No Good Deed...

I told you a few days ago that a co-worker of mine is without her car at the moment and so I have been picking her up in the mornings for the last two weeks -although I did get a break yesterday thanks to a dentist appointment. Anyway, here we are on the second week of this arrangement and it is already getting on my nerves. As Erika reminded me, "No good deed goes unpunished," and then she said, "That's why I don't do them." I will speak up for Erika and say that she does a lot of good deeds.

Last Friday W took the day off from work and I think I made mention that she didn't make any arrangements with me for this week before she went home on Thursday. I guess she just assumed I was going to be at her beck and call. Seriously, her attitude in this whole ordeal is almost as if T and I should cater to her needs rather than help her out around our own lives. It feels like she thinks we owe her a ride or something. I really can't even explain it correctly.

Sunday night, miracle of miracles, W called to make sure I could pick her up. I agreed and then when I got to her place on Monday morning she wasn't ready and so I had to wait on her for about three minutes, which isn't that much time in the grand scheme of things, but I'm on a schedule and doing her a favor so it would be nice if she was ready on time. I'm a stickler for on time - just ask Tony. Monday afternoon W asked T, "Now what days can you not take me home?" which we thought was a strange way of wording things. How about asking, "Would it be possible for you to take me home this week? Or even, "Can you give me a ride home this week? Again, it's as if we should cater to her needs. It's a very bizarre situation. It's not that she doesn't thank us, because she does say thank you. She is just a strange person in general and the way she has gone about this whole thing has been quite odd, and she gets mad or upset with us when we ask about her car as if it's our fault it's not working. Again, I can't really even explain it.

So, Monday morning W told me she had a plan for her car (thank you, Lord!). She sings in various and sundry choirs around town and apparently one of the choirs for which she sings took up a donation to help pay for the expenses of having her car repaired. This is the same choir that arranged for her car to be towed - I swear I don't think she even knows where her car is at the moment. Anyway, the choir took up a donation and instead of paying around $1,000 to have her car repaired she only has to pay about $200. These savings on top of the fact that she hasn't bought gas in two months would leave one to believe she might have a little extra spending money to contribute to my own gas which I am using to come pick her up every day; but, no, she still hasn't offered me one red cent for going 12 minutes out of my way to come pick her up every morning. I mean, wouldn't common courtesy lead you to offer money to someone giving you a ride. Heck, I even give Jackie money when we use her car to drive to Tuscaloosa for a football game. Yet, with this woman, it's like the thought hasn't even crossed her mind. It's completely mind-boggling to me. Maybe I should just present her with a gas bill at the end of my picking her up, which I hope to be next week. 

On Wednesday morning I wasn't my usual chipper self and she asked if I was okay, that I seemed tired. What I wanted to say was I'm tired of picking you up for work but instead just told her I had woken up in a bad mood. Truth be told I just didn't feel like talking the whole car ride in. Then she made comment about how low the gas prices were getting and that she couldn't wait to get her car back so she could take advantage of the low gas prices. I wanted to say, you can take advantage of them right now if you want to pay for me to fill up; but, again, I was nice and didn't say what was on my mind.

Really, it's not the worst situation I've ever been in, it's just a frustrating one and one I'd rather not have to deal with every day. I know it's got to be annoying for her not to have a car. I'm very thankful to be able to borrow a car from one family member or another when I have to put Blue in the shop, which as you well know is more often than not. In fact, she may have to go in soon because the heater is having issues again - that's a story for another time. Count your blessings, people, count your blessings!

So, for now, I'll just grin and bear it and hopefully within two weeks time I'll be back to riding by myself in the mornings and yelling at all the other cars on the road.