The one with randomness, relationships, and the dam

I find it funny the MHM and I have our best conversations when we’re in the car driving randomly. I guess it is because we have to listen to each other, there is nothing to distract us: no books, no TV, no bad movies, no puzzles, no crazy music. (Well, I have to take that back. We were blasting Tenacious D at some point.) Anyway, my point is that it is just us in the car, being ourselves without anything else in the way. I’ve always been a person who is better in the car anyway. When I feel a panic attack coming I find that a good aimless drive makes me feel a lot better, especially when I get to sing at the top of my lungs. I don’t think MHM and I are NOT at the point where we’re going to deafen each other with our bad voices. Not yet.

Anyway, our ramblings led us to this huge dam near my city in The South and for some reason all of the gates were open and the river below was churning and rising and just looked cool. So of course we had to go see what that was all about and get as close as we possibly could and watch. The roar was incredible. I don’t know why, but a lot of people had fishing rods and kept their hook in the shallows trying to catch something. I honestly don’t see how any fish could stay in one place long enough to bite. But bless their hearts those people sure were at it for a long time. We stayed until it got too cold, and then went home for some dinner.

Yesterday my stomach started making ominous noises and rumblings and really there was a full brass band in there, and then the real adventure started. I don’t know what is happening, if I’m just sick or ate something bad or what, but it is NOT FUN. I’m not at work today, and I won’t be teaching tonight. Instead I’m sleeping and trying to get some liquid into me whenever I can. When MHM left at 5:30 this morning I was up ½ an hour later to get Kaopectate and a pregnancy test. With all the feeling nauseated lately I figured it wouldn’t hurt to put my mind at ease about THAT at least. Of course it is negative, I’m a careful girl. But I cannot describe that feeling of relief every time one of those things come up with the minus sign on it. It’s just overwhelming. I want children SOMEDAY, but not TODAY, and I don’t want to be faced with the decision of what to do should that come up before I (we?) am ready.

Anyway, today I have been sleeping and watching bad TV (Rachel Ray and Living Single and whatever other mindless crap I can find). Rachel Ray is one of those people who irritate and endear at the same time. I don’t get it. There are 3 incarnations of her: shorter brown hair and slightly chubby, doesn’t talk as much (can you believe it? Neither can I), then the longer layered hair, slightly thinner, and bubbly (my favorite), then the blond highlights, engagement ring, and obviously somebody got a personal trainer (her voice gets WAAAY more annoying as well). Sometimes she’s great and sometimes I want to throw my TV out the window, but I usually just change channels as this is much more cost-effective.

Anyway, time for more sleep. I hope I can calm the raging intestines and get back to work tomorrow. I HATE being sick. Last summer took the cake (the mono-type virus, liver complications and strep NIGHTMARE that kept me out of work for 6 weeks and ended in my getting the old tonsils out last fall after 5 strep infections in 3 months), but that doesn’t mean it’s any more fun to get something that isn’t serious. I learned then that sleep is the answer. I’m not going to be a martyr when it comes to illness.1/60/06

The one where she’s molding young minds

I teach part-time at a local design college, and today I realized that I really LOVE teaching. Almost more than I love my ‘real’ job. I got to school tonight all tired and wasn’t really in a teaching mood. But once I got into the brainstorming and the writing things down on the board, and talking about what I’ve been doing for the past few years, it felt great. My students ask a lot of questions, they’re interested, and they want to learn. It is a great feeling.

Last semester I started one night a week sort of on a whim. I didn’t really know anybody in my new city in The South, and someone at The Corporation asked if I would be interested. The pay was pretty decent for one night’s work, so off I went to teach a computer aided design program to a small class. And now I’m back this semester for 2 nights a week. This is a little tiring to put on top of a regular work week, and I think next semester I’ll probably knock it back down to one class again, but it’s not bad. I’m meeting a lot of cool people through the school, and making some contacts could be useful in the future. Who knows. The feeling I get talking to all these students is really worth it.

