Posts Tagged ‘Cars’

Chaos!

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

The past week has been pretty crazy, it’s probably the only word to really sum things up for me. Hrm… where to begin…

So I bought a new bed last weekend because mine was on it’s last legs and slowly beginning to completely kill my back. So Sean and I went and laid down on probably 6 or 7 beds in our price range and decided on the more expensive model. I have this problem where if its expensive it’s probably comfy, you also have to factor in that you get what you pay for. When it comes to a bed, I’d rather be on the higher end of things because it’s something you’re going to be sleeping on every single night for at least the next 10 years, it basically pays for itself over time if it’s a good quality bed and requires little to no maintenance. (Yes, beds do require maintenance, they need to be rotated, vacuumed, kept dust free and lord knows I’m anti-bedbug!.

So on Monday and Tuesday we started clearing out the room to accommodate the fact that a larger piece of furniture was moving in. When it was delivered on Wednesday I realized that I had no access to my side of the closet which is bad for me considering I’m the one who works out of the house, Sean can just roll out of bed and he’s good to go for the day. I require clean clothes and lots of them haha.

So after a few days of keeping the room as is, we went out of our way yesterday to completely move things around. There’s a better flow to the room now, the only issue being the fact that we had to purchase a new mounting system for the TV so it’s now on a swing arm instead of a tilt arm and we can pretty much move the TV in any direction that we need to so that we can both watch it no matter where it is in the room. He typically doesn’t watch during the day but when he decides to he can swing it to where the desk is, or we can swing it back in the direction of the bed when we’re laying down at night. Even though we work completely different schedules we still manage to find time at night to lay down and get to sleep about the same time. It’s pretty nice, I have to say. I think making that change will just help us out in general.

Having all of the clutter taken care of also makes the room more appealing for me, I’d dread going in there because it was just difficult to move. The reorganization of everything, plus the new floor plan is cerrtainly going to cut down on all of the chaos for me, that’s for sure.

So yea, the bedroom is in order after about 10 hours of going crazy trying to fix the vacuum and issues coming up with mounting the TV on the wall. Now it’s time to sit back and focus on the important stuff – EASTER!

Sean and I are heading out to Deer Park today to spend Easter with his mom and his aunt. We’re hoping to get out of here within the next hour and a half or so but we’re a little side tracked on getting the TV and PC’s hooked back up on the other side of the room, yes we have two TV’s in the room. The larger one on the wall is strictly movie/tv kind of setup and my smaller one is primarily for gaming. This way I can still relax in bed while he’s blowing things up on the other side of the room and neither of us is inconvenienced. This will also help in the future when we can actually afford our own apartment and one TV will be in the living room with him… the other in the bedroom with me. But anyway – we’re going to head out there, enjoy the killer ride on the expressway for Easter Sunday (stuppppid move) and then relax for a few hours, enjoy family time and head home so I can get to bed at a reasonable hour to get up to go to work in the morning.

I’m taking on a new position at work. I absolutely adore the department that I’m in but based on changes throughout the company there will only be a need for two members of the department to stay, with this I’m moving from Dispatch to Customer Service. The upside is that it’s more of a fast-pace environment with little to no downtime and I’m the kind of person that needs to keep moving during the day because I feel as though the time just moves quicker. The other upside is a $4 raise and considering the fact that Sean and I really do want our own place soon and we’re both able to put money into savings based on what’s coming in now, the extra couple of hundred dollars a month will make all of the difference in the world when we’re looking towards bigger and better things. I start training in the afternoon, after two weeks I may be moved back to dispatch until the position officially opens up but based on the fact that I’m taking over for someone who’s last day is on Friday I imagine that I’m just going to be moved directly into the position. :: crosses fingers ::

Another upside is I’m car shopping again, I know I’ve been doing it for a while but now is a time when I feel as though it can actually be accomplished. I’m sticking in the 2007 range because I would prefer to have a newer car, and I’ve found a few decent ones in my price range with really low mileage. I’m happy about that, really happy. Right now I’m going back and forth between a 2007 Chevy Malibu and a 2007 Saturn Aura, they’re in the same ‘family’ as far as functionality is concerned and either one would be a good thing for me. I did want a Cobalt for quite some time but the mileage found on the year that I want is a little high. My dream car right now is a 2010 Chevy Equinox but I know for a fact that I’ll never have the $30k required in order to own the car and I’ll just have to hold off for a few years. I’ve held off this long, I honestly think I can make it work.

