Why I shouldn't be allowed through drive-thru's

Story time! Why? Because I can. And it's entertaining. Non-WoW post, but I think you'll get over it.

I'm not going to disclose how long ago this was, but back when I first got my driver's license, I desperately wanted to use it. The day I passed my road test, I needed any excuse to get in the car and go somewhere - anywhere. So, I called up my friend Eric and said "Dude, I got my license, let's go. I'm drivin'." Or something along those lines.

Before I left my house, I got strict instructs from my parents. Only one passenger, don't turn on the radio, don't go too far, be home before 1 AM, yadda yadda yadda. I was generally a good kid, I listened. I hopped in the car to pick up Eric, and when I get to his place, he comes out with a CD player and a tape-deck adapter. At this point I was driving my mother's '92 Toyota Camry with no CD player, so I needed any sort of adapter to play CD's. This was basically a blank tape with a piece of film or something attached that you could plug into a spot on a portable CD player and transmit the CD thru your tape deck on your stereo. What's a tape deck? Don't ask stupid questions, look it up! Tape, audio cassette, whatever, you're sidetracking me!

So, he plugs in the adapter, and Green Day starts coming through the speakers, but faintly. He cranks the CD player volume up, but it doesn't help much. I crank the car stereo volume up to a very loud volume for regular radio listening, and that does the trick. We drive to one of the local movie theaters with "Basketcase" on the stereo. My parents told me not to turn on the radio, but I figure I'm a decent multi-tasker and can listen to music and drive at the same time. Besides, this was a CD thru the tape deck, not the radio. The antenna didn't go up!

We watch the movie, I forget which one, and on the way back toward our homes Eric decides he needs sugar. A Krispy Kreme had just opened near our town, so we stop off there. The main part of the store was closed, since it was, oh, 12:30 am or so, but the drive-thru was open. I pull up to the speaker-box and place our doughnut order and pull around. The window opens and we smell the sweet scent of freshly made doughnuts. Mmm... I reach out to grab the bag from the woman at the window, but can't quite reach. I had stopped the car a bit too far from the window! It's my first night driving, so I chalk this up to a life lesson - park closer to drive-thru windows. It's late and there's no one behind me, so I throw the car in reverse, back up a bit, and attempt to pull closer. I still can't reach. At this point, I say "eff it" and open the driver's door to get up and out of the car. I unbuckle and get out - but the car starts rolling. I forgot to throw the car in park!

I quickly scramble back into the car, slam the breaks and throw it in park. Eric looks over at me with a half frightened, half bewildered look in his eyes. I get out, grab the doughnuts and pay, and the lady is staring at me as if I had two heads. I ignore it and get back in the car. As I'm buckling up, Eric says "You're never living this one down. I'm telling everyone you know." Flustered and flush in the face, I drive away from the Krispy Kreme very carefully. I drop Eric at home, pull into the driveway at my place, show my mom that I got home okay and she can go to sleep without worrying, and head to bed.

Next day, my mother comes home from work and we're chatting over dinner. She asks me if I had fun last night. "Sure," I said. Told her about the movie, and said we stopped for doughnuts and came home. "Did you turn on the radio at all?" I think to myself, 'uh oh, what'd I do.' "Because I got in the car this morning and the volume was up all the way." Whoops! Forgot to turn it down after the nonsense with the CD adapter! And I thought she wouldn't be able to tell if I turned on/off the stereo... needless to say, I didn't get the car again for a week or so.

And that's my drive-thru doughnut story. Why am I telling you this story in particular? As you're reading this, I'm most likely on a plane to go visit Eric. Have a great weekend everybody!