The high school I went to this morning is in a dead zone for my cell phone, so it wasn’t until I was on the road toward the beltway that the director at my interpreting agency was able to contact me. I spoke to him at about 9:40am, and he said the elementary school had canceled, but they had a one-hour assignment at the Catholic hospital in Baltimore so could I be there by 10:15? I griped a bit, then agreed to take the job. He mentioned that I could still bill the elementary school, so I’d get to bill four hours for no work - I hate to do that to a public school system whose budget is probably hurting, but then again my budget is hurting too. So I raced up to Baltimore (thank you, B-W Parkway) and made it to the clinic just ten minutes late.

The first appointment took more than the hour I’d been told (this hospital is cheap, so they will book a very short time even though we bill for the actual time worked), and it turned out the couple had another appointment elsewhere in the building. So of course I had to go with them to that, and because they were late for that appointment we had to wait until their doctor was finished seeing another patient. At 12:45 all procedures were finally finished, all future appointments had been scheduled, and all forms had been appropriately filled out. I rode down in the elevator with the couple, then wished them luck and hustled out to the parking garage…only to end up behind a car that crept v-e-r-y slowly down the seven levels to the gate. I paid, got my receipt, and hit the streets of downtown Baltimore at 12:56pm.

Under normal conditions, it takes about an hour to travel the 40 miles between my house and my parents’ house. When traffic is very light (usually around 5:00am), it takes about the same amount of time to drive the 50+ miles to get to downtown Baltimore. During normal daily non-rush traffic, it takes about an hour and twenty minutes to get home; it’s about five miles less if I’m going to the mall. I was supposed to meet Caitlin at 2:00. By some incredible luck (and quite a bit of speeding and changing lanes), I made it to Tyson’s Corner in 40 minutes. I would never have imagined such a feat possible, but it worked. I hurried to the Apple store to check my e-mail and confirm Caitlin was coming (I’d expected to have a couple of hours at home post-elementary school), which she was. I absolutely cannot believe I made it from there to here that fast - and without harming myself, my car, or anybody else’s car.