Lust

I've been lusting lately.  After my dream car.

 

I'm a Honda junkie.  When I turned 16, my parents were generous and gave me a car under the stipulation that I had to get a job to put gas in it.  This was not the nicest car.  It was a 1995 white Ford Taurus.  It was ugly, but it ran and I was grateful.

 

A little under a year after my parents gave it to me, the transmission died.  Because it was a Ford.  We like to play musical cars in my family, so as a result of my dead car, I got my dad's car and he bought a new car.  Not too long after that, my brother's car died, so he got my dad's car and my dad bought a new used car.  The car I inherited at this point was a 1998 gold Ford Taurus.  It was ugly, and it ran, and I was semi-grateful.  It had even more issues than the taurus whose transmission died.  It needed a new radiator and a new alternator.  It got some work and I took it off to college.

 

Around Thanksgiving of my freshman year, my brother totaled his car.  We played musical cars again.  This time, my brother got my car, I got my dad's car, my dad got my mom's car and my mom got a new car.  I was ecstatic because I got The Purple Putter.  She's a 1999 purple Honda Accord.  She has been the greatest car.  She's got 200K+ miles, an oil leak, and several love dents, but she's been a great car.  She's been to Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa and Panama City.  She has had many different passengers and has provided a great time for all. 

 

Unfortunately over the last year and a half or so, she's needed a lot of TLC.  The window broke and wouldn't roll up.  Fixed it.  The wiper motor went out and my wipers would get stuck in the rain (no bueno).  Fixed it.  The oil leaked.  "Fixed it" (it still leaks, no bueno.)  I've loved her.  M endearingly named her the Purple Putter. 

 

She's been reliable.  I love that she's purple because very few people have a purple car.  I love her.  But I've been lusting after a new car.

 

I know Hondas are fairly indestructable, but at 200K+ miles with an oil leak and other minor repairs looming, I know she won't last forever.  Eventually I'm going to get to the point where it's not worth putting more money into her. 

 

Several weeks ago, M and I went to test drive cars, for him.  He test drove my dream car.  Yes, I know I'm sad, my dream car is not a hot sports car or souped up luxury sedan.  My dream car is a brand new Honda Civic Hybrid.  Light blue with leather interior, heated seats, power everything, 6 CD changer, and ipod jack. 

 

Isn't she puuuuuurty?

 

 

How lame am I?  But I don't currently have heated seats, so that'll be a major bonus.  I can only play 1 CD at a time, which I realize isn't that miserable, but I get sick of a CD after two times through, and it's dangerous to be flipping through CDs to change it while I'm driving.  I want and ipod jack so I can listen to my ipod on shuffle.  Solves the 1 CD at a time problem. 

 

Plus, a hybrid would a) perpetuate my wanna-be hippie-ness, b) be environmentally friendly, and c) save me money on gas.  I live in a suburb south of Nashville and I work north of downtown.  With a hybrid that gets 43 mpg highway, I'd save a lot on gas money.  Nashville have HOV lanes which require 2 passengers in the car between 7-9am and 4-6pm, OR a hybrid (yay, faster commute!)

 

It's just a win-win. 

 

As I'm driving to and from work, I pass my dream car all the time, and I pout because I'm stuck in my still decent car.  So I'm saving.  I'm going to save my tax return, and as much of my new paychecks as possible (still living on what I was making at my old job) to have enough for a down payment by the end of the year.  I will succeed.  I deserve a brand new car.  I've never had one and I think I would take better care of my car if I'm the one paying for it.

 

What's your dream car?  Have you ever owned it, or at least test driven one?

Belated Wee Bit Wednesday

{one} what is your favorite breakfast food?

bacon, of course.

{two} how many pairs of shoes do you currently own?

 

Not sure, 15-20?

{three} city or country?

Both have their pros and cons.  I guess I'll say the country because you can actually see the stars.

{four} what is your favorite part of your job?

I don't have a favorite part, because I don't like my job, but hopefully my new job will give me some favorite things.

{five} what is your favorite junk food to snack on?

Ice cream

{six} have you ever been mentioned in the newspaper?

Yeah, a couple times, but most memorably, while I was rock climbing with my girl scout troop.

{seven} do you use post-it notes?

Yes, they are awesome

{eight} do you have freckles?

Yes, but I'm not super freckly. 

{nine} is it okay for men to wear pink?

Depends on the man.  It doesn't look good on most guys

{ten} when was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper?

I actually wrote a letter to my friend Ashleigh who lives in Berlin last week, but I forgot to mail it. :\  so before that, several months.

Whopper Weekend in Review

The majority of the weekend isn't anything to report about. 

Friday night we went over to Jimmy and Brittany's and had pizza and Louis time.  Louis is 2 and a half now, and he is starting to talk a lot more.  He ate like they'd been starving...I mean, this kid ate more pizza and breadsticks than I did.  And he's like half my height.  So then we played Apples to Apples, which Jimmy won, but I was the closest to winning I'd ever been, so yay.

Saturday was pretty casual.  I went to see No Strings Attached with my best friend KJ.  It was really cute!  I liked it a lot.  While I went to the movies, I left M at home peeling two layers of wallpaper in his bathroom.  Y'all, this wall paper was stinking ugly.  The first layer was a light yellow/beigish color with flowers and swirly's.  Very masculine for M's bathroom.  Under it was even uglier wallpaper that was similar in background color with small clover-like flowers.  Yuck.  The homeowners who hung the bottom layer stuck it right to the drywall so it was pretty clingy.  M found a place under the baseboard which mice had chewed through to the insulation.  Also yuck.  I would've been content without him telling me, but no.  So Sunday he spent the day fixing the dry wall and I helped him peel the rest of the wallpaper. 

