Road to Benaroya

Hello all!

Now, I’m a little nervous... this is my first blog. So please don’t judge any typos or anything of the sort.

I’m going to tell you just how dedicated I am to all of you, especially to those of you who came to our Benaroya gig on January 14th!!! I’m going to tell you the tale of what it did to me just to get to that gig, and to our New Day Northwest feature the day before. Ready? You’re in for a long ride of laughing at me and my misfortunes. Okay? Here we go.

Just some background info to start: Right now I live in Ellensburg, where I am attending Central Washington University. Ellensburg is a tiny, teensy weensy college town which is over the mountains, and really cold and windy. Very pleasant.

Like all those in GFT who went to CWU before me (My dad, Jeff, Steph, and Brennan), I have to commute to GFT every Tuesday, a two-hour drive. It’s not so bad if the weather is fine.... turn up some music, crank the heat, and make sure you have a coffee before you go, makes a nice two hours! However, the week of our gig, the weather was not feeling too friendly...

Tuesday Night, GFT Rehearsal.... (Dun dun dun, Law & Order sound)

Rehearsal ends, I look outside. Snowing. Awesome. That means driving over the mountains will be immensely stressful, with almost no visibility, giant trucks going 80 mph instead of the suggested 35, and skidding on ice for the whole two-hour drive. So, I fill up my gas tank, grab a giant Red Bull, and start making my way. I’ve been driving for about twenty minutes, pretty edgy, when I see the lights of an ambulance and police cars up ahead. Slowly, I pass by a car that seemingly spun out and crashed into a ditch. Awww. That sucks!

So, I keep driving, hoping I don’t end up like that, but pretty confident that it’s one of those “That will never happen to me” things. Then I pass another ditched car.... and another, and another, until I’ve passed about seven cars in a row that are chillin’ in the ditch. I promptly take the next exit and drive back to Renton (my parent’s house) to spend the night. I decided to attempt this perilous drive the next morning instead.

Wednesday Morning....

Get up, pack my things, set out at 8:45. It’s not too bad.... just really snowy. But I’d take snowy over icy any day, it’s much easier to drive in. I’m about half-way to school when I see one of those big stupid trucks barreling up behind me, probably going about 70 mph? In a 35 MPH ZONE!!!! Ugh. So I don’t know if he doesn’t see me, or what. Maybe he was just messing with me. But he decided not to get over until the last possible second, right about when I thought I was going to die by truck. So I swerve to the right slightly, trying to avoid sudden death. Of course, that was the wrong move.... my right tire got caught in some deeper snow, I spun out, crashed into a huge snow drift, and slammed my face into the steering wheel. Of course, I wouldn’t have hit my face had I been sitting in my normal position, but my seat was much higher and closer to the steering wheel so that I could see out of the non-snowy part of my windshield.

I call my professors for my 12:00 class and my 1:00 class to let them know that I’ll either be late, miss class, or die of cold and be absent for the rest of the quarter. Of course, my first teacher is never in his office, never answers his phone, and doesn’t have a voice mail (he so fondly informed his students). But my choir director, bless him, let me off with a “That’s okay if you’re late, but you’ll have to read the Russian piece in front of class tomorrow”. Seemed like a fair punishment to me, so I was happy with my current situation.

After hanging up the phone, I struggled to dig out the snow from behind and in front of my tires with my hands, to no avail. Then some giant alien-looking contraption pulls up behind me. A snow plow!!!! Yay!!!! He helped me dig, and towed me out of the deep snow drift. I thanked him and went on my way. A little worse for wear, with a huge fatty lip and a blood blister on top of it, but happy that I was on my way again.

