Holy cow.

Twenty-seven, and that ain't no lie.

Cold AND Rainy

I'm in Lubbock ... and I refuse to turn on the heater upstairs at my mom's house, so I'm wearing flannel pajamas to bed. I hope you all know how happy this makes me.

Lubs in da Hubs.

I'm going to Lubbock tomorrow for a visit. I feel the need to see my mom, sister, and friends on my birthday week. (Unfortunately, Aunt Kay will be out of town for a HR seminar. Boooo. I feel I need to see her, too. It will have to wait for the holidays. They are soon. This is good news.)

To be honest, I just need to get away for a few days. Things have been a little rough here for me lately with the incessant (seemingly dead end) job search, and I simply need a break from the frustration ... an excuse to just not think about it. (You really see just how bad the economy is right now when you are "out there" for the first time, trying to make your way into the professional world. Sucks.)

I also need a haircut, like, super-bad. My hair hasn't been this long ... well ... maybe ever. The only person I trust to come anywhere near my mane with scissors is a lady named Katherine back home. This has proven to be somewhat inconvenient the past year, but that's okay. She's great, and I'm loyal. :)

This afternoon, Alex and I were going to go to the gym and run around a bit (look for a new apartment), but have decided to just take it easy and chill at home instead. Since I'm going to be gone the better part of this week, we both want to spend some time alone together before I leave. Through the great irritation that I have been feeling lately, he has been my constant supporter, bring my spirits up when I need a boost. I do miss him when we are apart.

Plus, I have to pick up Mel from the airport around 7 and we are doing our weekly Sunday dinner with my dad around 6. Oh, and I have to pack this evening as well. (Kind of essential when traveling.) I'm taking the time to write this while the boyfriend tests out Force Unleashed on the Wii. From what I can tell, it looks pretty neat. I'm not the video game connoisseur here, but the one who is seems to be having an okay time. (Oh, wait, apparently "the camera angles suck.")

Moving on ... I think my main goals while in Lubbock will be hanging out with family, seeing m friends as many times as time will allow, learning some new sewing techniques from my mom, kidnapping her for some shopping and possibly a movie, conjuring up a Halloween costume, planning another visit, and talking Norbs into buying some fainting goats for his mostly vacant pasture. (No lie!)

Oh, oh, OH! And ... I checked the weather.com for packing purposes and it looks like it is going to be chilly and rainy the entire time I am back home. Did you read that?! Chilly and rainy!!!!! Whoo-hoo! Bring. It. ON!!!

'Gossip'

Ray LaMontagne has put his new, unreleased CD up on his MySpace page (Gossip In The Grain). It might be love. His voice is quite insane.

Click HERE for the songs.

I, myself, scrolled down to the bottom and intended to work my way back up. Somehow, I'm still stuck on the last 3: You Are The Best Thing, Let It Be Me, and Sarah.

Pets

I think I would like a penguin and a fainting goat.

Car people suck!!!

Before I begin, let me just say that I realize me bitching about my dealing with rude/incompetent/sexist car people really doesn't make for "enjoyment reading," but I need and I do mean NEED to vent.

Begin rant.

So, I picked my car up a little over a week ago from the body shop. All they were supposed to do was fix the scratched paint and dents from when some jackass hit me while I was parked a few months back. Fix the paint, sure, they did that. However, they also managed to somehow screw up my dashboard. What I mean is that within 24 hours of getting my "fixed" car from the body shop, an array of warning lights came on and remained.

Of the warning lights, the Malfunction Indicator Lamp was the most persistent. For those of you (like me) who have no clue what that is, it's just about the worst light that can come on in your car. It means something (of about 150, I've been told) is wrong with your car's engine and operating system. I think we can all agree that this is not a good thing, right? Right.

Due to this light (which had never been on in my BRAND NEW, LESS THAN A YEAR OLD, FULLY PAID-FOR Jetta before taking it into the body shop), I called the shop, took it back in, to which they replied I needed to take it to the VW Service Station by the same dealer. So ... I took it in. But, oh wait! You need an appointment for them to actually look at what their body shop effed up. (Why wouldn't you?!) The earliest appointment available ... a week away. Sure! Great! Hooray! Or not.