Today at The Corporation my whole department was tested for color blindness. It seemed pretty easy to me, but then in my last job I had to know about a zillion shades of denim. When I first started there my boss would look at 4 swatches of denim fabric, and say something along the lines of, “Well, this is out because it is entirely too red, and this one is too blue. What do we pay these people for???” And I’d be standing there staring hard at 4 identical pieces of fabric thinking, HUNH? Anyway, today was easy. I only got 1 wrong out of 70 or 80 color samples that I had to put in order. I haven’t gotten my results back and I really don’t know too much about the test. All I know for sure is that greens are a bitch to differentiate from each other.

Time for Project Runway! My Wednesday night guilty pleasure. (How is it that Santino is STILL THERE? Aside from the drama factor of course….

The one where she says HOT DAMN!

Well, miracles DO happen, apparently. After all of my freaking out and sleeplessness over having to get a new car (not all that unusual for me to find something to flip out about), I got a fantastic deal on a new car and the old on is GONE! Goodbye leaking oil, clicking wheels, random dead batteries, humming brakes, and broken passenger window. Not only did the dealership take it, they gave me twice the Kelly Blue Book value on it. I almost fell over from the shock.

Now I am the proud owner of a 2006 Corolla/Civic/Sentra/Jetta/Optima/Whatever, maybe not the exact car I was hoping for, but a hell of a lot better than what I’ve been driving. Hello stick shift! (YAY!) Hello 3 year warranty. Hello reliability! This is my first new car, and while it is a little terrifying (hello car payments…) it’s not as terrifying as it could be (hello car payments that are under $200 a month).

So, new car! It is sooo cute. And did I mention the color? It’s sort of a bright burgundy. Not a “HEY! COPS! OVER HERE!” red, just a nice cheerful burgundy. And I love it.

The one where the saga continues….

So, “Woody” from the service center called me with some repair estimates.

Woody: Soooo, yer oil pan seals’s aleakin’ real bad, so yer lookin’ at $ (Godawful Amount of Money) for us to fix it, and we got all the supplies ‘n’ such right here so it ain’t no big thing. Then yer left CV boot’s gonna cost ya $ (Another Godawful Amount of Money), but the right one’s real old and run down, but it ain’t cracked yet. Best to do ‘em at the same time, so that’s another $ (Godawful Amount Identical to the Previous Amount).
Another Heather: Right, and what’s going on with my battery?
Woody: Well, uh, it’s got a full charge.
AH: Uh hunh, so did you find out if something could be draining that charge?
Woody: Well, Ma’am, did you maybe leave the lights on or yer door open or somethin’? Cause it’s got a full charge….
AH: Can you look again and see if ANYTHING is going on there? Because I don’t think the lights would have killed a 3 month old battery after 4 hours.
Woody: (Long pause) Sure, and we’ll go ahead and get those boots and that oil pan seal fixed right up for ya.
AH: No, no you won’t. For now just find out what is going on with the battery and then call me back.
Woody: Weeeeelll, we’ll see what we can do.

He didn’t even say anything about the airbag light. So far they’re saying nearly $1000 in repairs (at the dealership anyway, like I’d get that work done there), and that’s not even with what’s going on in battery-land. So, I’ve decided to get a new car. I called Woody back about 2 hours later, and he said, “Oh right, uhhhh, are you sure we haven’t started those repairs yet?” And I said, “I sure do hope not since I expressly told you not to do anything.”

I don’t want to sound like all repairmen are dishonest, because I have known some good ones. But just treating me like a dumb woman is NOT going to make me happy. This is one of the hazards of being Another Heather: people get the assumption that you are an ex cheerleader/remedial math student/stripper who isn’t all that bright. (Okay, again if you are a cheerleader or a stripper, no offense intended.)

This weekend marks the beginning of the Great Car Hunt. What oh what shall I end up with? Tune in next time for another riveting episode….

The one where the saga begins....

