my $1000 footrest…

Last weekend the knight called me to catch up, and I mentioned that I thought my clutch was going out. We agreed he’d look at it on Monday. Over the weekend I traveled all over with no problem, and even Monday morning I had a press check near downtown, and still had no problem. My boss and I decided to get lunch and I volunteered to drive, and that’s when it happened, my clutch went out. We called the knight to come and rescue us. He then had my car flatbed towed to his mechanic, and gave me rides to and from work for the rest of the week. Thursday my car was ready, and the knight gave me a ride to pick it up. The mechanic, a very sweet man who I know worked more hours than he charged me for, asked if I rest my foot on my clutch? My first inclination was to answer no, but as I thought about it I had to sheepishly answer yes. He let me know that was the reason for the freakishly short life of my clutch. I’ve decided to not beat myself up about this, (believe me, the knight has harassed me enough to last a lifetime; I guess a small price to pay for a knight’s services*) after all, I’ve had my car for four years, so really it is only $250 a year, and if you divide that by the number of months in a year its about $20 a month; so I’ve been spending less than a dollar a day for a footrest for my left foot, and really, that is a small price to pay!

*FYI, I’ve adopted the knight as my big brother, which might explain the acceptance of his harassment: a necessary part of a brotherly relationship! Plus it also helps me to overlook the many times he comes to my rescue, because really that’s what family is for, and since all of my family is long-distance, I’m sure they won’t mind him stepping in to bridge the familial gap.

submit urself woman…

Last year I had a friendship with an attractive man that ended after a now infamous text message was sent to me. We had been fighting because he didn’t respect my time commitments, and everything revolved around him and his schedule; narcissist comes to mind. Since we weren’t speaking to one another he opted to text me demanding that I stop and pick him up so he could fix my roommate’s computer. I communicated back to him in a text that I needed an apology before I would be able to stop and pick him up. I thought this was a reasonable request. However, silence ensued, which makes me think he didn’t think an apology to be a reasonable course of action. Later that night he text messaged me saying, “There’s only 1 man here n that’s me so stop acting like 1. Submit urself woman!” I literally laughed out loud. However, I know his intention wasn’t to make me laugh. He was serious! He sent it one more time in the early morning hours. I didn’t feel any need to respond, and that was it for our friendship.

That is until last night. He sent an email asking if I was ready to apologize. His words exactly were, “You miss me don’t you? And boy I’m looking better than ever! Ready to apologize?” Who says this?!? It's like a bad comedy routine! Now from a psychological standpoint, I get that his bravado and narcissism is just a cover for insecurities, and we all have them, but really… I guess all I can do is laugh since I’m not ready to submit!

T, my modern day knight in shining armor…

A few days ago, I knew I needed to stop and get gas on the way home; the miles left count down on my dash must have zeroed out on my way home the night before, but typical me, I didn’t notice until on my way to work the next morning. And of course, also typical me, I didn’t have time to stop without risking being late to work. At least I remembered after work of my sad need of fuel. I stopped at a gas station and searched for my coin purse that holds my credit cards. While frantically looking in every corner of the bottomless pit known as my purse, I came to the sad realization that I had taken it out the day before and forgot to return it. Although the new commute home is much less than before, I knew I would surely run out of gas if I tried to make it back home. I did one last ditch effort search before looking up. When I came up for air, I couldn’t help but smile. There was my friend T from work with a smirk on his face and laughter in his eyes, as he sat in his car holding out a $20 for my fuel tank. He had just seen me at the gas station on his way home, and noticed me looking through my purse, so he figured something was wrong and he pulled off and waited. He must have been sitting there for three minutes or more while I had my head buried in my bag, then he just smiled and handed me the cash and went on his way. His ability to read me is so disconcerting. Nevertheless, he did save the day.

round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows…

“round and round we go, where we stop nobody knows… round and round we go…” this sing-song-y childhood chant has been niggling at my brain for months now. I seem to remember it from my days playing on the merry-go-round, or maybe it was a part of a duck-duck-goose kind of game; for some reason I can’t remember the specifics, but the phrase has been chasing around in my head intrinsically tied to how fast my legs could carry me in whatever merriment the words were born. There’s an image I have of my childhood self that’s tied to these words: face all aglow with an uncontainable joy, and laughter spilling out without any restraint while the dark green and brown of the trees and the light green of the new spring grass blurs in circles around me. The spinning vertigo rush leaves me breathless and flushed, while the addiction to that feeling requires me to submit to the twirling forces over and over again. The image makes me smile.

Recently my life has encompassed all of the vertigo-induced adrenaline from the figurative merry-go-round twirls, but with none of the laughter or smiles. I’m working to add the joy back into my life without the twists and turns I’ve been encountering; hopefully the twirling chaos isn’t an unknown addiction. While I still don’t know where I’ll be stopping (the nursery rhyme still holds true in real life) I’ll leave the twists and turns to the rollercoaster’s at Disneyland!

hug me foiled

On my way to work this morning, I was happy to see that my traffic signpost is back from its holiday. Apparently it didn’t get the extra day the federal offices were given to commemorate President Ford, but instead is back blinking the times to the next freeway just for me (and the other 100,000 commuters on the 101). I almost stopped to give it a hug right then and there, but unfortunately my signpost (the one which provides the most support) has a fence around it; who knows, maybe hugging signposts has caused traffic problems in the past? I’ll just hug it in my heart and hope it knows my love and support.