A triple wammie.

Well friends, I must use this post to whine just a little bit. Once again, it appears that not-so-fun things happen to me in sets of three. So here goes nothing– yet another triple wammie for the writer!

 

^^^ I am exasperated!

Let’s set the clock back to the weekend of June the 5th, shall we? It’s a Friday and I will be traveling BACK out to my college town (for the second weekend in a row) to visit people and attend the wedding of a good college friend. That afternoon, I was to meet one of my favorite professors to discuss my progress on the graduate school front. I was very excited to see him and was planning a relaxing afternoon in his office, chatting up a storm. So of course, I left with plenty of time to get there! For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with the weather on the East coast for the past couple of weeks, it’s been raining pretty much non-stop. And that’s what I got caught. What should have been a four hour drive suddenly turned into a six hour crawl. I got stopped by traffic somewhere outside Williamsburg and after sitting for almost an hour, I decided I had had enough and that I was going to use my handy-dandy Gazetteer to navigate my way to the University via back roads. I was quite successful at this…except for one small interruption. I had a fender-bender.  : (

^^^ My car looks almost identical to the green car. Oh snap, son.

Luckily no one was hurt! And it was a very minor collision. I was driving along, probably looking at my map too much (in the pouring rain on a road I had never seen before in my life with too many stoplights…) when the cars in front of me began to slow to a halt. Suddenly, the lady at the front of the line slammed her brakes, causing the guy in front of me to slam on HIS brakes. So of course, I slammed on MY brakes too, and it seemed like I would actually stop in time…except for the fact that my antilock braking system has been down for severl months now. Technically, you aren’t required to have antilock brakes, but it sure would have helped in this situation. My brakes locked and I slid/hydroplaned/screeched for what seemed like an eternity finally to hit the rear bumper of the guy in front of me. Of course, he drove away with three scratches and my hood was…well…compromised. But the situation was extremely lucky! A police officer randomly came out of the woodwork! Apparently he had watched the whole thing and agreed that it wasn’t anybody’s fault, so I didn’t get a ticket. The guy I hit was really nice about it and concurred with the officer that it was a simple accident. “I heard you screeching for the longest time!” Yep. So in that respect, I was very lucky!

^^^ I’m glad I got the good cop this time!

The only problem now is that I have a more than compromised car. To make a long story short, my car is leaking in several places, no antilock brakes, and a hugely messed up hood and front bumper…not to mention the chipping paint, squeaking doors and windows…she’s past her prime. So to myself and my mother, the answer was simple: time for a different vehicle. But with the state of the economy, that’s not gonna happen for us. So the battle this past week was for us to try to convince my father that patching up this car was less than a wise decision when I could get a better car for about the same price (perhaps a bit more). He made a really good case for my present tin-can car- it has a REALLY good engine that will run until the world ends. My car’s engine is like a cocroach in Hiroshima, basically. I also get incredible gas mileage. So we’re doing the repairs on it…and I am hoping that it will last me through graduate school. : /

^^^ Look! It’s me on my way to Graduate School! I’m going to be Flinstoning myself there.

And that’s the end of the first trial! The second trial is more trivial. Long story short, I am allergic to bees…and last Monday, I got stung in my neck. Nice work, Bee! I swear, they keep human anatomy charts in their hives like, “Sting HERE!” It was actually a sweat bee and my allergy is minor so I didn’t die or suffocate. I just have this huge, incredibly itchy rash covering my neck. And now I am on steroids…So my emotions are playing with my mind and I feel like I want to Hulk out about three times a day. Yay.

^^^ Jerk.

As for the last trial, it is probably the saddest of all. This past Friday, my mom and I were across town for an appointment and were miraculously running ahead of schedule (really, this is incredible for my mother; go mom!) so I suggested that we stop by the SPCA just for fun to look at the dogs. Now I know what you’re all thinking! You’re thinking that this is an unwise decision because I will inevitably fall in love with one of the dogs and not be able to leave it. But I must say that I’m not THAT bad. Yes, I did fall in love with one of the dogs. However, I had no intention of taking it home until my mother piped in, “Well maybe we could take it home for the weeked to see if Dad likes her.” So I didn’t refuse for a minute!

^^^ Oh, cute.

This is an incredible dog. She’s a ten month old border collie mix (with some hound in there somewhere) and we bonded immediatly. Mona pressed her body sideways up against the fence so I could reach through with my fingers to pet her as best as I could. We touched faces through the fence and she licked my nose gently. I was in love. And to this day, I have not heard her bark once (though, she does bark- my mom heard her one night while I was out of the house). She knows the rules- no jumping, no peeing in the house (she has yet to make a mess ANYWHERE, including her crate). Mona ended up at the SPCA when her former owner, a single woman, had a landlord who did not approve of the dog being in the apartment. So obviously she’s a great girl who ended up in a not-so-great situation.

^^^ I typed in “Border collie – hound” into google image. Mona looks a lot like this. Be still my beating heart!

The sad part is that my dad is NOT buying it. Again…bad economy. “We can’t afford a dog,” he says. I pleaded, “Let me take her back to school with me! I promise I’ll make it work! She’s the perfect size! I’ll pay for everything!” Then of course he reminds me that I have no money. So that’s the situation. I have to take her back to the SPCA by Friday. Until then, I am madly searching for a home that will take her. She doesn’t have a mean bone in her body. And she’s great with other dogs and kids! And those eyes… : (  On a lighter note, I am sure that someone great will take her. I’m just afraid that I will never see her again.

^^^ That’s about her size…But she’s more black than white.

And that pretty much wraps up this session. I must return to my GRE preparation and DEQ fun! Until next time, friends!