I Did Something Stupid

This week has sucked. Somehow, in the middle of July, I managed to get a cold and the flu. Only in my life. For those who are curious, I never did make it to karaoke on Sunday night. MJ and I stayed in instead. Lucky for me, because instead of having Monday off, I got called at 7:45 and asked if I could come in. Not so much fun when you're sick.
Anyhow, this morning, I was able to swallow as soon as I woke up, which was amazing since every other morning this week, it's taken 3-4 tries every morning since my throat is so swollen and sore. It put me in a good mood, which carried over into my drive to work.

I have a little bit of OCD, and give myself at least a 15 minute cushion when I need to be somewhere. I consider myself late if I don't show up at least 5 minutes early for something. Anyhow, I was sitting in my car, enjoying the frigid weather, when I thought I saw a dog running loose through one of the adjoining parking lots. It went behind trees, and I didn't see it again.

A few more minutes passed, and I figured I should get inside and get to work. I opened, so there was no one else there. As I got out of my car, one of the people who cleans our parking lot and does our lawn service pulled up and told me there was a dog running around in the other parking lot. The other parking lot is a good 200 yards away, and I really didn't have that much time to walk over there.
I asked if it was wearing a collar, and he said yes. I had hoped that it wouldn't have one on and then I wouldn't be able to identify the dog, so I could use that as my excuse to not get it. So much for that.
I hesitated, but was able to swallow, so I decided to go get it. The man must have noticed my hesitation, and offered to drive me over there. I'm not sure how I had such a large scale lapse in judgement, but I got into a car with a stranger. As soon as I did it, I realized I probably shouldn't have. Not that there was anything wrong with this person...okay, there kind of was, and I'm getting to that, but because ever since you're 6 months old, you're always told to never get into cars with strangers.

The guy started to drive me to where the dog was, and told me that it's big and mean. He knew it was mean because it growled at him. I knew it growled at him, not because he said, "the dog growled at me" but because the guy demonstrated what the dog sounded like by growling at me. I responded by moving closer to my door, to which he responded by locking them.

At this point I was feeling a little apprehensive about retrieving the dog. Not only was I likely to be mauled by it, but perhaps this man was going to bite me too. I grabbed my cell phone from my pocket, ready to call anyone willing to save me.
We didn't see the dog in front of the store, so he drove around behind the store to look for it. I knew he was going to kill me back there and throw me into one of the drainage ditches. It would be hours before anyone found me, by which point I would probably be water logged and unrecognizable. He broke the awkward silence that followed his growling by telling me the stories he heard while waiting for his trial to begin when he was in court yesterday...he isn't a lawyer. I tried to feign interest, when really, I kept thinking, how did I allow myself into this mess? Part of me wanted to ask what he was on trial for, but another part of me said that I would probably be finding out soon.

We never did find the dog, and he drove me up to the front door and dropped me off, unharmed. I got inside, and realized that I have to be the dumbest person alive. Then I laughed. Mainly because I realized how judgmental and presumptuous I had been. Just because this person growled and me and had been in court the day before, didn't mean he was a bad person. Perhaps he just likes dogs, and was willing to let me get attacked by it, rather then be bit himself.