Ground Control to Major Suckage

Well my week has gone from crappy to double crappy, super sized. From Scrappy doo to Scooby sized doo doo.

Because I am currently without car.

*whine*

I'm trying not to worry about it. Mainly because worrying is giving me a headache, and I've had one since Tuesday night. (A headache. Not a car. *whine*) Also, its pointless to worry because I don't know how bad it all is yet. Why worry now when I can totally freak out later when I get the bill! Wheeee!

Okay, so here's what happened. I was driving home Tuesday after work and as I took the off ramp from one highway to another this Huge Piece of Metal suddenly appears in the road in front of me. And no joke about the 'suddenly' part. The highway was full of commuters both in front of me and to each side of me, and I didn't see anyone hit their brakes or try and swerve to avoid this Huge Piece of Metal in the road. I only saw it after the van in front of me drove completely over it. Which, unfortunately, by then was too late to do anything but drive over it myself. The van drove over the HPoM without a problem because it's under belly was high off the ground. But my granny car is also a low rider car, apparently, and it would not yield. The Huge Piece of Metal looked like it was the tail gate of some truck, all bent to hell, and I really didn't want to drive over it. But I didn't have time to move to another lane or slow down enough to avoid it so over it I drove. And it totally freaked me out as I heard it rattled around down there and violate my poor car.

I got home safely (bright side!). While my poor nerves were shot to hell my car fared far worse. I took it in Wednesday to get repaired by someone the HB had gone to before, and really liked. While it was getting fixed (the Evil Huge Piece of Metal dented in my transmission fluid pan thingy) the HB and I spent a perfect rainy morning eating at our new favorite breakfast place (bright side!), this little whole-in-the-wall type restaurant that has only about ten tables and is always packed. We sat by the window, drank lots of coffee, chatted and watched the rain pitter patter away, and I tried not to worry about my car. And about how I wasn't at work.

I don't know what it is about me, but I felt bad for not being at work. I don't love my job, I don't get an abundance of fulfillment every day that I'm at my desk, there was nothing urgent for me to do, nothing that anyone else couldn't have handled. I was not needed at work by any means, really. And yet a tiny part of me, which my rebel badass part tried its best to smother with a pillow, felt bad because I could have gotten a ride to work but chose not to. It's like some Good Angel brain chip was implanted in my brain at birth that would cause me to feel guilty for doing something I know I shouldn't be doing. At least it only works in regards to my job. :) Damn work responsibility mind chip!

So anyway, the HB and I went and picked up my car later that Wednesday. It hiccupped on the drive home, but I thought that maybe it would take awhile to warm up. Or whatever. Because Mechanic Guy said he drove it and everything seemed fine. He also quoted us a price for having to replace the whole pan thingy and the repairs ended up costing more for just un-denting the damn thing. *grumble grumble grumble*

I drove it to work yesterday, which was Thursday, and everything seemed fine. But then I drove the car to get lunch and the damn thing kept doing this jerky maneuver on me. "It's your transmission!" the guys back at work diagnosed after I listed the car's symptoms. (I work with a bunch of mechanics, which comes in handy sometimes). So I left work early to go take my car back to the shop. I explained what was wrong to Mechanic Guy and he looked perplexed, as though since he drove it around the block and everything seemed fine I must be crazy for thinking anything else was wrong with it after I drove it out on the freeway and all that shit.

So, to make this long story even longer, here I am. It's Friday morning. I am without car. And I am not at work.

I keep thinking, 'hey, since I'm not at work I could go... d'oh! No car!' And that just bums me out all over again. I try not to think about how much it will cost to fix my transmission, or whatever is wrong with my poor car. Hopefully I've good enough car insurance that will pay for most, if not all of it.

But after all, today is another day. I said that last night as I stood looking defiantly over Tara, vowing never to go hungry ag... oh wait. I'm thinking about the wrong movie here. Excuse me, I've been on a mental spaz jag for the last couple of days. Which caused the headache, so I'm trying to be less brain spazzy.

Which is hard to do, since this week has been so crappy. I tried to do laundry the other day and one of the machines I put money in and thought was working was just faking it. It wasn't working. So I had to make an extra trip down to the laundry room. *grumble grumble* And another washing machine was slower than the others so I had to wait a few extra minutes for its slow ass to finish its spin thing. And when the washing machines were finally done there wasn't a free dryer because two thirds of the dryers were broken and the rest were being used and... *sigh*

I tell ya, the world is conspiring against me this week.

*sneaks paranoid glance around apartment and wonders what seemingly harmless inanimate object is going to attack next*

But, as Eric Idle sings, always look on the bright side of life. Which I'm doing. Really. Even if it doesn't sound like it here in this rant. I can't help myself, really. I was talking to my mom about all the crap last night and she called me a Pollyanna, because while I called it all crap I was still pointing out 'well at least this... and at least that...' I totally inherited the Pollyanna gene from her. It got watered down a bit in the passing down, but a little bit of it is still there. I've imagined the worst that could have happened to my car (and my wallet *whine*), and now I'm reminding myself of the positives...

Because my car wasn't totally defeated by the Evil Huge Piece of Metal. It managed to deliver me home safe and sound.

Because its bright and sunny outside and I don't have to be at work until later today, if at all. I'm not worry about it any more. Because I have a cool boss that said sure, I could leave work early, before even hearing why I needed to.

And because if my poor car wasn't in the shop right now I'd be at work, and I wouldn't have been here at home, logged into yahoo messenger when a friend I haven't chatted with in awhile decides to log in as well and say hello.

And MMMBop was playing on launchcast a few minutes ago. And that damn song always makes me smile.

Oh yes. Today will be a good day.

It will dammit! Because I'm settling for nothing less. :)