you can't believe it's happening again

in the spirit of trying to talk about things that are not related to babies or pregnancy, let me tell you all a story about how moving to a different county made my husband very unlucky with cars in the cold.

it all started a little under two months ago.

aside from a bit of snow, it was an ordinary day, and my husband was driving home from work. he was probably listening to that sports channel on the radio that i hate because the two guys who do the morning show are chauvinistic, sexist assholes who think they're funny when they're really just gross, and thinking about whether he wanted to stop by mcdonalds on the way home and get chicken nuggets for dinner. (we lead a thrilling life, the two of us.) traffic slowed, as it is known to do, and he eased on his breaks just like everyone else. well, everyone except for the guy behind him that is. because as it turned out, that guy behind him had lost control of his car. if you have ever dealt with a car out of control, you'll know that their favorite thing to do is crash into things. and that's exactly what this car did. and by "things," i obviously mean the back of my husband's car.

that started a period of calling insurance companies and getting the car appraised and figuring out what exactly needed to be fixed and how. then came the part of dropping the car off and getting a rental and living out of someone else's car for days while his car got fixed. which is fun at first, but gets old real quick i'm told.

anyway, he gets his car back and everything is right with the world. well, until a couple of weeks later when we get some more snow. we were out for the day with my car, and when we got home, my husband went to check the mail. he comes into the house a few minutes later furious because someone had hit his newly fixed car. there was some major damage to the driver's side door area. luckily, the lady who had hit him left her information. it turned out that her car had skid on the roads that should have been cleaned because that is why we pay our homeowner's fee. his poor car screeched in pain anytime he opened the door, and if he was driving fast down the highway, there was a definite breeze coming in.

that started a period of calling insurance companies and getting the car appraised and figuring out what exactly needed to be fixed and how. then came the part of dropping the car off and getting a rental and living out of someone else's car for days while his car got fixed. which is fun at first, but gets old real quick i'm told.

after being told that the car had more damage than they originally thought after they started taking it apart and that they would have to keep it a few extra days, he finally got it back. one night, he walked into the house a little later than usual and excitedly announced, "i have my car again." and then two days later we got a dusting of snow. not much, but enough to make the roads icy i suppose. it was sunday morning and i was sitting on the couch watching darcy eat his breakfast and waiting for my computer to start up. all of a sudden, i hear my husband running down the stairs.

"i think someone just hit my car," he said.

i laughed. "you're joking."

he shook his head. "there's a car parked right next to it and the guy is taking pictures. i'm gonna go check," he said, pulling on a hoodie and shoving his feet into his shoes.

he came back in a few minutes later in an exponentially worse mood. the guy had, in fact, hit his car. apparently he had started to fishtail and so he slammed his foot on the gas in a panic and turned right into the front of my husband's poor, abused car.

and that, once again and hopefully for the last time, started a period of calling insurance companies and getting the car appraised and figuring out what exactly needed to be fixed and how. on saturday will come the part of dropping the car off and getting a rental and living out of someone else's car for days while his car gets fixed. which is fun at first, but gets old real quick i'm told.

on the bright side, he now has experience at three different auto shops and rental places in the area because each insurance worked with a different one. so if we ever have anything else happen to our cars, he'll know which one to take it to.

*Waste Time - Eagles

but all the possibilities, no limits just epiphanies

do you know that i cannot remember the last time that i stayed in my pajamas all day? i'm not even sure how that happened, but there it is. i haven't just had a spend-all-day-lounging-around-the-house without guilt or shame in so long. but today will change that. i am staying in my pajama pants forever (that happen to be way too big on me and also have hogwarts written down my left thigh) and only leaving the living room to go as far as the kitchen (and okay maybe down to the basement to grab a diet rootbeer), and no one can stop me.

there is something extremely freeing about being stranded at your parents' house. my husband's car is currently being nursed back to health by some mechanics so he took reggie (my car, in case you're new) to work. my parents drove my grandmother up to CT in their minivan, and my sister took their other car to work this morning. which all leaves me: carless. and let me tell you, it is wonderful. it's been over a year since i could use the excuse, "oh sorry i can't. i don't have a car." and i have missed it. it's also great that i'm stranded at my parents' house instead of my apartment because not only is there more space, there is also no sense of responsibility telling me that since i'm at home all day anyway i should clean and cook and get rid of all the clothes that i haven't worn in years. and with the semester being over, i can tell myself that i should get at least two weeks of summer vacation before sitting down to do the work i should have already done. it's perfect.

