not always the best at being a patient person and this past Friday those two things were in cahoots and I had a hard time trying to make them fit together.
Ideal situation:
I planned to leave work at noon, grab my bags and be on the metro no later then 12:15pm. Then I would arrive at the airport/car rental facility at 12:45pm, receive a car and be on my way no later then 1:30pm. The drive to surprise my boyfriend was supposed to take 3 hours, meaning I would arrive between 4:30 - 5:00 pm, shout surprise and then there would be a romantic hug and kiss while the angels sang. (Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating on that last part, but everything else was supposed to happen)
How it actually happened:
I left work at noon, grabbed my bags and was on the metro by 12:15pm. I arrived at the car rental facility at 12:45pm only to be told that my particular car rental company was off site and that I needed to travel to a different terminal to catch a shuttle to the facility. I found the little bus shelter to sit in a waited. I was the only one there for the first 10 minutes, and kept holding out that the next bus to round the corner was my bus. After 10 minutes another person showed up (I was to learn later on in the story this man's name was Niles) and we chatted and wondered aloud if this was the right place as well as if we would miss our reservations (scheduled at 1:00pm but by this time it was 1:15pm) The shuttle finally rolled up and made a series of stops along the way (one of which was where I started this whole journey so that made me slightly frustrated) On the shuttle ride Niles and I talked about what we did in DC, where we were originally from, how he liked the city since he had just moved here, etc. We finally showed up at the lot in Crystal City. This is where I realized that I could have walked to this lot from a metro stop and have saved myself an entire HOUR at this point.
Niles and I got in line, not an entirely promising place since it was backed up super far and there was still a crowd of people outside who apparently had not even gotten cars yet. We slowly made our way through the line and I believed I finally reached the counter at 2:00pm. I looked at Niles and said "well, look at the bright side, we could still be in the back of the line?" This was my start of phrases where I compared we were in the process to where we could be "We could still be waiting for a shuttle, we could be just getting off the shuttle, etc. in the attempts to bolster our spirits and remember all the progress we had made.
Once we had gotten our reservations processed we were sent outside to join the masses waiting for a car. Luckily, after maybe 5 minutes of waiting an angel arrived. The angel was in the form of a good natured 50-60 year old man with a "can do" attitude and a focus on getting people cars and on the road. He started running through the list at record speed compared to how everything else was handled. As soon as someone was returning a car they would hop out, he would call up a name and say "does this car work for you? do you want us to wash it for you or are you happy with it as is?" To me this was a win-win situation for all of us who just wanted to leave. He put me in a car very quickly and then I proceeded to wait while Niles was given the car behind me and we backed out to get in the line of cars waiting to leave the lot.
This is where I almost lost it. I was incredibly proud of myself for being patient, friendly and optimistic about a not-so-fun experience. The gate to let all of us out of the parking lot was broken. I was in the car and ready to go, but unfortunately I was penned in. It took them at least 10 minutes to get a technician out to service the gate and get it open. By this time it is around 2:30pm (an hour and a half after my 1:00pm reservation for a vehicle) and I am finally hitting the road. All my hopes to avoid traffic and the impending rain were dashed.
I wish I could end the story here with "and I drove 2.5 hours and made it safely there" However the day started to take another try at testing my optimism and patience when Google maps on my phone decided to take the least efficient way of traveling and I, gullible and believing, followed it's instructions all the way up Rock Creek Parkway, taking residential streets instead of the highway, following the woman's voice off of one highway only to get directly back on it 20 minutes later (at that point I almost started crying I was so frustrated). I did eventually make it (after 4ish hours) to my boyfriend's apartment where he was incredibly surprised that I was there. And that was the lemonade that was made from all those lemons that I received that day.
I made a nice friend in Niles, who made this entire experience way more enjoyable (seriously, start talking to random strangers when you're waiting and the experience will go much faster), I got kind, friendly service because I did not act exasperated or upset, and got in a car much faster by being accommodating. There's quite a bit to be said for being optimistic and trying to see the positive side of things - just my own experience.
