Last week, I drove my sister, Hayley, and our neighbor, Kyle, to their second day of school at Nevada Union High.

Running late as usual, I was determined to shave off at least two minutes from my usual times from our home on Harmony Ridge. Rounding the end of the turns on Highway 20, I felt confident entering the straightway through Nevada City and making a clean exit at Gold Flat Road.

Before us stretched a long line of cars, trying to climb Ridge Road and reach NU. We to risk it all and take our secret "short cut."

Approaching the entrance into the new intersection at Ridge Road and Zion Street, we met a blur of crazed soccer moms in their large SUVs, yellow buses trying to squeeze through impossibly small twists and motorists in cars like mine, sitting stunned and wondering, "How am I going to get through this?"

"It's 7:15; hurry!" Hayley and Kyle screamed, warning of the first bell. Between aimless, angry honking and the shrieking commands from the back seat, I was left with only one choice - plunging into the intersection.

I nosed the Buick into the crossroads. "Turn! This way!" my passengers screamed. My first mistake was going into the intersection at all. My second was listening to two 15-year-olds. But I was in a desperate state of mind.

Narrowly missing a bus, our car veered away from the lane taking us up to NU. We found ourselves on Nevada City Highway heading towards Glenbrook.

"You're going the wrong way!" Hayley and Kyle shrieked. I would have given anything at that moment for a small Taser or maybe some tranquilizer darts.

Flipping a "button hook," one of my father's signature driving maneuvers, I was able to rectify my mistake.

By a small miracle, we eventually arrived safety at NU's theater parking lot. I still had beat the red Pathfinder that had been ahead of us at the start of our journey into the intersection at Ridge Road and Zion Street.

The new intersection has been in place for almost two weeks now. People are beginning to understand the main trick to the new striping: Stop twice, once before entering the intersection and a second time as you go through.

People are slowly mastering the strange twists, stops and yields in the awkward layout. But I'm going to volunteer my brother or dad to take Hayley to school next time. I'm busy getting ready for my last year of college and planning a wedding. That is enough excitement for now.

ooo

To contact Staff Writer Lindsey Croft, e-mail lindseyc@theunion.com or call 477-4247.