It was a hectic morning. As it was, still is, and ever more shall be, I was running late.

Anyway, it was a cold day. I rushed to the car, fired it up and without hesitation, sped into the day. I started to notice that people driving in the opposite direction were giving me strange looks. "What's your problem," I thought as I matched their stares with equal disdain.

I finally arrived at work.

I said hello to the secretary standing at the front door watching my every move. She also had a strange look on her face like she wanted to laugh but sipped her coffee as if she were drinking tequila instead.

I made my way to my desk and began my morning ritual of careful planning on how I was going to have a productive day, all the while really not doing much of anything.

At noon, it was decided that I would drive two co-workers and myself to get some lunch. At the last minute the Boss asked to join...no biggie.

It was freezing, it was cold...there was snow on the ground...

..we sloshed through snow..

... rounded the corner..

... and at that very moment, the whole morning made sense. The strange looks, the crazy faces... I stared at my stupidity, the embarrassment that I should have felt hit me all at once.

There before my eyes was a beat up front end of a car that I had yet to make a payment on and a mangled bright orange electrical cord..I had been in such a hurry that I forgot to remove the "engine heater" from underneath the hood before I sped out of the garage that morning ..it seemed that the billion foot long, ORANGE electrical cord was slapping,dragging, sparking, flaming, scratching, and dinging alternately the front end of my car and the pavement at least a good ten miles through rush hour traffic.

I could hardly get mad when it was decided that we were taking a company car and somebody else was driving.

Sitting in the backseat on the way to lunch that day I decided I was never driving the same route to work as I did that morning...

....and asking for a raise anytime soon was out of the question.