So I’m going to talk to a loan rep at Wachovia this week and try to consolidate my current debts to numerous different companies down to ONE, and request an additional sum of approximately $15k on top of it and hope for the best. With that I’ll just head out, pay cash for a car, and then walk off the lot as a happy person. All I know is that I’ll be adding an automatic starter to any vehicle I choose if it doesn’t have it already. Key things for me are four doors, automatic windows, moonroof and automatic starter, other than that I could care less on the color. Wait no that’s a lie… I refuse anything other than black, white or deep red tones. Not a fan of green, ehh on silver/grey and no way in hell I’d over own an orange car!

In any event, time to hop in the shower, give Sean a quick buzz cut and get the hell out of here.

Happy Easter Everyone!

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The Weekly BS

Tuesday, February 16th, 2010

So I’ve wanted to actually post something for the past couple of days but things have been kind of hectic and I haven’t been able to sit down and accomplish anything. Since I’m on my lunch break and it’s a really nasty day outside I decided to stay at my desk and actually get it done.  So yay for having a 10+ day break between things.

Since the last time I posted a few things have happened but nothing overly interesting. For the superbowl I headed down to New Jersey for the day and while the day itself was relatively enjoyable the ride home was absolute agony. For some reason, out of absolutely no where, my tooth began to bother me so much so that I wound up screaming in pain for the bulk of the ride home. I have a broken wisdom tooth on my upper right side and I believe the nerve is now exposed so it’s been causing a problem over the course of the past week or so. After over a week of dealing with it I decided to call up my dental surgeon and book an appointment to have it removed. At this point it’s causing so much of an issue, physically, that it’s not worth trying to save the tooth at all. So on Monday I’m going to leave work early and head over there to get it extracted. The upside is I’ll get a prescription of antibiotics to start clearing up the issues with another tooth. I’m going to be enrolling in EDP Dental. It’s a $99 a year policy and the two dentists that I would prefer to use are both covered under this plan. The only thing I’m trying to work out is whether or not I need to have existing dental insurance because EDP is NOT an insurance policy, it’s a discount dental plan. If I don’t need regular insurance it will certainly work out pretty well for me. My surgeon is right at the top of the list for coverage which is great considering it’s going to cost me about $700 out of pocket to get my tooth removed considering I need to be sedated and they’re going to run a full work-up of xrays as well. So that gets that accomplished.

I’ve basically already spent my tax returns even though I haven’t filed them yet. The cost for extraction is going to be covered by my father until I get my check, plus I owe him money from this weekend considering Bella had to make an emergency visit to the vet as there was A LOT of blood in her urine. She’s on a heavy dosage of antibiotics for the next couple of weeks until that’s cleared up. So figure I’m instantly handing him $1,000 when the check clears. I’ll also be using the rest to completely pay off one of my credit cards. From there I’m taking another financial route that I’m hoping is going to help me out over time. I’m pretty much done with HSBC and I’ve decided to consolidate my loan through Wachovia. I still have another $7,000 to pay off on my loan and about $2,000 for my credit card through HSBC, so I’m going to Wachovia to request a personal loan for upwords of $20,000 so I can pay off all of my debt and use the rest of the money on a car. I found a car for $11,000 with only 20k miles on it and while it’s not the Chevy Equinox that I’d absolutely love to own, it’s the 09 Chevy Cobalt, it’s close to my house, it’s got a very clean interior and absolutely no external damage. Power everything, anti-theft, the bells and whistles. Of course I would be happier if there was a sunroof but at this point, considering Sean’s car has slowly been on the verge of death for quite some time – a course of action needs to be made and damn it I’m making it.

Having to only pay the loan and car insurance (which can just fall under general liability as I won’t have a lean on the car since I’m paying cash) I should hopefully be able to save some money during the month in order to accomplish more important things in life – like attempting to ENJOY life for a change.

In two days it marks the one year anniversary of Lucy’s death and I have to say that the past year has not been a good one – AT ALL. I miss her terribly and still haven’t fully dealt with it considering the series of events that happened around the same time of her passing. I don’t know if I’m now rebelling against everything but I’m taking the bull by the horns and changing my life for my better. Having to deal with all of the issues going on with school has pissed me off on a daily basis, but I’m going to do everything I can in order to get that taken care of. Once I enroll in school I’ll hope that financial aid and student loans will assist me in working towards the degree that I deserve. Being in the design industry for the past 12 years has taught me alot about running my business and the overall wants and needs of people. While I haven’t actively been into it for quite some time, due to my work schedule, that doesn’t mean I don’t still have the drive. I want to say that Lucy is the one giving me this determination. She was always my muse in life, and the fighting force behind my straight-forward way of living. I believe that she’s giving me the drive and determination to reassure me that she’s still around and will help me in death the way she helped me in life.

