So I had an embarassing situation just before I flew back to Utah to take the bar. I hadn't been to the doctor since before Christmas, so Chauncey encouraged me to go before flying back to Utah because I would be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. Anyway, I get lost even in Utah, so I was a little nervous about trying to find a doctor's clinic on my own. Chauncey doesn't get too excited about my trying to find places on my own here either, but he figured it would be ok since the clinic was close to home and I had been there several times before. I got to the clinic, and they told me that the soonest I could get in would be about 2 months later. I asked if they knew of any clinic in Chicago where I could get an appointment the same day. They told me that there was one clinic with a lot of cancellations, and that I could probably get an appointment that same day.
Anyway, I decided to try to find that clinic on my own. I guess I should have taken a hint--a clinic on the south side of Chicago with lots of cancellations--probably not the best neighborhood. I started driving deeper and deeper into south Chicago. I ended up driving for so long and getting lost that I decided to turn around and go home without seeing the doctor. I was on a one-way street though, so I couldn't just do a U-turn. I wasn't sure how long I would have to drive before turning around, so I turned into a neighborhood. I thought I would only have to drive for a couple of blocks and then find a big street to turn around on, but unfortunately, I didn't find a big street. Instead I ended up turning onto a one-way street and getting even more lost in a very shady neighborhood. The houses were small, old, and dirty, the yards were covered in garbage, and the cars were really old. I felt nervous as soon as I got into the neighborhood, and wanted out. I turned onto another one-way--only this time I accidentally turned onto it going the wrong way. As soon as I turned onto that street, a black beater car pulled up to me and turned on some flashing lights which were hidden in its headlights or blinkers. I thought that the car was one of two things: either undercover police, or scary people impersonating police officers. I pulled over just in case--but I was going to drive away if the people who got out looked scary. There were three white people wearing street clothes who got out of the car and approached mine. Two of them were women. They came and knocked on my window and showed me a badge. I rolled down the windows and started reaching for my drivers license until they started yelling at me to put my hands where I could see them. Anyway, they yelled at me to get out of the car and put my hands on the back of the car. They searched me and my car for drugs and kept interrogating me. I got a little teary-eyed and had a frog in my throat because they were yelling at me--and one of the officers yelled "What are you cryin' about lady?" They asked why I was there, and I said I was lost. They said I had no business being in that neighborhood. The one searching my car yelled out that my story didn't check out because I had a GPS in my car. "How can you say you are lost if you have a GPS?" "I'm from Utah--I really am lost." They asked why I turned onto the one-way going the wrong way. "Because we don't have a lot of one-ways in Utah." I sounded like a big dummy.
All they would have found through searching my car was a carseat and a Book of Mormon. At some point they finally thought my story checked out. They told me it was a horrible neighborhood and that it wasn't safe even in the daytime, so to get in my car and drive away. I sheepishly asked them for directions out. They rolled their eyes, told me how to get out, and then I drove away without a ticket or anything. Chicago is scary!
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