Adventure...

Well, this weekend was fun...actually not really, but I still think you might like to hear about it.

So Goldman Sachs has a program called Community TeamWorks. CTW, as it is called, allows GS employees to spend a day or more each year volunteering without having to take a vacation or personal day. Well, since I am a contingent worker at GS (meaning I work through an agency), I'm not able to take advantage of the program during the week, but what I can do is volunteer on the weekend and get paid my normal hourly rate for it. I know, it's kind of weird logic, actually, and I would definitely volunteer anyway, but who am I to turn down some money :-) (the answer is no one!).

So anyway, on Saturday I woke up at 8am and rushed down to the place where we were meeting way down in the financial district. We met there to get into a 15-passenger van to head all the way out to Long Island where we were volunteering. The group was actually organized by the agency I work for, so I actually knew most of the people on the team. We drove about an hour and 15 minutes before we got off the highway and realized that the directions were a little less than sufficient...The driver and our team captain were in the front seat and I was in the back seat, so I didn't really hear the details. All I know is that we spent about 40 minutes hopping from gas station to gas station, stopping in parking lots and people's front yards, asking pretty much everyone where brookhaven avenue was...We arrived about 15 minutes late, so not a big deal, but we were a little worried that our driver might have trouble making it back to the place to pick us up at the end of the day. Well, that fear turned out to be unfounded....we were in for far worse!

Well, I should dedicate some time to sharing about our service at Help Suffolk. This is, afterall, the reason for the entire debacle that was my Saturday! Help Suffolk is a social service agency in Suffolk County on Long Island. They provide temporary housing and other services to families in need. We went to host their annual summer kickoff barbecue. To do so, we helped cook and serve a meal and hosted various games and activities for the kids and teenagers living at the facility. It was a very fun time. The weather was beautiful, the community was very welcoming, and our team had a great time getting to know each other while also serving the community.

Ok, so now for the interesting part! So on the way home, we had a relatively uneventful trip to the highway. We were all very proud of our driver for not getting lost and exhausted from the day in the sun. Well, about 30 minutes after we left, we hear this strange noise and notice the van beginning to sway back and forth slightly. About 5 minute later, the driver pulls off the highway and we have a flat tire! So here we are, 4pm on the side of the highway in the blazing sun. No biggie, I think, we'll just change the tire!

Riiiiiight.

Well, it turns out that the driver actually has no idea where the spare tire IS let alone how to change the one that now sits destroyed on the van. The first thing the driver did, while we were all still in the van, was get out and check the back of the van for a tire. When he saw that there wasn't one sitting there in plain view, he immediately started cursing about the fact that there was no tire. Meanwhile I (the 23 year-old girl) suggest perhaps the tire is somewhere under the vehicle. The driver looks and, sure enough, there is it. Then, we realize that the driver also does not know where to find the other tools, like the lug nut wrench thingy (I didn't say I'm an expert!), the jack, etc. He calls his company and manages to find the stash of supplies, but we are still at a loss for how to remove the tire from under the car. There is no bolt holding it in place, so no one is quite sure what to do. After about 5 minutes I had the brilliant idea to unfold this laminated piece of paper that is sitting in the same compartment as the tools. In it, there are directions for how to use the lug nut wrench thingy to crank a cable that is holding the spare tire in place. After about 2 minutes, my coworker Howard and I had that bad boy off. So...next step, loosen the bolts on the flat tire so that we can replace it. We get about halfway around the bolts on the tire only to realize there there's a LOCK on one of them. Apparently the rental company was really concerned about their rims getting stolen off the 15-passenger van because they went to the trouble of installing one bolt that is smaller than all the others. What they FORGOT to install was the key to the bolt, which is a tool that would insert inside the lug nut wrench and fit on the smaller bolt, enabling it to be removed. That's right, after 30 minutes of struggling on the highway we have now realized that we CAN'T CHANGE THE TIRE AFTER ALL!!!

So...at this point my supervisor Carey gets out her phone and calls two co-workers who had driven themselves to the volunteer site and asks if they would be willing to come rescue us from the side of the highway. Simultaneously, the van driver calls the rental company and asks them to send us a backup van. The backup van will take about an hour to get there, he says...and we hope that the coworkers will take less! And so we wait....and wait...and finally one of the co-workers arrives. There are 9 of us stranded, so he agrees to take 5 and then the rest can wait for the other coworker who can't be far behind. Since I didn't really have any legitimate need to hurry, I decided to be a good Samaritan and allow the others to go ahead. Except the only problem is that the other coworker took another HOUR to arrive!!! In fact, she and the van took a total of 1 and a half hours to get to us, and they arrived within about a minute of each other!! Since the van was going to take us right back to Manhattan, while the coworker could only take us as far as the train, we actually didn't even get in her car and instead took the van back into the city.

So, after 2 hours on the side of the highway, you can imagine how tired, hungry and having-to-pee we were!! We made the driver stop at the nearest gas station where we went to the bathroom and bought some food. We would have bought drinks, except we just happened to stop at the only gas station that I have ever been at that did not sell one drop of liquid (well, except gas). So, my dinner on Saturday night consisted of a bag of Combos, two big Chips Ahoy cookies, and some warm bottled water. I won't go into the details about traffic and getting a cab back once we were in Manhattan. Suffice to say that the 1.5 hour drive back from the volunteer site took 4 hours and I was EXHAUSTED!!! Good times!