Driving Miss Daisy

In 1989, a film was made staring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy that explored the relationship between a rich Jewish lady and her African American chauffeur. The film, Driving Miss Daisy, was used time after time throughout both my high school and college college as it was incorporated into different lessons dealing with matters ranging from diversity in a Psychology class to discussing themes in an English course. None the less, I never really liked the movie much and was irritated time and again when I was forced to watch it, particularly since I am fairly certain that I actually know all of the words to the movie at this point. Last week, I found that I no longer loathed the movie, as I finally was able to feel a personal attachment to it and extreme sympathy for Morgan Freeman's character.

I had known that my boss was planning a business related trip to an office near DC for several weeks and had been trying to hint that I would really like to come along if he needed any assistance. My thought was that this meeting was on a Friday so I could get work to pay for my travel and then I would stay with a friend the remainder of the weekend and basically get to spend a few days in the city for very little money. At the beginning of last week my desire to go on this trip changed dramatically as I discovered that while he was going to need someone to go with him on the trip, that someone was going to have to drive him there - I did not want that someone to be me. Furthermore, while driving him, he was going to need the person to take him on this 6 hour trip on Wednesday afternoon and then come back on Friday evening, which would completely negate my initial plan for a weekend in the Capitol.

As the youngest and newest member of the office, I was not top of the list to be asked to go on the trip, as he figured (and was correct) that I wasn't going to know how to do the task at hand properly. Monday afternoon and early Tuesday morning, he approached two other ladies in the office with his proposition of the travel, both of whom told him that they were unable to go. As I left the office Tuesday, I assumed that since the trip was the next day and he had not brought it up to me that I was off the hook. Boy was I wrong.

Tuesday evening, around 9:30pm, my boss called me and basically told me, rather than asked me, that I was going to drive him the next day. He explained that he needed to do some business by phone on the ride there and that he wasn't able to drive himself but that I would drive his car while he took care of said work. He went further in explaining that I would basically have very little work that I would have to do on Friday and would be free to do whatever I would like all day Thursday. The deal sounded fishy, not to mention that it sounded like pure hell to be in a car with him for 6 hours each way. None the less, I knew I could score some brownie points by going and that it would at least be a couple days out of the office and in my favorite place.

The next day the dreaded trip was scheduled to leave at 3 pm, you know after I had spent an entire day with the man already. One thing led to another and we didn't get out of the office until after 4, which put our estimated destination time around 10pm. I put the pedal to the metal and away we went. He started off the drive by turning on Talk Radio. While not my favorite program, it is bearable.. or at least when it isn't blaring at the highest volume possible. Ten minutes in he gets on the phone, as he had planned to do. Instead of turning the radio down while he did so, he just talked even more loudly over it. I questioned if I would go deaf during this trip. This lasted about 2 hours until his phone calls were complete and he decided that he wanted to chat with me. He turned the radio off and began to talk about his children. Usually, this can be cute and amusing, unless your children are my age and older and your stories about them are basically like talking about my own average day. A half an hour of this was enough, so I decided we needed gas and pulled off, hoping that a change of the environment for a few minutes would put me in a better mood.

Once we were on the road again, the radio came back on. This time, he chose to play some more popular tunes. Both surprised by his choice, and happy that my ears weren't bleeding again, I began not to mind the drive. The only problem was that he decided to whistle and tap his leg (off beat) to some of my favorite tunes. Annoying, yes. But certainly better than the first half of the trip. As 9pm approaches and we are about an hour from our hotel, he realizes that we haven't eaten. Now logical folks would run through McDonald's or another fine fast food establishment, but not this man. No, we had to go have a full course meal. He ordered soup, salad, apps, and and entree. Now an hour behind schedule from our late night fine dining, I am really ready to get to town. The last leg of the trip was certainly a doozy as he decided that the music selection needed to be changed and he proceeded press scan on the radio and let it scan for quite some time. Finally, I couldn't take it any longer and I politely asked if he could put on the basketball game, to which he felt the need to scan the AM stations to find. Perfect.

By the time that we reached the hotel, I was at my whits end and ready to get away from the man. I checked us in, as he screwed around in the lobby like a 7 year old child that needs one of those leashes, and once I handed him his room key he told me to put my things upstairs and meet him back in the hotel bar for some drinks. With no choice in the matter, and a strong desire to have alcohol running through my veins, I agreed and was back down in a short amount of time. We had a couple glasses of wine and he proceeded to show me all of the apps he has on his iPhone (which I obviously knew already since I am the one that keeps the thing updated). Everyone else in the bar gave us looks like what a perverted old man and a stupid young girl.

As I headed back to my room for the night, I asked what time I needed to be ready in the morning. He told me we would be leaving around nine. As the elevator rose to the third floor, I set my alarm in my phone for 7 am and made plans to have breakfast at 8 with a friend in the area.

The next morning I awoke and prepared for the day, anxious to get away from this man and to enjoy the city for the afternoon. My breakfast date was running late and when he finally picked me up at 8:30, I told him that we had to make it snappy because my boss would be ready to go at 9. We rushed through breakfast and morning conversation and made it back to the hotel about 15 minutes late. I anticipated my boss to be waiting in the lobby or to receive a nasty phone call wondering where I was. Neither happened and when I phoned him at 9:30 he told me he had just started breakfast and had not yet showered. He wouldn't be ready until 10:30.

When we finally left the hotel, we got down to business and he asked that I make one final pitstop with him before we parted for the day. We needed to go to the liquor store. My specialty. After I made the greatest selections ever of everything you could possibly imagine, we went to the counter, and the man made a purchase for $883. And that is when I suddenly for the first time thought that my boss may just be cool. It was like when Morgan Freeman's character finally connected with Miss Daisy.

I was able to spend my day having fun, catching up with old friends, shopping, and dreaming about what my life will be like when I finally move up there. The next day was much like the first two with my boss driving me up a tree and me politely acting like I enjoyed his company. I think that the overall trip was good for me though. I definitely kissed enough ass to keep myself safe for the next month or so. I was able to accomplish a few things that I wanted. But most importantly, I was finally able to understand the movie Driving Miss Daisy. It is not a movie about the rich and the poor. It is not a movie about race. It is a movie about a person on a complete an utter power trip. I feel fairly certain that had his vehicle not been a coupe, he would have ridden in the back. He thinks he is important. While the man is right, he is important, it is not fun to be around him since he does. Thus, I think I shall add to my resume that I once drove Mr. Daisy.