Bitte Gott, ließ mich sterben

My day yesterday was just sh-t.

On the way to work, I had a catastrophic wiper blade failure, and it was flopping all over the place. I wasn't somewhere I could pull over and fix it either. And thank goodness it was pouring rain at the time. So I got to work and put it back on, hoping it was just a fluke.

So after having numerous things of varying intensity go wrong at work all day, I did what most two year olds do to cope with frustration and sobbed in the bathroom for 15 minutes. The only thing I hate more than crying is crying in public, especially at work. I HATE IT. And that, in turn, made me even more upset.

On the way back from the dr.'s office to work, the wiper blade freaked out again. I realized that it's probably just broken and dealt with it till I got back to the office. IT Guy came out and put it on again, and I just needed it to hang on until I could get to AutoZone after work.

I left and got some winterized blades for my car. The guy behind the counter called me "sir," and I just felt that was par for the course of the day. I was able to get the broken one off and replaced, no problem. The other one wouldn't come off, though. So I had to go back in and ask one of the guys to help me replace the one. The guy raises an eyebrow and says with a smirk to me, "Usually when someone can't do something, they ask for help." I replied, "Well, I usually CAN replace a wiper blade, but as you can see, my left hand doesn't really work." /sigh

I went home, put on pajamas, crawled under my electric blanket, and refused to do anything for the rest of the day.

Today has only been mildly better. I'm looking forward to 5pm Wednesday. Ugh.

Must...watch...

"If you live in that part of the Venn Diagram where Star Trek and Monty Python overlap, (as I do) I suspect you will be glad you watched this." - Wil Wheaton

Dunder borealis in the snofran, thank you.

Yar, it's been a crazy weekend.

I did a boatload of trailer checks on Friday. I had no idea Twilight was going to be an all-out frenzy for high school girls. Every showing Friday night was sold out, and they were already selling out Saturday showings. And I suppose it's unfair to say it's for high school girls because there were plenty of adult women, many in their 40s even, who were freaking the f--- out over this movie. I guess I'll have to try out the first novel and see if I can stand all the teen angst.

Yesterday, Amanda and I met my m-i-l for Chantilly's annual holiday open house and desert tasting. I reserved my usual chocolate log, and tried out some other tasty things. I then went home and made 4 loaves of pumpkin bread. At 3pm, Leah calls and asks me if I'm coming to her jewelry party. I'm like, "Yeah, it's tonight right?" And she's all, "Um, it started 45 mins ago." /sigh Worst. Friend. Ever. And to make matters worse, only her mom showed up. argh. I felt even worse about mixing up the time with Tanya's last week. I ended up staying in last night because I'm still not super-fond of driving after dark if I don't have to.

I dragged Kev to Flower Factory this morning, so I could get a Christmas tree. I donated my old one through Dayton Freecycle. It went to a family who couldn't afford a tree this year, so that made me happy. They came and picked it up off the porch yesterday. I picked out one last week, and Kev pointed out that it's awfully fat for the space we have. So he helped me find a slightly narrower one, and it was on sale for $85! Woohoo! Now I just have to drag out my Xmas decorations and get started.

Tonight, Amanda and I are meeting my mom for the Magical Night of Giving at Fairfield Commons. I'm not really planning to buy anything, and if I do, it'll be for Xmas. I just want to go and enjoy the festivities and do a dry run for DAT shopping this Friday. I'm giddy with the thought of hardcore shopping.

Is your cat trying to kill you?

Adventures in car buying

Ryan and I first went to look at a dark gray 2006 xB that was listed for $11.6k. We took it for a test drive, and it shimmied like paint mixer at 65mph. We pulled it over on the way home to inspect it better. There were scratches all over it, holes and cigarette burns in the seats, and it was FILTHY. It looked like someone smeared mud all over the interior, let it dry, and then ran a vacuum over it. But strangely, as Ryan pointed out, the carpeting was pristine, which means they likely had to replace it because it was so damaged, and we speculated that it had been through about 2 feet deep (or more) muddy water by looking down past the engine under the hood.

When we got it back to the dealership, Shake (yes, that was really his name) tried to get us to put a price on it. I said, "$9000 out the door," and he was all but running to get the paperwork for me to sign. "BUT," I said, "I'm going to go look at the other cars I planned to today before I make a decision." Seeing his eagerness to dump a $12k car for $9k cash made the hair on my neck stand up and my gut flip-flop. I knew 100% right then I wasn't buying a car he was so eager to dump for so cheap. I'd like to add that Shake looked, acted, talked like, and even had the same mannerisms as Vince Vaughn. It was bizarre. And the whole time he was talking to me, I kept singing the Shake-zula verse of AquaTeen Hungerforce theme song over and over in my head.

So we headed to the next dealership. Unfortunately, I fell in love about 3 feet away from the car. You see, the key to getting a good price is to be able to walk away and not give a hoot if you get the car or not. So I was instantly selling myself short, and I knew it. I could probably have gotten another $500 knocked off the car, in addition to the $1200 I got knocked off anyway, but it was worth it.

It's beautiful dark blue, and it had some extras that xB's don't originally come with. It has the upgraded 6-disc CD changer, which I did NOT tell the salesman about. If he's not informed on his own vehicles, that's not my problem. It also has a remote starter, cruise control, dark tinted windows all around rather than just the back (again, I didn't tell the salesman about that), and it was pristine condition. It also still has about 11k miles left on the original warranty, which is nice.

I got a great deal on it, considering the same car is going for $14k-16k up here, and I'd never have gotten them down to the price I paid...

status quo

Sorry, have had some personal things going on that I can't talk about in a public forum. Will update again soon with something not newsworthy.

My ballot is cast...

And no, I won't discuss it. Instead, here are some Onion headlines Amanda sent to me today that made me snort.

Headlines I read this morning:

Bush: “Can I stop being president now?”

McCain refusing to tell voters what’s in the box unless elected.

Struggling lower-class still unsure how best to f*ck selves with vote.

Blog by Cindy McCain: A vote for my husband is a vote for me not to break your f*cking neck

Voting machines elect one of their own as president.

Obama undertakes presidential internship to ease fears about his lack of experience.

Obama warns he may cease to exist unless America believes in him.

Sarah Palin gets punk'd

Sarah Palin gets punk'd.

Halloweeny...for sure.

Went out for Halloween last night, and damn, was it disappointing. It was great to see Amy, Leah, and Mike, but the rest of it was the pits. The Monster Hop hadn't even had the first band play at 11:15, and hardly anyone was in costume. I ducked out around that time and went to the next party.

Therapy Café wasn't any better. Mike had warned me it was a lousy venue for dancing, but I was fine with just hanging out and listening to some great music from DJ Kris and catching up with the crowd since the Foundry closed. But only a handful of people from that scene showed up, and again, hardly anyone was in costume.

The sound was terrible, but it was the acoustics of the place that sucked and not DJ Kris. On the upside, you could have a conversation without having to shout. By the time they held the costume contest at 1am, there were about 10 people left in the audience. And when you have a contest based on audience applause, the same 10 people whoop for everyone, making it indiscernible as to who actually "won." I didn't bother entering. I didn't see the point.**

And it was so dark in the club, you couldn't even see what anyone else was wearing. Kind of lame for a costume party, no? I managed to dump 1.5 martinis all over Leah's ass and legs. Good times.

I decided to go into work for a few hours today to make up for taking off yesterday. I was so tired and had so much work left to do on my costume that I decided to take off. It's ridiculous I didn't get the day off anyway. But that's another blog...

**Audience-based judging is nothing more than a popularity contest and completely worthless as a judging technique for costumes. I don't waste my time.