I do believe in ghosts, and I also believe in angels. When it comes to her there is no difference between the two.

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Rest in Peace Lu.

Friday, February 20th, 2009

On Wednesday I received a call at work from Sean where I was told to sit down and then told that Lucy was in a bad car accident on Tuesday night on her way home from school. I’ve known Lucy since 11th grade in high school. Her, Pat and I were three peas in a pod and then we lost touch for a while after I’d graduated. For the past few years it was an AIM conversation here and there being as I was in Delaware, but when I came back up in June things were just different.

She was here every day, she turned into a member of the family to the point that I guess you could say that this was just another home that welcomed her with open arms. She was my best friend, she got me through a lot of shit in my life and she was always there when I needed someone the most.

Now I’m completely lost. Words can not even begin to describe what’s going on in my head and how empty I feel with out her here. I keep seeing her out of the corner of my eye. And as soon as I look over it fades like a lifetime movie.

She was here on Sunday. She had dinner with Sean and I, hung out on the couch for a little while…we had a cig outside and she left to go home to study because while she was off from work for winter recess, she still had school at night. She never missed a day, she was a straight A student and she was leaving school from an exam. The only thing different about her is that she was talking about how tired she’s been for the last couple of days. She wasn’t getting much sleep lately and I believe (as numerous others do) that she fell asleep at the wheel.

My step fathers EMS/Fire department was the closest to this call (he’s the chief). They showed up on scene and there were so many people working on her. They brought her back a few times, they had her in the E.R. ready to transport to the O.R. and then they just lost her. She hit directly on the drivers side and suffered head trauma and internal injuries. Her sister said that her hand felt as though she had no bones. She was just lifeless and fighting it until she couldn’t fight it anymore.

This one is hitting me harder than Joe. I knew he wasn’t going to be around forever and he was sick for a long time before he passed away. Lucy was perfectly healthy, she was just tired and wound up hitting a tree so she was just ripped from a world that loved her.

My world will never be the same. When someone so small can make such a huge impact and then be ripped from your life all you can do is go through every text book emotion of grief. Sadness, Anger and then excessive laughter due to all of the wonderful memories, and everything else.

Her wake is today, funeral is tomorrow, and I’m completely spent. Pat and I found the tree on Wednesday night, he visited it multiple times yesterday. I can’t even bring myself to pick up the keys to go back for myself. I can’t pick myself up to even go and talk to her father and the last thing in the world that I want to see is that casket.

She was my muse, my best friend, my pet midget, my little sister and one of the few left that still called me “Mom”. She took great care of me and I did everything I could to make sure that she was always taken care of.

I always looked forward to weekends because I knew she was going to be here and we’d always find something extremely productive to keep ourselves amused. I no longer have that.

My sister is shaken up because, again, Lucy was a member of our family. She’s been holding it back though. Sean has had a few break downs as well.

This is one of the lowest points in my life, and I honestly don’t even know how I’m going to bounce back from it. I have to continue going on with my life and continue to deal with all of the people who truly deserve to be in her place.

She was a kind person, never hurt anyone a day in her life. She was always there when you needed her. She never once could keep you from smiling and she always had a way of letting you know that she’d support any choice you make as long as it made you happy.

I’m going to miss her terribly.

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Hot damn!

Tuesday, July 15th, 2008

Sean and I just got back from the Mechanic.  We brought our car in because of a pretty funky issue we were having, unfortunately I was the only one to ever seem to experience this issue.  Whenever I would turn on the car the battery light would come on, knowing it’s a good battery I assumed it could be the alternator not properly sending charge to the battery.  This wasn’t the case at all.

I asked my neighbor of 20 years if he could take a look at it for me, because it’s an issue where I just didn’t feel safe driving the car, so of course I’ll talk to an off-the-clock mechanic before I actually bring it in to one.  He turned on the car and saw the battery light almost instantly go on, he then noticed that the air conditioner was shooting out hot air and that’s not normal.  A few moments later the hood started smoking – we’re leaking anti-freeze.  He told us that we’d need a serpentine belt, possibly a water pump and maybe a hose or two fixed but he couldn’t tell where other leaks were coming from, being as they were covered in anti-freeze.