Yesterday was my destined day to get my car serviced and fixed (still from whatever malfunction they caused in the damn first place). So, I took it in, I left it, they never called, I finally called right before they were to close, I was told something very bizarre which I didn't understand over the phone (basically that they didn't fix the problem, but the light had gone off ... may come back on, may not), and that I could come pick the car up this morning.

At 9am, there I was ... picking the car up. I asked to be debriefed on what exactly happened to my car in their service station (mind you, for the SECOND TIME), that made the car ready to pick up, but not fixed ... with a 'maybe/maybe not" explanation of the lights.

This is where it gets even better ...

Well, as it happens, while they were running the diagnostic on my car, their scanner crashed, causing my car's memory to be erased, leaving the dashboard "back to normal", and hopefully fixed. (Um ... what the fuck are you talking about? <------- That's in my head as I'm hearing this rubbish.) All I can do, they say, is to take the car, hope the bad-bad/no-no lights don't come back on, and leave it to fate.

Okay, sure, perfect, thank you so much!!!!!

For lack of anything else to do, I took the car. However (there are a lot of those in this story), some of the lights are still on. One of which says (in the manual) is to do with tire pressure OR A SYSTEM MALFUNCTION. Well, hot damn, I thought that was what I brought the car back in for in the first place!

Yes, I marched back in the office to tell the service-consultant-guy who blew the smoke up my ass the first go'round that the lights were, ahem, still on. Maybe not the "big bad", but lights nonetheless. I take him out to my car, where he proceeds to speak to me as though I am either 4-years-old, or legally mentally disabled. He tells me to "fix the tire pressure ... you do know how to fix your tire pressure, don't you? ... and that will fix that light." Okay, so, just out of curiosity, since I brought the car in to have the warning lights taken care of, why didn't YOU fix the darn tire pressure?!

So, I took the car ... I checked the tire pressure ... which was FINE, by the way. I ran to Target to get some essentials, I came back to the apartment to start some laundry, I got back in my car to go to the gym, and ... alas ... the freaking, effing, stupid, someone's-getting-screamed-at-shortly MALFUNCTION INDICATOR LAMP (the really, really bad one) pops on again. And not a mere 2 hours after I picked it up from the service station ... for the second time in TWO WEEKS.

Of course, I had to call my dad and pull him away from work yet again, march it back to the station ... 15 miles from my apartment (ONE WAY, I might add) ... and leave it yet again. This time, I spoke to a manager. This time, I was pissed. This time, it better be fixed!

I wish I knew what the hell they could have done at that body shop while fixing the tail end of my car to make the warning lights go all crazy. Alex, his dad, my dad, and the guy's at the VW place in Lubbock (where my mom and Norbs bought the car not even a year ago) all say that it seems like they either didn't unplug the battery while they were welding, or didn't ground the car properly. Either way, they have done something really weird to my car and I want to know what it is and how they're going to fix it.

I'm high pissed at this point. I've been running all over town (literally) for their screw-up, dragging Melissa and my dad away from their own time to follow me back and forth, and unable to do the things I genuinely NEED to do for going on 3 weeks now. The car is under warranty, fully paid-for, and all of that ... so I'm not concerned about money. It's all on them. I'm more concerned with them actually owning up to whatever they did in the first place, and getting my car back fully repaired and in a timely fashion.

The shit of it is that I don't know anything about what they actually, specifically could have done to the car to make the lights go on like that. It's a big mess up on their part, and I've been treated horribly by them for catching it ... whatever "it" actually is. I don't want my car to be messed up or permanently hindered because of it. Like I said, it's new ... and it was also a graduation present from my parents.

I just wish I knew someone who could explain to me what the real issue is here. I'm beyond frustrated, upset, and angry.

End Rant.

Whew.

Voter Registration!!!

The deadline to register to vote in most states (including Texas) is Monday, October 6th. Remember that you MUST FILE A NEW REGISTRATION if you have changed addresses since your last card was issued!!! You have to file it within the correct precinct. It only takes a few minutes. This is an important election. A VERY important election. I'm not going to lecture about parties or anything else (right now, anyway ... ha!). The most imperative thing you can do as an American citizen is V-O-T-E! Look at some FAQ HERE. And remember that you revoke all "bitching and moaning" rights for the next 4 years (at least!) if you simply do not make your way into a booth on November 4th to cast your ballot.

Oh, and check out the video below. It's kinda neat-o.

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