I left this morning at 6:40 to go to my 8:00 class. I reached the El Toro freeway onramp at around 6:55 and saw that the traffic was backed up. Oh great. Finally, fifteen minutes later, we reached a four-car crash that had traffic backed up. No cops, firemen, or ambulance yet. One of the cars was on it’s side. After that, traffic picked up. “Great!” I thought. “I can still make it to class!” Two minutes later, traffic slowed down again. I wondered if I would make it to my first class. At 7:40, twenty minutes after I would normally arrive at school, I had gone approximately 10-15 miles from my house, with at least 15-20 to go. Now I contemplated whether I would make it for the class that has a test review. At 8:00, my gas light went on, and I had gone only 2 miles in the past 20 minutes. I decided to give up and look for a gas station. Unfortunately, I got off at Jamboree, which apparently is a gateway into an Orange County wasteland of nothingness. Somehow I ended up by the old El Toro Marine Base, still no gas station in sight. At this time, I panicked and called Mike. He finally managed to lead me to a Shell station off of Culver and Michelson, which is by the 405 freeway. Leaving the gas station, I was $27 poorer (who would have thought it would take that much to fill up a Civic? ; ; ) but relieved that I was out of traffic and had a full tank of gas. I got back on the freeway to continue on my way home, deciding that God obviously did not want me to go to class today. I counted my pennies and decided to take the Toll Road home, since the weather was getting worse and so was the traffic. I finally arrived home at 9:15, two and a half hours, two car accidents, and an empty tank of gas later. Maybe I gave up too quickly, but by the time I got home I was so unsettled by the weather and traffic I did not want to even think of driving anywhere else for the rest of eternity. Later I found out that the 5 freeway was flooded at the 55 junction, so even if I had persevered, there was no way I could have made it to the 57 (I couldn’t even find a GAS STATION, much less another freeway from the 5).

I had a horrid day.