My car doesn’t shake, grind, or stall anymore.

First the good news. My car is totally safe for children and other living things now. So, umm, YAY!

Now, the horrible, craptastic news. It cost me like $3 million to get it that way. Credit where credit’s due, the mechanic I went to is a blessed man. He did a lot for me so he didn’t have to send me on my way in a car that would probably disconnect from itself mid-highway and kill me and anything else in a 10-foot radius.

But ya, like I said, $3 million. Pretty much name a thing on a car, and then put the word “broken” in front of it, and that’s MY car.

It all started on a sunny October day when I decided the fact that my breaks were grinding probably meant I should finally take my car to a real mechanic as opposed to the guys at Farm and Fleet. And well, it was all downhill from there. Pun intended.

Turned out I needed a new set of breaks, two new tires (my old ones were literally splitting apart), new ball bearings, and like 4 other things. Also, all my break lights were out.

So, I got the work done and turned over all of my life savings to the man. And then, on a handshake and a prayer, the mechanic decided to let me pay for the rest of the work in monthly payments, which would be a silver lining if I didn’t have to pay the man so much stupid money.

Ug. I HATE car repairs.

I hate them, I hate them, I hate them.

I HATE THEM!!!

I cried about the whole thing a little yesterday, but then I pulled myself together, got a good night’s sleep, and put everything in perspective – for a relatively small price my car now won’t kill anyone.

And, I’m sure like 70 percent of you are out there screaming, “Crystal, GET A NEW CAR!” And I have just 3.5 words for you: want to co-sign?

I have to admit, it is nice that my car doesn’t shake all time anymore, and that I’m not as worried about it stalling at stop lights, and that it doesn’t make a horrible grinding sound every time I stop. It’s nice. Sure, I still need a new starter, my check engine light is still on, and the side mirror is still connected with black duct tape. But like I said, it’s totally safe now!

Yay.

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About last night

So yesterday my Aunt Flo stopped by. And she’s kind of a bio-tch, so I needed some Advil.

I knew me and my roommate had like a 200-count jar of Tylenol somewhere in the apartment though, and that in 200-count bottle of Tylenol there was some random Advil pills mixed in. So, at about 3a.m., when Flo started to through her usual fit, I went to the bathroom to grab a couple red capsules.

Except I couldn’t find them. Anywhere.

I looked in the cabinet under the sink. And in the one to the right of it. And in the one to the left of it. And I pulled all my make up out of my make-up drawer, and all the band-aids and cotton swaps out of the drawer below that. But they weren’t there.

So, then I looked in my Rubbermaid cabinet thingy that I have that April (my roommate) hates because it’s really just a symptom of how I don’t like to throw things away, because that broken fake pearl necklace might be just the thing we absolutely NEED when aliens attack us and the world ends.

I looked through all three draws though and I couldn’t find the pills, so then I decided to start pulling everything out. I pulled out seven boxes of cold medicine, some costume jewelry, five  bottles of nail polish, an old diet cleanse I bought like three years ago and never use, an old ID badge from when I interned in the statehouse in grad school, seven more boxes of cold medicine and a nail file, but I still couldn’t find the stupid bottle of pills.

And I started crying a little silently, because holy crapola is my Aunt Flo meaner than cat on a cactus when she wants to be. So, then, out of desperation, I went through every single cabinet again. I littered the whole bathroom floor with cold medicines and cotton-related products, and I didn’t even care.

That’s when April woke up, all, “Crystal? What TIME is it?”

And I was all, “Umm. 3 a.m. I have really bad cramps, where’s that bottle of Tylenol we have?”

And she was all, “Oh that. I got rid of it.”

“What!!! Why??”

“Nobody was using it.”

“I WAS USING IT!”

“Oh. Sorry.”

And in that moment I wanted to kill April.

I did. I wanted to go in the bedroom and kill her in a way that’s too mean to write about here.

But I didn’t.

Instead, I took a breather deeper than the Pacific ocean, and I cried a little more and then I went to lay in my bed in the fetal position.

In the morning, she ended up finding me some stray Midol pills with a 2007 expiration date that I hadn’t seen in my hunt, and that helped a little bit. And she told me latter that there wasn’t any Advil in that bottle she threw away anyway, so even if she’d kept it, I wouldn’t have found what I needed.

And now, about 17 hours and a fresh bottle of Advil later, I’m pretty much over it. We’re friends again and I don’t really want to kill her now. But last night. Woh-ee, if she only knew how nice I was and how close she’d come to death, she’d probably totally stop giving me crap about my Rubermade cabinet thingy.

Just sayin.

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Does this mean my new Bears coat is bad luck?

I have come to the conclusion that the Giants are meanies.

Man, that was hard to watch.

Seriously, what happens when a third-string quarter back gets hurt? Does Gould go in? Because if Gould goes in, I’d think he’d be pretty reliable in the position. I’m just sayin.

My heart goes out to Jay Cutler though. The guy doesn’t suck. He doesn’t. His offensive line just secretly hates his guts so they move out of the way anytime someone from the opposing team even looks in their direction. Or maybe they’re just scared of the other guys. Or maybe they’re just figments of our imagination, and Lovie doesn’t even actually have anyone playing those positions.

Whatever the case, I feel bad for Cutler. I didn’t see the first half of last night’s Bears’ game because I was doing church stuff, but I did listen to the second quarter on Bears Radio 780, so I heard seven of the AND CUTLER GETS SACKED AGAIN!!!s.

Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

And then, because it’s apparently a record or some crap, I got to watch the replays of all 9 sacks on Cutler over, and over, and over as commentators talked smack about my beloved Bears.

Rough night man.

On a better note, let me get a HOLLA!!! for our defense. Those guys rock. They’re all, “Oh, you think you’re going to get a touch down because you’re one yard from the goal? Ha! No. Let me just pop that ball right out of your arm.”

Good times.

But then, of course our stupid offense couldn’t even get out of the end zone so the defense had to come right back on the field. And I know they had to be tired. I would be if I played like 55 minutes of a 60 minute game because my offense thought first downs were bad luck.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m still going to go around being happy that the Bears are 3-1. That’s still good. What? It is? And maybe Sunday’s game will force the Bears to look-up “running game” this week on Wikipedia or something, and they’ll come back with some better plays.

I still have hope for this team and I still believe with all my heart that they will make the play-offs this year.

Now excuse me while I say a prayer for Cutler’s quick recovery and a new offensive line.

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