So the car got fixed this week. The plan was then to drive out to western MA on Saturday morning, pay the bill and pick up the car between 9am and 1pm, and drive back. It's a four-hour round trip, which is a lot, but it needs to get done. ( Collapse )
So, in short: – broken car 0 derby +++++ I have an awesome community (several, really) of friends who I can count on to help me out when the excrement hits the air-circulation device.
yesterday, i woke up in Philadelphia, helped my brother move a bureau, drove six hours home, did some laundry, and went to see Gin Blossoms with coraline.
today, i have gone to Target to get last-minute supplies, packed for a week on Star, and am now sitting nervously trying to figure out what i've forgotten. at noon kimberlogic picks me up and drives me to Portsmouth.
from there i will spend a week on Star volunteering (read: working for room and board), though i'm not 100% sure what i'm going to be doing yet. which makes packing harder :}
see you in a week! (i will of course have some modicum of net access while i'm out there, just not much.)
– if you're too distracted to participate in a conversation fully, don't participate in it. there are exceptions, but seriously, if you're trying to give technical advice, at least try to understand the problem first.
– massachusetts' new "ten-and-two" law makes me cranky.EDIT: i heard this on the radio this morning, but being completely unable to find any news that supports it, my best guess is this was a 4/1 joke.
– april 1st = street cleaning in somerville. i think they decided to skip my street today because i left the house at 8:15 and hadn't been ticketed (*phew*). in other 4/1 news, Google and Whole Foods win my "best web April Fools jokes" awards.
– i seem to have kicked the funk i was in last week. i blame an excellent trip to NYC, plus a lovely date with coraline last night. now, if i could just translate that into productivity at work...
– lots of thoughts swirling around in my head about dating and relationships and stuff. i have a bunch of stuff to write (most of which is not relevant to the previous sentence) and need to find some time to do that this week. writing is good, but oy, carving out time in my schedule for it.
you know those little diplomatic stickers that have become pervasive? now everybody has one that proclaims what their favorite vacation place is or whatever. the problem is that you can't always tell where they're talking about from the initials that they chose.
my two favorites spotted on the road recently:
"AND" (embrace the power of...?)
"SM" (do you really want to advertise that on your car?)
habitat for humanity is doing a car donation drive where you donate your vehicle in exchange for a tax writeoff, a one-year Zipcar membership, and $250 in driving credit.
friday morning the donation folks came and picked up my truck while i was at school. friday afternoon i went to the registry to turn in my plates, then to the post office to return my FastLane tag. today i called the auto insurance company to cancel my policy. all i need now is for H4H to call me back and tell me when my Zipcar membership will be activated.
i'm pretty excited about this! it solves the problem of what to do with my car while i'm out at star, and frankly it's probably a good thing all around that i got that hulking piece of gaz-guzzling scrap metal off the road. i presume that they will sell it for parts and not as a working vehicle, given the mechanical and cosmetic issues that thing had.
of course it remains to be seen how i cope with not having personal transportation anymore, which i suspect will largely be a question of how well Zipcar "works" with my life. i'm very interested to find out though!
