My $15 sundae, why San Diego is my BEF, and more!

Well, today I had an interview that was in San Diego. The interview included a store tour, which was cool. I go to Target (my interview was with/at Target) all of the time, but I didn't know all of the behind-the-scenes things about Target. All of the people who led the tours & talked with us were super nice & friendly and seemed to really love working at Target. I really hope I get the job! (Although there are apparently at least 3 more interviews to come if I passed this round). But my story of woe has nothing to do with the interview. Actually, part of it existed then, but it wasn't the tour or interview itself that was the issue. Well, here's the story:

I had never driven to San Diego before (and if you're unfamiliar with SoCal, San Diego is an hour away from where I live in no or easy traffic), and it was a very bright day, which made for a really hard drive down there. I had to sort of squint the whole time, I hadn't had any caffeine and I was a little tired from having woken up earlier than I normally would (7am) despite going to bed at about the same time. So it was a long drive and I'll admit to losing a little bit of attention at times. I WAS paying attention, however, when a large plastic bag or piece of plastic or something like that was floating in my lane and I apparently drove right into it! So before I know it there's a large plastic thing completely covering my windshield, so I absolutely could not see in front of me. I started my windshield wipers and that didn't seem to do that much. SO I had to make my way over to the side & stop, at which point my windshield wipers fortunately were able to knock off the piece of plastic so that I didn't have to get out so close to the highway (because people were FLYING! I've rarely seen such fast driving off of the Toll Road. I mean, it was the I-5, and EVERYONE (other than the trucks) were going at least 80mph). Then I somehow merged back into traffic & survived.

As mentioned earlier, I didn't have any caffeine this morning. I didn't want to drink coffee before my interview because a) I didn't want to have coffee breath, b) I didn't want to chance spilling anything on myself and c) caffeine + nervousness can make me really jittery. I was tempted, though, because the Target had a Starbucks in it. But I resisted, which may have been a bad idea. After the tour, we had the individual interviews. I was the second-to-last to go, so I had my interview at about 4:30pm. My caffeine headache hit somewhere around 3pm. I have not weened myself off of caffeine from my trip (when I had 2-3 shots of espresso per day), so the lack of caffeine got me (I'd normally have had my latte of the day by 2 or 3 pm, so it makes sense that it hit then). When I went to the interview, my head didn't bother me as much, but my throat & chest felt weird, as if something were lodged in my throat. It felt like pressure. It eventually went away, but it took a while. I'm trying REALLY hard to not blame Vitamin Water. I gave it a third chance this week, so I might just be waiting for yet another weird occurrence to happen. Or maybe there is randomly something weird in Vitamin Water that's not in Gatorade or Powerade that my system just doesn't like.

Then I went downtown to get a sundae from Ghirardelli. If you've never had a Ghirardelli sundae with their yummy dark chocolate fudge, you're seriously missing out. Anyways, I get downtown, and drive around FOREVER looking for parking. Not that I know how to parallel park well, but still. Downtown SD is full of one way streets and pedestrians, so it was really annoying and time consuming to drive around the block(s) constantly. I was getting super frustrated and declared that San Diego is no longer my BFF, but now my BEF (Best Enemy Forever =D ). It's got to be the worst place ever for driving & parking. At least in SoCal. Eventually, I just gave up and went into a parking structure. I'd avoided it before because it was evening and so the rate was $10 for the evening; it was no longer hourly. But at this point, I really didn't care. That's how I ended up paying $15 for a sundae (the sundae itself was $5.25, and parking was $9, so it was almost $15, really). The parking structure was near a CVS, and I was like, "oh great! I need to get some eye drops," but I always try to get the 30ml ones, which I normally get from there, but they did not have it there. I also upped my sundae from one scoop to two scoops because at this point, I had just had it: the tiredness/the squinting, the long day, the headache, the weird pressure in my throat/chest, driving around looking for parking and getting stopped at literally every possible light downtown, CVS not having my eye drops...*sigh* I felt much better after I had a sugar & chocolate infusion. My chocolate chip cookie dough w/ dark chocolate fudge was delicious. I also got a jar of their fudge sauce, so I can have some whenever =D

Then I drove back...in the dark. Fortunately, the highways here are well lit, especially compared to Vermont (where you essentially drive in pitch black. ick). Except for one part when, for whatever reason, the highway (the 15? I don't remember which) ends in a residential area, then you have to drive on these residential streets that have very few lights at all until you get to the 5. I'm SSSSSOOOOO glad I have a GPS. I would have been so lost and even more confused otherwise. Seriously, whoever designed the street plans for San Diego...I shake my head at you.

And that, my friends, is my story.