Bad Carma and the All American Commute

My Jeep had a leak in its rear passenger-side tire. Ian's car needed a new battery. We ended up racing to get at least one of these problems fixed in time for my trip. Ian had planned to install the battery himself, and theoretically, this should not have been a problem. However, the old battery did not cooperate, and would need professional attention. I had wanted to get my Jeep into the shop ASAP. I've almost always been able to get my car in right away. Well, not this time. I couldn't get an appointment until the next week.

Somehow, as if we were in a crazy Three Stooges reality TV show, I found myself on the day of the trip rushing my car into Discount Tire, which takes care of tire problems on the spot, and then rushing out to a 3 p.m. doctor's appointment in Birmingham, MI, which is about 50 miles away from Ann Arbor.

Never mind that I got completely lost in Birmingham despite very accurate directions from MapQuest, more important, I hit rush hour traffic on the way back, and was completely exhausted when I reached home at 5:15. I still had a lot of packing to do, and it started looking like I'd be driving mostly in the dark, and not arriving in Pittsburgh until around 2 in the morning.