Floating Leaf

Guess what? Yesterday I received another letter from the city, regarding the aforementioned parking ticket (which the guy who bought my car had assured me he was going to pay). They explained to me that if I sold the car without removing its license plates, which were registered in my name, I might still be liable for any violations - UNLESS I can provide sufficient documentation of vehicle transfer.:/ Which, of course, I cannot provide, because I do not have it. The new owner does, but he (surprise, surprise!) ignored my request to send me a copy.:/ So I paid the damned ticket. It was only fifty bucks, after all. ( Read more... )

Almost sold the car today. A guy came over, poked at it for a while and asked me what my lowest price would be. I told him about the other guy who had offered me $700. He said he'd pay the same, but he didn't seem 100% sure, so I told him to think about it and call me back on Monday (I'll be going to visit my parents for Easter this weekend, and I'd prefer to use the car while I still have it, instead of begging my sister & brother-in-law to pick me up on their way there and being dependent on their schedule). ( Read more... )

Did I just make a post whinging about jury duty?... Let's forget about that one. It's a non-issue right now. Life surely has a way of making you realize how petty your problems were... by increasing them tenfold.:/

My car died on me - again - last night as I was driving home from work. And by died, I mean just randomly stopped moving in the middle of the road. With no warning whatsoever. ( Read more... )

My car failed the emissions test today. I kind of expected this, because the "check engine" light has been on for a while - but still, there was a glimmer of hope that maybe it's something minor and it will pass anyway. Well... no such luck. With a 14-year-old car, you don't get "minor" problems anymore.:/ ( You get problems anywhere upwards of a few hundred bucks.:[ )

I lost my muffler this morning on my way to work. I kid you not. I knew something was wrong with it as soon as I started the engine, because, you know, it ROARED. But I thought, oh crap, I'll just stop somewhere on my way back home tonight and have someone look at it. But then, as I was driving, I kept hearing some odd rattling & clanging sounds in addition to the roaring... and finally, lo and behold, the whole thing just FELL OFF. I clearly saw it detach itself from the car and clatter away to the curb. I probably should have stopped to pick it up - but I was kinda stunned, as well as, typically, running late for work, so yeah. I kept driving. Just another instance of my precious old pile'o'junk falling apart on me right in the middle of the road, lol. Doesn't really faze me that much anymore.;P ( Read more... )

I feel so lethargic today. No energy whatsoever. I woke up with a migraine - no idea why, I haven't had a migraine in months - and ended up staying in bed till around noon, waiting for Excedrin to take the worst of the pain away. Then I had some breakfast, skimmed through email/flist and... took a nap. Seriously. WTF is wrong with me? Well, I finally dragged myself into the much needed hot shower, did the full run of neck/shoulder/mid-back stretches, had some lunch, read a bit... and then it was time to start cooking the food for next week. There goes another Sunday. I had hoped I might manage to get myself together enough to put some clothes on and go for a walk, since the weather was really nice for once... but somehow that didn't happen. And by the time I finished cooking, it was getting dark already. *sigh*

( more pointless blabber under the cut )

Happy St. Patrick's Day, flist.

I'm not feeling particularly bright or green right now, actually, but I have promised myself to at least try to post tonight, so here goes.

( Life lately is just so... blah, I guess. )

In other unrelated news, I watched Zeitgeist last weekend. Or the first part of it, anyway. It was recommended to me by a coworker, who sent me the link to the website:

http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com

It didn't surprise me all that much (I had seen Loose Change before, on the recommendation of the same coworker), but it certainly depressed me - more than I'd like to admit, I suppose. Because it makes way too much perfect sense to be dismissed as leftist propaganda. I feel like I finally connected the dots that were there in front of me all along - and in this case, it's not a good feeling. Because the picture that emerges is way too much to handle. And I feel duped and powerless and so outraged and yet so pointless, insignificant and weak. This is what reality does to me. I can't handle it. Please give me back my pink, pretty bubble. It's not like I can change anything. I can only lose my sleep over it, or have nightmares. Or feel ashamed to be a human being, because human beings are the most heartless, evil creatures on earth. Which is why they have to invent mythical dark forces - to cover up their own bottomless darkness. And it's not like I didn't know this already - it's just that I've tried very hard to avoid dwelling too much on it. And this film forced me to open my eyes right into the harsh sunlight, so to speak.

