Costco Gas and Closing Time

Once upon a time, Marley's truck was hooked up to the hay trailer during all of Christmas break due to caroling, hay rides, and moving hay. And when you pull a trailer, you burn LOTS of gas, and so Marley's truck's gas tank was completely and utterly empty.
Now you see, Marley had a nice big old pay check to put in the bank but forgot over the holidays, so first, she couldn't drive to school today. That was to be her first task on returning home (putting the check in the bank and buying gas, that is).
Well, 5:15 rolled around and she realized the bank was closing in 45 minutes and she needed that paycheck money for gas.
Discovering she had enough money for a full tank, her mom sent her with her Costco card to get a good price before heading to the bank. (There was no guarantee of making it to the bank at all with such little gas in the car.)
Coasting all the way to the gas station, Marley pulled in and swiped both cards, as directed.
DECLINED
"Excuse me?" She thought, "ok, try try again."
DECLINED.
"What the heck! Ok, when all else fails, what do we do? Of course! Call mom."
"Just run to the bank first," Mom advised.
"Not sure if I'll make it there and back but I'll try!"
So, Marley miraculously made it to the bank, but when she pulled in to the little drive thru slot she reached over and found that SHE HAD FORGOTTEN THE CHECK!!
Embarrassed, she pulled right on through and parked in a spot.
"Mom... I forgot my check...."
"Be down in a minute."
While waiting, I had to turn my car off as to not waste gas... Just to let you know, it's like .2 degrees outside. And it didn't take long for that to happen inside my car, as I did not have my heater on before (because guess what?! Having the heater on means WORSE gas mileage! And when you barely get 10mpg, you can't really afford it. Darn old truck...).
Teeth chattering, she waited 13 minutes for her mother to save the day!
Once the check was in hand, she went back through the drive thru at one minute til the bank closed and had to wait for like 3 minutes with the window open for the super slow lady to work out my money situation. Could it get any colder? I think not.
Money successfully in my checking account, I re-attempted the the Costco gas station, with mom there for moral support of course.
First challenge: get the machine to accept my debit card.
Success.
Second challenge: actually pump the gas.
Now, this is usually no problem for me, I've been buying my own gas since for ever.
But this time, the gas was spurting out of the tank instead of going into it. Panicked, I stopped the gas and mom told me to just hold the pump thing in it so i could control the angle or something.
Basically I had to stand there in the freezing for like 30 minutes (ok, it was probably like 5 but it felt like 30) while my gas pumped and $80 was spent. Yes, I said 80.
One of those little Costco gas attendant people discovered my spill and started to make a big deal out of it, creating a superbly awkward moment for me.
(You know, the 17 year old girl buying and spilling gas with a bunch of 40 year olds, standing out side in 0degree weather while everyone else waits in their car.)
Once all that was over, I was quite relieved to start my engine on a full tank of gas and crank up the heat, as my body was completely numb from spending 45 minutes in freezing weather (and by freezing weather, I mean waiting in the car with no heater, window rolled down, or outside pumping gas).
After making a lovely trip to Smoothie King to warm up a bit, I drove home.
Moral of the story: moms are superheroes and stuff... What?

-Mar



Did this post even make sence?