Car talk

Fine, I need a new car. Anyone want to buy me one?

On Sunday I was just church-ing along and whatnot and I got in my little emerald green two-door vehicle I lovingly refer to as Penelope with my sister and we attempted to set off for Taco Bell.

Except, you know, it wouldn’t go from park to reverse, or park to drive, or park to neutral or park to anything.

I’m not going to lie, it’s happened before. Once or twice or 20 times, but each time I just said a prayer and wiggled things and banged others and BAM it would shift.

This time, not so much.  (I can only assume it finally decided to take out its anger at me for not ever getting oil changes).

Anyway, so before I started crying or whatever, I called some church people over to help, but nobody seemed to be able to make the stupid thing shift out of park. So, then one of my church friends started reading through the owner’s manual and he figured out some way to override the shifting thingy but sticking a screw driver into a random hole next to the park thingy.

We didn’t have a screw driver though, so we settled on testing out various nails, and then viola! a thick silver one did the trick.

And then, you know, two seconds later the stupid handle on the shifting thingy popped off and my car was all, NO!! SERIOUSLY!!! I AM MAD AND I’M NOT GOING TO WORK!! LOSER!!!

I cried a ton on the inside and a little on the outside. We all gathered together though and calmed Penelope down by slipping the handle back on just so. And sure, it randomly turns around while I go down the street, but the point is that I CAN go down the street. (For now).

And I know for a true fact that this whole time you are shouting at the computer, “CRYSTAL, IT IS TIME TO BUY A NEW CAR!! AND ISN’T YOUR MIRROR FALLING OFF?? SERIOUSLY. GO. NOW. BUY. NEW. CAR!!”

But for serious, I don’t have any money. See, I live in my own place and whatnot and I have student loans that I like to pay most months and well, you know, food is important and so all that doesn’t leave any money left over. Plus, my credit score is lower than well, everyone’s, so there’s that.

So for now, I’m just going to start my car while simultaneously sticking a random nail in a random slot and pray that it doesn’t break down on the highway or while I make a left turn onto Rt. 59. Sounds like a solid plan if I ever heard one. Right Penelope. Penelope? You there? Hello? Crap.

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Finally. (re: Blago)

OMG!! OMG!! OMG!! There is finally verdict (ish) in the Blagojevich trial!!

In less than two hours we will finally, sort of, maybe find out this man’s fate!!!

Holla!!

It seems like just yesterday that it was 2005, and he was still an under-the-radar narcissist working in the capitol, and I was but a lowly intern stalking him for quotes at discrete back-door entrances to underground tunnels. Him, donning his forceful press secretary and blacker than black, black hair; me with my uncomfortable heels and a need to please my boss by getting even one word on the record.

Oh how I still vividly remember, where I gang-banged him with a slew of real reporters, as we huddled around him hoping against hope that we would get a quote or three. One time, I actually dropped my digital recorder, and he stopped everything so he could lean over, pick it up, and hand it to me.

Those were the days man.

And then, wow, I can still remember every stunning detail about his near-jail experience. There I was scrolling through an early morning breaking news alert on my pink blackberry (what ever happened to Blackberry?) while I sat on the toilet. Blagojevich Arrested.  Dec. 9, 2008.

Woah.

Has it been two and a half years already, dude? Where does the time go?

No lie, it was pretty disappointing last time we were told of an impeding verdict.  Really jurors? All you could agree on was one freaking count? Really? For shame.

Now though, it seems as though the latest round of jurors has agreed on 18 glorious counts! How splendid!

I simply cannot wait to find out whether or not Blagojevich will be spending time in jail or on some sort of reality show in the fall. Could go either way, you know.

Personally, I’m rooting for an appearance on “The Voice.” That, or “Survivor,” would be Bleepin’ Golden.

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The true tale of a business trip

I’m totally exhausted.

I’m currently on a business trip in Hotlanta, Georgia at a candy conference. It’s awesome and wonderful and fantastic and I’m so grateful that my company pays for me to see the peach tree headquarters.

But, I’m so exhausted that I want to cry and sleep and take a hot bath all at once.

I originally needed to be here Sunday night, so I could have meetings starting early Monday, but I worked at church until about 8:30 p.m. Sunday night, so I arranged to instead take a flight out of O’Hare at 6 a.m. Monday morning.

That meant I had to wake up at 2:30 a.m. so I could leave for the airport by 3:30 a.m. so I could get there by about 4:15 a.m. so I could get my full body scan before boarding.

This is the picture I took from my glorious window seat. Immediately after, I feel asleep and slept all the way until we started to land and my ears popped like pop corn.

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Then, when I got to town, I took a cab to the hotel where they held the conference last time I was here in February. Except, you know, OBVIOUSLY, it was not at that hotel this time. So I walked down two blocks to the RIGHT hotel and luckily they let me check in early as crap.

This is the view from my room. The random circle building looks interesting.

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This is the couch in my room. It is full of my stuff. Ignore the underwear. Focus on the Fannie May Mint Meltaways in the yellow box, which I scored in my meeting with Fannie May.

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This is my bed. I love hotel beds. And hotel blankets. And hotel pillows.

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I also sat at a random table at dinner last night, and randomly Lee Dyer was sitting next to me. He is NFL referee #27, and he even gave me his official NFL card to me to prove it. The only picture I got of him was taken in a sort of stalkerish way, so it’s a little blurry. But here he is. Also, I have his email, so if you see him make any bad pass interference calls next season (assuming there is a season), let me know and I’ll shoot him a note.

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To sum up, I’ve been juggling meetings and church business and meetings and networking and meetings and emails from the office and meetings and writing and meetings since I arrived. Fun times.

The first time I ever took a business trip that was more than an hour from my cubicle, my colleague Bronson and I drove from Pierre, S.D. to Sioux Falls, S.D. We covered Sen. Tim Johnson’s first press conference since his brain injury.  I was broke, and Bronson was broke, and my newspaper was broke, so we had to pool all our money for the gas and then, for dinner, we had to eat cold spaghetti out of a Tupperware container while standing by the trunk of my car in a random parking lot because we didn’t even have enough money for Taco Bell.

That sucked.

This is better.

But I’m still totally exhausted.

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