I could ramble on, but I do want my 6+ hours of sleep, so it's time to go. Sorry for being such a downer tonight. So inappropriate for the occasion. Blame it on my coworkers, though. Some of them think too much, instead of just mindlessly dragging their feet under the yoke like everyone else.:P

-10F/-20C today. Had to take public transportation to work, because my car is stuck in the frozen snow yet again. I knew it was stuck as soon as I parked it last night - there was this sudden shift as the tires slid into the groove. And I thought I had picked a relatively safe, even parking spot.:/ Anyway... standing around waiting for a bus/train in such hellish temperatures is NOT FUN. After about five minutes, everything starts to hurt. Your fingers hurt. Your toes hurt. Your face hurts. Your fucking LUNGS hurt as you breathe. After 15 minutes you're almost ready to fall over, and then want to hug the bus driver and thank him for rescuing you from certain death as he arrives.;)

I got home nearly three hours ago, and my toes are still tingling. Started the car (it actually starts!... groaning and wheezing a lot, of course, but man, a 12-year-old car starting in this weather is nothing short of a miracle... lol), poured some salt around the tires and moved back and forth a bit, but I don't hold high hopes for being able to get out of my parking spot tomorrow morning. So... public transportation again. It's supposed to be a bit warmer, though - as in somewhere around 5F/-15C. A hell of an improvement, really. And then almost up to the freezing point over the weekend (we were laughing at work today, saying it's gonna be a heatwave... lol). I wonder if that means I'll be able to get my car out. I'm stocked up on groceries for the time being, but will have to shop at some point next week - and I can't really do any substantial grocery shopping without my car.:(

Anyway... the tingling toes seem to suggest I'm still alive, but my brain feels numb. The two mugs of piping hot tea I had after dinner are making me pleasantly woozy. All I can think of right now is my WARM, comfy bed. I need SLEEEEEP. *yawns*

Wake me up sometime in April, k?... *passes out*

So, it seems that the big LJ suspension scare is over. I was nervous there for a moment, even though my most questionable interest is probably "elladan/elrohir" - provided, of course, that the anti-freak police knows who they are and realizes they are actually brothers.:P Very fictional brothers, and certainly very mature (hundreds of years old... LOL), but still. I'm sure some people might possibly be offended at the idea of them having a sexual relationship. But then, some people seem offended by the very existence of gays, lesbians or transgendered individuals - which, of course, does not mean that said individuals should pretend not to exist. It is not possible to please everyone, and LJ is definitely not the place to start trying, IMHO.

That said, I sincerely hope I don't get suspended because I posted a few little ficlets implying twincest between Tolkien's characters. In fact, will probably post another one in the near future (if the muses continue to cooperate).:P

I have contemplated going "friends only" - but there are reasons I don't want to do that, so I'd rather wait until it becomes absolutely necessary. It's kind of sad that some people have to do that, IMO. Even if I totally understand why. I just used to think that LJ was this wonderfully open community, where you met new friends just because you were "out there" on the web... and well. Uhm. Yeah. It sort of isn't anymore. *sigh*

( In other totally irrelevant news: )

Today I spent half the afternoon at a service station, waiting to have my car fixed... again. I just received the vehicle emission test notice, and since the darned "check engine" light was on (it's always on in my car, for one reason or another... lol), I figured I'd better get it checked out. And of course there was something leaking (don't ask me what, I'm losing track of the endless list of repairs on this old piece of junk anyway). The part in question cost only about 13 bucks... but I paid over $200 for labor (would have paid about $600 if I let them do everything they "recommended"; but I said to just fix whatever makes the stupid light go on, so I can pass the bloody test... and I'll worry about the rest later ;P). Oh well... I guess that's nothing compared to all the other stuff I'd had to fix since last winter. First there was the entire exhaust system, which I had almost literally dragging against the ground while I drove... then there were the brakes (squeaking and grinding as all hell before I even noticed there was anything wrong with them... lol), then the catalytic converter... whatever that is.;P Not counting some other minor things. I'm not even sure I want to check the invoices and add it all up, but it's probably more than the whole car cost in the first place (I bought it used; or, to be precise, my mother bought it for me when I moved to the States). I wonder, how many more parts are there that can possibly go out of order before I am finally able to get a new one?... Somehow I don't think they offer car loans to unemployed people with no credit... *sigh*

In other exciting news, I am PMS-ing like crazy. My whole body feels tense and jittery, my boobs hurt, I wake up three times a night from strange, disturbing dreams... just icky. I used to think it was going to become more bearable as I get older, but no. It's actually getting worse. Or at least more unpredictable. I used to know exactly how I was going to feel on the first or second day of my period, or the 2-3 days before it... but now I can feel like it's already started for an entire week before it actually starts, or not even realize it has started and be glad it's being so mild... only to begin feeling like complete and utter shit on the third day. Weird. Just weird. And annoying as all hell. Fuck.

Anyway. /pointless post. Sorry. I really wish I had more interesting things to say. I'd better just go and try to get some sleep...