So we call up the garage up the block, talk to the ball-busting mechanic and was told to bring the car in on Tuesday (mind you – this was Friday).  For the past few days we’ve been bored out of our minds, it’s not that there’s nothing going on here it’s that we’re used to just being able to get up and go and being kind of stuck for a few days doesn’t help our moods.  I know I was bored out of my mind on Saturday, to the point that I was about to pop a gasket.

We’ve used my sister’s car for the quick errands, I really hate driving her car.  While it handles well, she needs rear-brakes and it would help if she had rear break lights as well.  There’s a big hole on her bumper that is causing the wiring underneath to corrode and when it rains she just has no back-end lights at all.  No blinker, no rear breaks – nothing.  So of course making the attempt to drive this thing at night was absolutely stupid of us.  She can deal with the tickets, we certainly don’t want to.

So since it was so bright out and close to impossible to actually see the back-end lights thanks to the way the sun is sitting in the sky – we were able to safely make it to the mechanic.  It only cost us $300 for a water pump, serpentine belt and a refill on the anti-freeze.  A very good price considering the estimate was $380 (originally).  I’m not sure if the name-dropping helped the price (considering my grandfather knows the guy) but either way, someone’s on our side.

So he drove my sisters car home and I drove ours.  And the reason for “Hot damn!” – it drives better than it ever has before, we very obviously have needed a water pump for a while now but I think since we only ever seem to do short-term in-town driving, it really didn’t matter too much.  The 5 hour drive from Delaware to New York is basically what did it for us.  Thankfully it happened after we had made it to town, it’s not like we were stranded on the Southern State Parkway or anything.  We managed to make it to the North Shore with absolutely no issues at all – and I have to say I’m pleased about that.

So everything is perfect now, we’ll figure out when we’re going to head back down to Delaware but at the advice of the mechanic, we’re going to stay up here for a day or two to drive the car on short distances and then go from there.  I’m not sure if we’re going anywhere tonight, but he’s talking about picking up dinner so maybe we’ll wind up going out and doing something.  If not tonight, we may take a quick trip to New Hyde Park tomorrow and poke around at a few different places – I know there’s a comic book store there that he wanted to see, and I know I want to see if PETS is still there so I can stand outside and warn people of the horrible condition they leave their animals in.  Thank god for veterinarians, or I wouldn’t have her.

Never buy a dog, cat, small mammal, fish, or reptile at PETS of New Hyde Park, they’re sleazy assholes.

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Spring has sprung!

Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008

After a few chilly days, Spring has finally come back to Delmarva.  I woke up today with a lot of energy and hopefully that’ll help me get through the long day of work that I have ahead of me.  I’m almost done on a few templates I’ve been working on and then I’m going to get myself in gear on two that need to be done for Jackie.

When I went outside I was hit with the warm sun an the smell of Miracle Grow – the lady across the street is working on her garden.  I can’t wait until I have enough time to go outside and start working on ours.  I did the basic maintenance the other day but Karen and I went out this past weekend and loaded up on tons of supplies that are still sitting in the back of the van.  We picked up a cute little white fence, then we loaded up on soil and seeds and even some pots and what not so that we could really make the porch and the front yard shine this year.  I’d also like to do some things in the back yard but I doubt I’ll ever get around to it.  It would be nice to be able to setup a fence so I can let Bella run free on the grass, but complex restrictions won’t make that possible for me.  You can do heavy landscaping to block things off but supposedly you can’t put up a full wrap-around fence.  BUT you’re allowed to have a privacy wall.  I wonder what’s the point with that but oh well.

While I do have a lot of energy bursting to get out, the coffee hasn’t kicked in for me to focus it all on what’s important.  Sean is still asleep so that stops me from cleaning up the bedroom.  I do need to get myself into the bathroom and scrub everything down because Karen’s sister is coming to visit sometime within the next few days and since our bathroom is in the main hallway – everyone tends to use it.  Bleach and a little elbow grease are all it really requires, I know I’ll have that done within the next hour though.

I’ve gone back to car shopping and I found a few that I really like.  I’m alternating back and forth with Hyundai and Chevrolet.  I found one for a great price up in Pennsylvania but I’m not sure if I’d actually wish to take that trip.  I found a few excellently priced models in New Jersey.  I was also lucky enough to find one in New York that is only about $6500 and it’s brand new.  It’s one of those Scion tC models, not really a Toyota fan but they have inexpensive cars when you get down to the right level.  It’s got about 2,000 miles on it and it’s the same color and size that I’m interested in.

