I found nasty cat hair in my lunch! I hate cats.

blogger NEVER posts files correctly. when, o when, will they get their act together?

I decided to post some pictures of my rearview mirror issues.

1. to give you a good idea about the way it broke, the first picture is of the beginning stages of my car’s mirror’s rapid decline. between this pic and the next, the whole thing just fell off and hung. when I drove on the highway, it was swinging and scratching the car door.
2. the second picture is the happy resolution to this chapter of the dilapidating car saga… I saved myself $250 by using packing tape (duct tape’s comparatively invisible cousin) to reattach the mirror. you mechanics got NOTHIN’ on me!

I have one of those. it comes every day I don’t get the sugar/caffeine shock offered by a trip to the gas station’s soda machine. it starts at around 2 and moves from the middle of my head to the front. by the end of the day, I’m squinting to see. =)

but today, I brought in a huge nalgene full of tea. it’s half empty, so I only have half a caffeine/sugar headache – the sugar half.

tomorrow we’re going to PA! I’m getting pumped… I like going home. you’re never loved more than when you’re with your family, and lately I’ve been feeling like I need that. bright n’ early tomorrow, David and I are taking off for the great East – well, he’ll be taking off. I’ll be sleeping. =) that’s the penalty for being a morning person. I’ll drive all night if you’ll let me, but forGET me getting up before 10 and driving anywhere. =)

I’d bring you all suveniers, but really… how many of you actually *want* something from PA? I’ll come back with a legally registered/inspected car and a pair of glasses. you can borrow those if you want. =)

today’s the end of my work week! I LOVE long weekends. =) bon voyage, mes ami. (hehe… is that right? I speak spanish, not french. I can pronounce what I wrote very well indeed, but I can’t spell french words for the life of me. too many years studying a phonetic language.)

anyway, I’m outta here. hasta.

the tire that was flat turned out to have a *wicked* looking screw in it… last night, I took it to the mechanics, who told me I needed to replace the tire because the hole was in the side and not in the tread. they plugged it up, moved it to the back (it’s a front-wheel drive car) and told me to get it replaced right away, which I couldn’t because no one was around to give me a ride home from the tire shop. I was pretty bitter… what good are roommates and friends if no one’s around when you need help? at times like that, I really hate living in a different city from my fiance, but really… he wouldn’t have been around to help me, anyway. he was teaching.

anyway, got up this morning and took the car in. thankfully I didn’t have any problems on the way in – it was more than twice as far as I was supposed to have driven on the plug. I had a compressor in my trunk (thanks, Mike!) and I know how to change a tire (thanks, Russ!), but what a pain. plus, it’s cold out. =)

spent most of the morning at the tire shop (no one was around to give me a ride again), but at least they gave me a discount because the tire still had so much tread in it. I paid a little over half of the tire’s original cost. but those dudes didn’t put it where I told them… I have another new tire on the passenger side front, and wanted them to put the new tire from today on the driver side front. they put it driver side rear (where the flat tire was), so now I probably have to pay someone to rotate my tires. punks.

Susan came in a little while ago to “clear the air.” she could sense that I was ticked off about some stuff, so she came in and apologized. that put me in a pretty good mood. I’ve been fuming for days about having to do some stuff over and over again… it’s very frustrating for me. I vented a little to her (kindly, of course) and she at least knows my point of view now. for today, I feel good about it.

so, not too bad of a day, although it started somewhat rockily (at work). at least the tire is fixed. all I have to do now is get an oil change and the tires rotated, and I’m ready to drive 9 hours. I got my insurance info faxed to me, so all is well for the upcoming vehicle inspections and registrations.

I’m looking forward to going home.

time after time I sit and I wait for your call
I know I’m a fool, but what can I say
whatever the price I’ll pay for you, madame blue
once long ago, one word from your lips and the world turned around
but somehow you’ve changed, you’re so far away
I long for the past and dream of the days with you, madame blue

suite madame blue, gaze in your looking glass
you’re not a child anymore
suite madame blue, the future is all but past
dressed in your jewels, you made your own rules
you conquered the world and more… heaven’s door

red white and blue, gaze in your looking glass
you’re not a child anymore
red, white, and blue, the future is all but past
so lift up your heart, make a new start
and lead us away from here

so when this was written, people felt the same way about America as they do now… disillusioned. they were thinking about the power that this country used to wield economically, idealistically, etc… and how that had been tainted by overreaching our bounds and political weaseling. but rather than just denouncing the country like folks do now, styx says to America, “regain our trust!” and still remains faithful.

