if it's not one thing... it's another.
So TRUE!!!
I *just* got my brakes fixed about two weeks ago ($120)... then I got hit with the bad check situation, which still hasn't been resolved.
Today, after being on the phone with the check stuff for several hours, I got a phone call from one of my closest friends, Genevieve (aka Genny... Peanut Head). We grew up together from about the time we were in diapers and were only distant for a few years (during her goth phase, which just weirded me out). Anyway, she's leaving on March 9th. "What? To go where?," I asked her. I was so confused. She's leaving for basic training. "I just joined the Army for a five (5!) year enlistment." It was so sudden and shocking that it made me nausiated.
I can't even believe it... it seemed like she was just getting her life straight (after years of trying to hold down a real job, doing drugs, being a stripper, and intermittenly taking a class or two at MDCC), and now she's leaving to the ARMY? She just graduated from City College with a 2-year nursing assistant degree a few months ago. I *thought* she was applying to complete her LPN through a Baptist Hospital program. But the ARMY?! In the middle of a war? I shouldn't be surprised considering her father is a Vietnam vet, her Grandpa a WWII vet, her brothers were both Army/Coast Guard, but still. It's so upsetting and scary. She said they gave her a 20k sign-on bonus, and they're paying off her 30k in school loans. "Plus, I'm going to enter as an E3 officer, starting at $1600/month and moving up to 70k/year after 2 years... blah blah blah." I really stopped listening at some point. What good is all of that if the hospital where you're working gets bombed or blown up? Maybe I just have an active imagination, but I see and hear the horrible stories every day.
I definitely choked up after hanging up with her.
After that mess, I drove up to my 6:30pm Ameriprise class at the Datran. I noticed as I was entering the parking garage and going up the ramp, that my car seemed to be doing some really weird stuff. The radio was coming on and off for starters...
Then, I noticed that my window didn't really want to go up. So I immediately thought it was a battery issue and started trying out some more high-powered things. I turned on my brights, and sure enough, the radio went off again. I turned off the brights... radio came on. So I say to myself, "Self, this is definitely the battery."
I called my mom to let her know that I might not have a car when the class was over. "So call Triple A then," she tells me.
When I came out of the class, my car actually did start, but by the time I got from level 3 of the garage to level 1, my lights were almost off... I couldn't see them in the road. My dashboard lights were all very dim, my radio wouldn't run, my window wouldn't go up. By the time I got part of the way up US1 (I headed toward Starbucks by UM), my whole car seemed near demise. I barely made it into the parking lot...
AAA came and figured out that a) it wasn't a battery problem, and b) that it was the alternator. FUCK.
The guy told me for my model car, it's probably going to be about $400 with labor and parts. My mom already said she's not helping me. My grandfather doesn't deserve the stress, so I don't even want to ask him. I have nobody else to rely on. I don't have the money. I can't earn the money without the car. I am supposed to tutor tomorrow and have no way of getting to the houses.
So... the Haiku of the day...
Genevieve Army.
Car is definitely cashed.
Surely I am too.
I *just* got my brakes fixed about two weeks ago ($120)... then I got hit with the bad check situation, which still hasn't been resolved.
Today, after being on the phone with the check stuff for several hours, I got a phone call from one of my closest friends, Genevieve (aka Genny... Peanut Head). We grew up together from about the time we were in diapers and were only distant for a few years (during her goth phase, which just weirded me out). Anyway, she's leaving on March 9th. "What? To go where?," I asked her. I was so confused. She's leaving for basic training. "I just joined the Army for a five (5!) year enlistment." It was so sudden and shocking that it made me nausiated.
I can't even believe it... it seemed like she was just getting her life straight (after years of trying to hold down a real job, doing drugs, being a stripper, and intermittenly taking a class or two at MDCC), and now she's leaving to the ARMY? She just graduated from City College with a 2-year nursing assistant degree a few months ago. I *thought* she was applying to complete her LPN through a Baptist Hospital program. But the ARMY?! In the middle of a war? I shouldn't be surprised considering her father is a Vietnam vet, her Grandpa a WWII vet, her brothers were both Army/Coast Guard, but still. It's so upsetting and scary. She said they gave her a 20k sign-on bonus, and they're paying off her 30k in school loans. "Plus, I'm going to enter as an E3 officer, starting at $1600/month and moving up to 70k/year after 2 years... blah blah blah." I really stopped listening at some point. What good is all of that if the hospital where you're working gets bombed or blown up? Maybe I just have an active imagination, but I see and hear the horrible stories every day.
I definitely choked up after hanging up with her.
After that mess, I drove up to my 6:30pm Ameriprise class at the Datran. I noticed as I was entering the parking garage and going up the ramp, that my car seemed to be doing some really weird stuff. The radio was coming on and off for starters...
Then, I noticed that my window didn't really want to go up. So I immediately thought it was a battery issue and started trying out some more high-powered things. I turned on my brights, and sure enough, the radio went off again. I turned off the brights... radio came on. So I say to myself, "Self, this is definitely the battery."
I called my mom to let her know that I might not have a car when the class was over. "So call Triple A then," she tells me.
When I came out of the class, my car actually did start, but by the time I got from level 3 of the garage to level 1, my lights were almost off... I couldn't see them in the road. My dashboard lights were all very dim, my radio wouldn't run, my window wouldn't go up. By the time I got part of the way up US1 (I headed toward Starbucks by UM), my whole car seemed near demise. I barely made it into the parking lot...
AAA came and figured out that a) it wasn't a battery problem, and b) that it was the alternator. FUCK.
The guy told me for my model car, it's probably going to be about $400 with labor and parts. My mom already said she's not helping me. My grandfather doesn't deserve the stress, so I don't even want to ask him. I have nobody else to rely on. I don't have the money. I can't earn the money without the car. I am supposed to tutor tomorrow and have no way of getting to the houses.
So... the Haiku of the day...
Genevieve Army.
Car is definitely cashed.
Surely I am too.