anyway, i hope that your day is wonderful. i am off to do whatever i feel like.

i can suddenly really relate to lemonhope. and just in case you are not an adventure time watcher, here is what i mean:

*Best Day Of My Life - American Authors

if i had my own world... there'd be no more... packed parking lots

yesterday morning i started writing a post about something semi-interesting (to me at least) that has nothing to do with what goes on in my everyday life because i like to shake it up sometimes. since i had already written a post about sadness (but mostly nothing) just an hour earlier, i had decided to save it for today. but then i went to campus, and the frustration that i suffered pushed semi-interesting thoughts to another day.

so, a bit of backstory. i used to drive to campus all the time. obviously. but then i got married and only had one class to take and buying a parking permit for hundreds of dollars so that my car (that i did not have at the time) could sit on a mason lot for three hours a week just did not make sense. especially since there was a shuttle that went from basically my backyard to campus every day. then i made a stupid decision and started the struggle that is the mason phd program. and while i was on campus more often, all of my classes were night classes and the shuttle starts running at three and i still did not have a car and parking permit prices were raised. so i continued to just take the shuttle, and when i needed to be on campus for a bit early in the day, i would use the meter parking (where it is usually very easy to find a spot). (side note: my husband and i were sharing his car at the time. he was also taking classes. so the car was usually free in the mornings.) 

but this semester i have to be on campus a lot. and most of the time it is before three. and paying for parking every day just did not make sense, so i went out and bought myself a parking permit. (my credit card was really sad that hundreds of dollars were spent on something besides books. it's still in mourning.)

but the thing about taking the shuttle for the past few years was that, while i knew that parking on campus was bad (i mean, it's not something that you easily forget), i guess i distanced myself from exactly how bad. yesterday, i found out just how awful it really is. (the university got a bunch more students, closed some of the lots, and "doesn't guarantee you a space with the purchase of a permit" which basically means that they sell way more permits than they have available parking spaces.) i sat in my car circling the lots forever. to put things into perspective for you, i went through the entire maroon 5 CD that i had playing in my car and still did not find a spot. 

and every time i would leave an area all the parked cars in it would just disappear and everyone behind me would miraculously find spaces immediately. so the next time i would stay in an area longer, knowing that the minute i left it the students would be out of class and come move their cars, but they never came. the second i left, there they all were. i should hire myself out as a spot finder for other people. maybe that way i could get back the money for this permit that makes me half an hour late to my office hours and annoyed to the point of wanting to punch every single person i see in the face. 

i obviously have a great semester of parking to look forward to. 

*Secret Crowds - Angels and Airwaves

as we pull up in our brand new used car

[one] when i was younger, i always said that i wanted my first car to be some used piece of crap. i liked to romanticize everything back then (can't say i've really grown out of that, though) and loved the idea for some reason. as i grew older, i changed my mind. i definitely wanted my first car to be a new one. this, however, is a year for younger me's dreams to come true, and so today a bought my first car, and it is used. while not a piece of crap, it is still about a decade old, and so i think it qualifies as fulfillment of the dream. it is a lot older than the car i've gotten used to driving lately (the one i shared with my husband until he decided to grow up and need it for work) and is a bit of an adjustment. but i have a car, and that's pretty awesome. (in case you were wondering, his name is reginald fairfield after the character from boy meets world of the same name. i was reminded of him for some reason.)

[two] i was walking outside in the freezing wind and my hands froze. i've been in my apartment for almost an hour now, and yet i'm still having difficulty typing because my fingers are numb. the heat is on, but i kinda wanna go find my gloves because this is ridiculous. of course, i'm using this as an excuse for not doing the homework i have due tomorrow (but who assigns homework for the class after the midterm? i mean, seriously.) or the research that is not technically due tomorrow but that i stupidly said i'd have in by the end of the week. saturday can be the end of the week, too, though. right?

[three] i also need to decide what to do about my brother's birthday cake. his birthday is next friday, and while that may seem like a million years away i need to go get ingredients and decorations and stuff. problem is, i can't for the life of me decide what it should look like. it's going to be harry potter related to match my presents, and he said he wanted it to be butterbeer flavored so i'm just going to use the recipe i used to make butterbeer cupcakes, but the design? completely clueless. i was originally thinking of just making a giant snitch because that would be super easy, or to do a sheet cake and draw glasses/lightening bolt/wand/etc on it, but then i googled harry potter cakes and some of those things are super amazing. it kind of made me want to try something like that myself, despite the fact that i lack the required skill set.

*Used Cars - Bruce Springsteen