Oh JOY, January is shaping up to suck. I had to get a root canal today. So I leave work early, get in my car, turn the key, and... nothing happens. This is not all that unusual. My battery has been dying randomly on my for a while now. So I fly out of the car, track down a co-worker with jumper cables, and we jump my car. Adding this to the long LONG list of things that need to be done to my poor Camry (new brakes, new CV boots on the front, and a new oil pan seal), I take it to the closest dealer and see if the service center can figure out what's going on with the electrical system. We shall see. Oh, and did I mention that since jumping it the airbag light has been on?

Meanwhile I am in a rented 2005 Pontiac Grand Prix which is sort of fun to drive but feels like a tank. It's costing me $30 a day. The Camry place will call me back and let me know what is going on.... Of course I am trying not to freak out, but the Kelly Blue Book price for trade in on my car is $1075, and that's in GOOD shape. Otherwise it's worth about $600. Don't you wanna trade me? I need a new car. Something reliable. With great mileage. I do a lot of driving these days, what with the 100 miles to see my handsome boyfriend every weekend, and part time teaching at a college 25 miles from home.

The whole thing makes me sad. I have LOVED my Camry. I got it in my sophmore year of college, named her Lady Luck, and it has been soooo great until the past year or so. It turned 150,000 miles a week ago and almost 80,000 of those miles are mine. I will sure miss it. And for sure I will miss not having a car payment on top of student loan and credit card debt.

Being a grown up is NOT all it is cracked up to be. Oh yeah, and my teeth are killing me, despite the 800mg Ibuprofin the endodontist gave me.

Until next time, when I'm sure I'll have an update....

The South. In January. Bleh.

There cannot be a place more depressing than The South (as a vast region), in winter. I have lived here a good part of my live now, long enough that I grudgingly call myself a Southerner, and every place I've lived since 1998 has the same feel to it come January and February.

Let me start with the architecture. The South is not really know for anything past the glamourama Antebellum homes in produced in the 1870s through the 1890s. There's just nothing there to get excited about. Gray stone and concrete and more concrete, built up into buildings that aspire to be grand but usually give out around 6 floors. Add to that the fact that The South used to be a major industrial GIANT, but is no longer that major and the problem starts to become apparent. Mile after mile of abandoned factories and warehouses, usually covered in graffiti and sporting broken windows. They look like they could just chomp you up in one bite. WHOOMP! Creepy.

The only claim to fame that The South has in the winter is the weather. Occasionally there will be a slight dusting of snow or maybe (oh joy!) an icestorm. I ignore the updates from the Office Trolls at The Corporation who are compelled to scan the weather headlines every 20 seconds or so, and I just PRAY that something exciting will happen weather-wise. Then I can snuggle up under the covers with a book and a mug of cocoa. It doesn't take much to please this girl. I remember a few years ago when I lived in a much more eastern section of The South, and there were icestorms practically every week for 2 months. That was the best winter ever- I stood in my apartment with the cocoa and watched brave/stupid souls try to navigate the treacherous roads and slide around. It was so damn entertaining. In The South when there is a prediction for any sort of frozen precipitation the grocery stores go on Red Alert. Bread, milk, and eggs are whipped up and out the door faster than you can say "French Toast".

But the frozen stuff is a rare event, particularly in The City. So I have to endure the rain. Buckets and buckets of rain fall from January to March. Gray skies, drippy eaves, Lake Parkinglot, and mold are all a big part of the fun. For Another Heather like me with SAD (like they couldn't come up with a better term for seasonal depression), the sun is a necessity in mental health. So I have come up with things to do that keep me distracted and happy, and even, perhaps, in that rare bit of sunlight we sometimes see. This week has been all about quilting (I've been working on the thing for 5 years), doing Sudoku puzzles, watching the Food Network, and now I'm trying my hand at blogging. I have a lot to say folks, at least I think I might. So I guess the shitty weather that is making me miserable is a good start.