CVS and the Snow Angel

The silver lining of having to commute by car to work is that I can basically dress in a manner that has little to do with the weather outside. Not that I am rolling up here in a strapless dress in the dead of winter. But I don’t wear a heavy winter coat. I dislike driving with a bulky coat on and since on most wintry work days I am barely outside, I get away with wearing a trench pretty much year round. And snow boots? What be those? I have a pair of plaid wellies I wear as needed but even then in most cases my landlord does a good enough plowing job that even after a snow storm I can teeter in heels to my car and then teeter safely from my car to my office door without ever needing things like ‘traction” and “water resistance”.

SO that’s all well and good. Until something makes you have to walk somewhere other than from your apartment to your car and your car to your office.

You should also know that I am SUPER ANAL about having enough windshield wiper fluid in my car. I use it constantly, I don’t like having even a speck of dirt in my line of vision. Also have you known the sheer terror of realizing you’re out of fluid and then a Mac Truck whales past you and deposits a buckets full of sludge and salt onto your windshield and suddenly HI you’re in the left lane of the mass pike traveling 70MPH and can literally not see ANYTHING. So yes if I cannot drive knowing I don’t have much fluid left. So on my way to the highway this morning when I went to spray my windshield and it was more of a drip than a spray I got myself to the nearest CVS to pick up a new bottle.

Only the closest CVS looked like it hadn’t been plowed since yesterday afternoon. Cripes!

I parked as close to the storefront as I could, which was still about 15 feet away. And it was when I got out of my car and literally couldn’t get enough traction to stand that I realized yeah breaking in my new dark gray patent leather 3 inch heel pumps today was in fact a terrible idea. Maybe had I not had to stop it would have been fine but as I stood, swaying on the icy snowy concrete in my heels staring longingly at the front door of CVS mere feet away, I cursed myself. I took a small step, and slid. My fingers gripped the hood of my car as I edged myself to the front. There was a light post about 6 feet away so if I could slide over to that I would only have another 6 or so feet to go. I can do it!

Using my heels as ice picks and with my arms straight out on either side like a tight rope walker, I picked and slid myself within reach of the light post and then threw myself at it. Clinging to it I tried to pick out the least icy path to the sidewalk when an angel of mercy appeared in the doorway of CVS. A store employee!

“Having some trouble?” he asked me.

“Yes a little. These were the WRONG SHOES to wear” I said, laughing and totally embarrassed.

“Can I help you out?” he asked, walking towards me.

I of course agreed and so he, a vision in Timberland boots, came out and let me grab his elbow to walk me into the store AND was nice enough to walk me back to my car when I was done purchasing my windshield fluid. And they say chivalry is dead! I would not let him to fill my car for me but I did not mind that he watched me slipping and sliding doing it myself and laughed a little at me. I definitely deserved to be laughed at but hey, a gal has to do SOME things on her own.

There are two points to my story:

1) I say it all the time but being walked across a street by a young man? Is there any doubt that I’m 80 years old?
2) People are nice, even if I am kind of stupid.