Saturday night we went to dinner with M's dad for his (Paul's) birthday.  We had a nice time at the BBQ place near our house.  I hadn't eaten in the actual restaurant in about 10-15 years, so that was kinda fun. 

Sunday while M was patching drywall, I made a Valentine's day tiramisu (I'm so damn precious, it was heart-shaped).  I got really frustrated because the recipe said to cut the cake part into three layers and I could barely do two layers without it crumbling to bits.  Then on top of that, the coffee/sugar syrup was really hard to spread evenly and then the cream cheese mixture was even harder to spread.  By the time I'd assembled both layers I was sad because it was so darn ugly.  But the recipe called for a kaluha based whipped cream and by the time I'd slathered that all over, it looked quite pretty (I'm a dummy and forgot to take a picture.) 

Sunday was so pretty.  The sun was shining and it was a balmy 65 degrees which could've been 85 for all I cared.  It was nice to have "warm," sunny weather.  M and I ran to Publix and bought filet mignon, baked potatoes and salad and grilled out.  The steaks were divine and our wine complimented it so well.  I would've been quite content to make that our Valentine's dinner. 

Monday was Monday, but I had all day to look forward to our Valentine's date at Sunset Grille, which was delicious and laid back.  They had a special menu, which came with desserts so we postponed the tiramisu eating until last night (and it was freakin' delicious).  The funniest thing about Valentine's day was when I gave M his gift and he opened his card.  He pulled it out of the envelope and said, "I can't believe it, we got each other the same card."  I guess this means we either 1) spend too much time together, 2) are perfect for each other, or 3) Target had a crappy card selection :)   He said it was the first card he picked up.  It was a funny card, we don't do that mushy stuff.

The highlight of the weekend, though, was that on Friday about an hour before I left work, I got a call from a company I interviewed with a couple weeks ago and did an assessment and drug test for, and they offered me a position to join their team.  I requested the weekend to think about it to make sure I was making the right decision.

Sunday night I e-mailed my future manager back and accepted.  I start February 28, the Monday after I return from my friend Leah's wedding in Baton Rouge.  I'm so excited.  I'm really going to miss all my coworkers because we're like a little family, but I'm eager to be in a challenging position with the potential for advancement.  Plus, the Purple Putter won't last much longer, so I'm going to save as much as possible so that I can afford a down payment on a Civic Hybrid.  So excited!

Snow, Snow, Go Away...Don't come again another day

It snowed.  Again.  Surprise, Surprise.

It had better be the last time, too.  My drive home took two and a half hours yesterday, which I expected, but it was quite unpleasant that I had to pee really bad the last hour of the drive.  As soon as I walked in the door, I ran to the restroom while M made me a martini.  Glorious.  We spent the evening finishing How To Train Your Dragon.  It was really cute!  I highly recommend it.  Then I took the online Jeopardy test (which was harder than I expected) and then we sledded.  While we were sledding, we watched morons attempt to drive up the icy road at the end of our street with their rear wheel drive.  It was amusing.  

When my alarm went off this morning, I assumed I would take it easy this morning and then head into work around 10. But as the morning went on, I decided I would take a personal day instead.  I was relatively productive.  I played the Sims for 2-3 hours and then burned some cds.  After that I purged my closet of clothes I never and will never wear to take to goodwill.

Following my closet purge, I got dressed and ran to Publix to buy stuff to make tiramisu for Valentine's day.  When my best friend got married in July, part of our Bridesmaids gift was a bottle of Arrington Vineyard's dessert wine.  They do free wine tastings at the vineyard and serve their Raspberry dessert wine with bits of truffles and it is positively divine.  I've been saving the wine for a special occasion because I didn't want to drink it any old day, and I've been craving tiramisu since New Years, so I thought the combo would be perfect after we go to Sunset Grill on Valentine's day.

After my grocery visit, I ran to Target to get something else to go with M's gift and a gift bag to put it all in.  

Then I came home and plopped myself in front of the TV and have been watching Friends the rest of the afternoon.

I'm so glad I decided to take a personal snow day.  Best decision ever.  I highly recommend you do it yourselves.  It's nice to have the house, and a day, to myself.

But spring better hurry up and get its ass here, I'm sick of winter.  Especially -293084928 degree weather and more importantly, snow.

Wee Bit Wednesdays

{one} ice: crushed or cubed?

Cubed.

{two} what is your worst traffic pet peeve?

Oh, wow, I have a lot, but I'll say people who cheat the system by going around and cutting people off.  Wait your turn, bitches.

{three} what room in your house best represents your personality?

None, because the painting of "my room" in our house is pending warmer weather.  The rest of the rooms represent M's personality since I moved into his house.

{four} do you save old birthday cards?

I do.

{five} when was the last time you went on a picnic?

M and I picnicked on the boat sometime last fall.

{six} do you regularly check your horoscope?

No.  I don't believe that I share the same fate as every other person born from Sept X-Oct X.

{seven} when you’re home, what do you wear on your feet?

Slippers.  Or my boots that I love, but only if I already had them on that day.

{eight} what’s your favorite gambling game?

Blackjack...or maybe Hold 'em.  I haven't played a lot.  I'll get back to you after we go to Vegas.

{nine} have you ever written (or started writing) a book?

Yes, err...I guess I failed at NaNoWriMo.

{ten} what is your favorite musical?

Hands down Les Miserables.  It's so amazing!  I'm seeing it at TPAC in May.  Can't wait!