Vainly searching

 Today started out okay if it weren’t for that one thing!  I got up on time and was dressed, ready and out the door by 6:30 but sans mascara; the one item I forgot.  I’m certainly not going to teach a class without it; my eyes will look bare.  No worries, I’ll just stop at a drug store on the way and pick some up.  Yeah, right!  No such thing enroute to the training center. 

Even though my GPS refused to cooperate with the address of my intended location, and I had to go back inside the hotel and print out some help from mapquest, I still managed to arrive early.  I figured since it wasn’t even daylight yet,  I would continue looking for a “mascara” store.  I wanted more coffee anyway.  I’m independent, self-reliant, I could do this. 

I continued down a winding, hilly road, filled with blind curves.  I even found myself singing, “The long and winding road” by the Beatles.  You just sang a line too, didn’t you?  Fresh in my memory from my last trip out this way was the discussion about the abudance of deer and the admonition to be very careful so I didn’t hit one.  Granted, my rental car is ugly but I don’t want to return it with dents or worse.

So to imagine the scene now, it’s still before daylight and I’m poking along in my hideous rental, braking at the top of each hill (because I’m used to flat land and who knows what is on the other side) and behind me trails a line of headlights.  The poor locals who have the pleasure of following a FL girl, unsure of herself in the hill country, are probably about to lose their patience with me.  I’m driving along feeling badly for all the times I get impatient with tourists at home (although I doubt most are in hot pursuit of mascara!)  I did have to brake for one deer and that made me feel a little more justified in my creeping along under the speed limit.

I continued on, for approximately 7 miles, not finding a safe place to stop or turn around.  I finally reached a dead end and right in front of me was an old gas station.  You know the type; pigs feet and dill pickles on the counters and bathrooms on the outside (with the big key rings that you don’t want to touch). I didn’t go inside, but I didn’t really have to (that last epidsode of Criminal Minds I watched was flashing back).  I’m thinking an unexpired tube of mascara would have been way too much to ask for anyway.  So, I turned around and went back the way I came.

Can you believe I went to all of this trouble because I was worried about naked eyelashes?   Well, the day went along fine and if anyone noticed, they didn’t mention it and I forgot it too as time passed.  For those who know me, this was a major accomplishment.  

So after class, I went sightseeing and took a few pictures and I even managed to locate a Target before I settled in at the hotel for the night.  Yes, I bought some mascara (and peanut m&m’s), so let’s see what tomorrow brings.  If nothing else, my eyes will look good.