I made it to school (the drive had taken me almost four hours), on time for my 12:00 Chamber Choir class. Right when I walk in the door, my blood blister explodes all over my face, making me look like I had been in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Naturally, everyone cares and is making a huge fuss about it, to my growing embarrassment. All I wanted was to stop the bleeding and go to choir. So I unsuccessfully tuck my fat lip under my lower one, trying to be inconspicuous. Of course, I stand in the very front row, smack in front of Dr. Weidenaar (my director). So he stops warm up, asks me if I’m okay, and insists that I sit out, the sweet guy that he is. Unfortunately for me, that’s not what I wanted at all.... but, he’s in charge. So I spent the rest of the hour sitting in front of the whole choir, trying to hide my fat lip but still sing.... you can guess how that went.

As soon as that class and Vocal Jazz after it was over, I had to head back over the pass to spend the night at my parent’s house before our New Day Northwest debut. I left at roughly 3:00. And what now? My truck wouldn’t switch out of four wheel drive low, leaving me to go about 25 mph on the freeway, chugging along. I call my dad and let him know what’s going on. Then I search on my GPS for a truck repair shop, hoping they can just get it un-stuck and make it work! I select the closest one, about 17 miles away.

Wednesday Night...

What seems like an hour later: I pull into a clearing in a forest, just off the road. It’s dark,  and it seems like there’s no one here among these sheds and giant trucks. I’m hesitant by my car, wanting to see someone but not wanting to be the dumb chick in a horror film and go looking in the darkness for them. I figure someone will see my headlights and come out.

Sure enough, a sketchy, bearded man in overalls and a truckers cap appears out of the darkness. Not the kind of person a lone girl wants to run into when she’s having car trouble at night. I mean, this guy is freaky. No offense to him. Maybe if he shaved the beard he would look a little more normal. ANYWAYS. He asks me what I’m doing there, and I tell him about my car trouble. He says he only works on big trucks, and I say okay, thanks for your help. Heck, I didn’t care if he could fix it, I just wanted to get out of there. He stands there looking at me without saying anything, so I go back to my car to leave.

Dead. Nothing. No turning over, no lights, no nothing. I’m freaking out a little bit, since the guy is still just standing there looking through my windshield, so I pulled out my phone to call someone.

Dead. Phone is dead because I had spent the night at my parent’s without a phone charger. Awesome.

From all the evidence, I should be dead and stuffed somewhere by now, but it turned out the creepy truck guy was actually nice, and he jumped my car and I went on my way.

Driving home again, my lights shut off. My radio is turning on and off. My car starts rattling and shaking. The battery is literally dying while I am driving on the freeway. Oh wait, not dying - dead. My car is dead. But I’m still rolling, and there’s a downhill exit! I take it, coast down the hill, and partially into a gas station. Awesome. So I charge my phone in the gas station, call my mom, tell her what happened. She calls triple A, and I’m to wait for a tow truck, and ride home with the driver. My mom says I can sleep in the car, the driver won’t talk, she knows I’m exhausted. Etc. So about an hour and a half later, I’m rescued!!!.... by the most conversational stranger I have ever met. But you know what? That random chatty stranger made my day. We talked about tons of things, some that I didn’t care about at all, but I still had a good time.

I get home, 8:00 PM. FIVE HOURS TRYING TO GET HOME!!!! AHHHHH!!!! But at least I’m alive.

Thursday Morning....

New Day Northwest with a fat lip. And also an accompanying bruise that makes me look like I have a mustache. The audience was probably thinking, “Wow, they really do make people look different on TV... that chick is a dude!!!” In answer to the now wondering question in your head, no, I am not a dude. Nor do I have facial hair. It was a bruise. Okay? A bruise. And yes, they do make you look better on TV.

I decided to skip school for the rest of the week and stay put.

Friday Night....

A kick-a** gig for the best dang audience I’ve ever seen!!! That night made my week bearable, even if I had to go through hell to get there.

I love you guys!!!! All who came to the gig, awesome. So glad to see you all there. Anyone who missed their chance, you better hurry up and buy some tickets for February 18th! Don’t miss out!

I’ll write when another series of unfortunate events occurs...

-Amanda