I think I’m going to stick with either a Chevy Cobalt or Hyundai Elantra.  Icka (remember her?) just picked up an Elantra and it’s absolutely gorgeous.  After talking to Tom I was able to find one that really caught my attention but it happens to be a Dodge Stratus, I’m really all over the place when it comes to this but if it’s going to be a car that needs to last me a few years then obviously I’m going to have to shop around.  The one Elantra that I found, Tom has actually test-drove and as someone who’s into the racing community and knows a lot about cars – I knew his opinion would be valued.  He said it’s a great price for what it has on it but it’s difficult to drive.  He doesn’t drive to race (every time) but he does know how to control a car and when you notice that the car has some trouble when it comes to merging and making right-hand turns is unbalanced, the 2006 Elantra isn’t the route to take.

Either way I’ll figure something out.  I’m hoping to get in touch with my mother later and see what she thinks.  I know she got her Nissan on the Island and I can’t – for the life of me – remember the name of the Dealer she got it from.  A phone call later should clear that all up,  I hope.

In any event, time to get to work.  I think I’m going to lug the extension chord outside and take the laptop out there.  It’s too nice of a day to sit in here!

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Weekly Wrap-up.

Saturday, January 19th, 2008

The carpet cleaning turned out very well.¬† At first we were a little apprehensive about having every carpeted room done in the same day but it worked out OK.¬† The bedroom is squeaky clean and the office couldn’t get much better than it currently is.¬† I was very surprised with the way the living room worked out.¬† All pet stains and most odors (thanks to their deodorizing treatment) are gone.¬† Of course we left the dogs out of the room for a while until things dried up.¬† Unfortunately Princess is still pooping on the floor but when you’re 10 years old and trained to do everything in-house, you just don’t know any better.¬† At least there hasn’t been any urine on the floor, that acid in urine really is what kills the carpet to begin with.¬† So either way it worked out well and it was nice to see what this carpet looked like in a “brand new” state.

Sean and I have done pretty good this week,¬† something has sparked in us that has brought us out of the fighting slump and closer together to the point that we’re constantly joking around with each other and there’s no major frustration between us.¬† It’s not that we were having “trouble”, it’s just that current situations have been taking their toll on us. Luckily we’re over it now and things are great.

I’ve been hitting the bricks for a job in the area, I believe I came across an absolutely perfect one today that I found while surfing the web.¬† Maybe something good will come from it.¬† My main concern is reaching my goals by the end of the year and I’m confident that’ll happen if I’m hired by this employer.¬† The loan will be paid off, a car will be purchased and maybe a shiny new apartment is in the mix as well.

While I’m itching to get back to school, I’m thinking of holding off until the end of the year.¬† Since I’m under 24 and not living at home, even though my father is no longer responsible for me financially, I’d have to include him on the financial aid forms, unless I go towards a bachelors degree.¬† Up until recently I’ve decided upon DeVry and since that’s an associates my financial aid would be based on his income and since he makes like $65,000 a year, I doubt I’d really get anything covered by FAFSA.¬† So I’ll look into other routes and hopefully something will spring up.¬† I do know that I can hold off for a while, getting bills in order is more important to me right now anyway.

With my downtime I’ve been floating around the different dealerships in the general area.¬† I’m giving myself a $10,000 max budget on a car because spending anything more than that just to get me back and forth from work would be completely absurd.¬† Naturally this means I’m looking into a used car but I also find no point in owning a brand new one either.¬† Anything I can get from a dealership down here will be covered under whatever Warranty they happen to have, and that’s all that’s important to me at this point in time.¬† I’m sticking to Chevy though, it’s kind of a family tradition.¬† My father has owned them for years (even though he currently has a Jeep), my sister has a Chevy, my mother, step-father and lord knows who else, even Sean has one.¬† So to stay with it I’ve been looking into the Malibu or the Cobalt.¬† I have to say that the 2008 Malibu is absolutely gorgeous, but the price tag isn’t that attractive to me at this point in time – heh.

Anyhoo, it’s about 1:30 and I need to get myself ready for bed.¬† Time to take a quick shower, brush my teeth and curl up in bed with any random book I pull off the shelves until I fall asleep.

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