I just get tired of hearing how horrible America is today.

my car. it’s a drama. right now, it’s in the shop again for the same thing – rear brakes. the mechanics are just inept, I guess. unfortunately, with the job status like it is right now, I can’t afford to take the Grand Am somewhere else and pay for the same repairs. and besides, those mechanics are supposed to have done it right!

last night we took the car in and Bethany had an in-your-personal-space chat with the poor dude who took my keys. =) for now, I’m driving her dad’s awful bulbous TAN Taurus. but hey… at least the brakes work. =)

my roommate Bethany is a lovely girl. she likes her job, generally, and enjoys most of her coworkers. she has a crabby, passive agressive boss, but gets along pretty well anyway. there is one person, however, who continues to make poor Bethany miserable.

this woman took over as receptionist, but, oddly enough, has no skills. she can’t load paper into a copier, can’t send an email, doesn’t understand cutting and pasting in MS Word, and can’t handle the phone system. she doesn’t get the chain of command thing. she constantly asks Bethany the same questions and won’t let Bethany get any of her work done.

despite all of that, Bethany smiles and helps her when she asks. “Z”, we’ll call her, asks for help from Bethanyand gets it, but is nasty. she starts conversations and snips at Bethany for responding. Bethany says, “good morning” and Z goes off. so Bethany stops saying “good morning” and Z goes off. it’s a no-win situation. well, yesterday, things came to a head when Bethany was called into passive agressive boss’s office and told that Z felt Bethany was “crowding” her. Bethany is livid and doesn’t know how to leave Z alone more than she already is, save not helping her when she asks for it. so she’s going to try that for a while.

in honor of the horrible work week that Bethany and I have had, I’ve done some therapeutic artwork.

Bethany and Z:

you know the saying, “when it rains, it pours”?   yesterday sucked.

I took my car in yesterday morning. the brakes weren’t working again – lots of squealing and I had to start braking WAY back from intersections, which was causing me to run red lights. all of this plus an oil change mechanic saying I was having “brake system failure” made me a little nervous. this is time #3 in the shop for the rear brakes.

so, I walked in, explained what was going on, then had Elayne come pick me up. got a call later in the afternoon saying that nothing was wrong. I said, “what? nothing’s wrong but I can’t stop my car in the mornings?” he said, “well, the wheel cylinders were seeping, but that wouldn’t have caused the kind of problem you’re talking about. we replaced them anyway, though, so you should be fine.” whatever. I told him to look again and *find* the thing that was making my car not stop, if it wasn’t the “seeping” cylinders. he decided to check the abs controller, kept it overnight, and I’m still waiting to hear back. oh, and it ticked me off that he said, “well, I don’t know your braking habits, but I can’t find anything.” like I was braking too hard at 30mph from 10 car lengths back and making my car skid! ugh.

wireless, shmireless.

this sucks. long story short: I can’t get the files I need from my laptop to my computer at work.

long story long: I was out for three days. the first was last Friday – I left Thursday night for PA. I wanted to be home for my Dad’s 50th birthday. then I got back, had some funky orange juice and got sick.

didn’t go to work on Monday because I was up sick Sunday night. then I went in Tuesday morning feeling mostly fine, but the boss sent me home. she thought it was the flu and I couldn’t say it wasn’t for *sure*, so I turned around and went right back home. see, her husband had hodgkins a long time ago and had chemo. the chemo nuked the cilia in his lungs, so the flu is dangerous. he gets the flu, it’s pretty surely going to be pneumonia because there’s no cilia to push the gunk out of the lungs. he gets pneumonia, there’s a good chance he dies. so I didn’t work yesterday.

no problem, right? I had my laptop and had them email me some files the night before, so I just did my work at home on the couch. well, I brought the laptop in today (has a wireless network card) to transfer the files. ha. my card has no problem getting on the network, only with connecting to the internet. straight from lynksis’s mouth: “you are conected to the access point, but the Internet cannot be found.”

now, why is this such a big deal, you ask? can’t you just copy the files to a disk or a thumb drive or burn a cd? no, no and no. my computer at work is so high tech it doesn’t *have* a floppy drive. my laptop’s usb drive is so flaky that thumb drives are pointless. my laptop’s so old it doesn’t have a cd burner. the only option is emailing the files to myself, but I can’t do that because “the Internet cannot be found”. so I have the files in one place and can’t get them to another less than a foot away.

isn’t technology wonderful?