Mad Dash to Eugene

It began at 4:00PM yesterday. No, wait. To tell this story right, I need to start at the beginning...

My summer internship began on June 20th at Intel in Hillsboro. From day one I've had such a flurry of deliverables and actions required (AR's) so that when July 1st rolled around I was more than ready for my first direct deposit paycheck. Only, when I checked my account, there was no deposit. In a rush I called the payroll department to see about my funds and found that they had my bank account number incorrect in their system. D'oh!

A few emails later the nice payroll department staff woman assured me that the check was in the mail. And it was though, as I later discovered, sent to my previous address in Eugene. "Well, no problem," I told myself, "The post office will forward it to my new address within a day or two." But two days rolled by, then three, then four and my nerves were shot. I called payroll once more just to confirm their idiocy expecting to discover that they hadn't sent the check when they promised, but sometime afterward. No such news. At 3:45PM yesterday I learned to my horror that they had FedEx-ed the thing to Eugene. "WTF!" I silently screamed from my not-so-private cubicle. More frantic phone calls and quick conversations with the people at FedEx to verify that they still had the package in Eugene and I was out the door and on the road at a quarter-past four. The Eugene FedEx closed at six, so that left me with 1:45 to travel 120 miles through rush hour traffic.

Down Hwy 26, through the heart of Portland's Monday rush hour traffic, to connect to Hwy 217 and onto I-5 for a frantic drive just flirting with a speeding ticket the whole way. I kept so focused on the road and my speed and the cars ahead of me that I ignored the tension growing in my shoulders as I drove like I was racing NASCAR. I kept pace through the all too infrequent mile signs that told me by how much time I would miss the FedEx office's closing moments. I increased my speed just a bit but I was so focused on the goings on around me that I was driving as safely as if I had followed the limit exactly.

Finally I saw the sign, "Springfield, Exit 195, - 1 mi." And I knew. I knew I was going to make it! Five minutes to spare, I rolled into the FedEx parking lot and picked up that which had eluded me for nearly two weeks... I finally got paid!!! And now comes the really fun part: writing checks and paying bills. Oh, the joy. So, after a trip to the bank, I spent some time in Eugene with a close someone, got back to Hillsboro around 2:00AM, and had time to close my eyes briefly before starting work --complete with an 8:00AM meeting-- the following morning.

Looking back on the whole thing, it was kind of fun. Not that I'm eager to repeat the events. But it's now just one of those things I can file away and recall and smile at the random insanity of it all.

-D