long long ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

i stumbled across some ouran high school host club fanart here on dA. i though, hm, cute~ but forgot about it. then a couple days later, i saw some more. and some more. then i saw some stickers and i thought, ok, FINE, i'll find out what the heck this show is. it turns out to be a fairly hysterical anime about a girl who is mistaken for a guy and then gets roped into joining the titular host club. so, i downloaded the first few episodes, and now i'm hooked. i'd like to let my sister watch it, too, but two people on one laptop screen, even a widescreen, is about one person too many, so i decided to go get an s-video cable so we could watch it on the tv. ... thus my problems began.

it turns out i'm too broke even to afford a skinny little s-video cable, so i left microcenter empty-handed, something that always causes me pain. then on the way home, i got a good jolt of pain - my check engine light went on. this?



is not a happy sight. i pretty much freak out at the slightest hint of something going wrong w/ my car, for two reasons. a, i am the world's brokest car-owner, and b, my car gets nearly 30 miles to the gallon on it's worst days. i LOVE my car. there is no way i could get a better car. i just wish i could treat it right. like ... getting it an oil change every once in a while ... when i had to have my engine replaced about two years ago [christ, was it really that long ago?] it was because my car hadn't had an oil change in about three years. now i live in a perpetual state of "when's my next oil change!? when's my next oil change!?" just as an aside, my next oil change is scheduled for about six months ago. so, when the check engine light went on, i immediately thought, low oil? please? i went home, tried to pretend that it hadn't happened, and dreamt that night of my car breaking its engine block.

yesterday, the drive to work did not solve whatever the problem was, so i decided it was time to admit that the light was indeed ON, and that i needed to do something. during work, i was working on an outline for my nano novel (details to come lay-tah) when i heard this sickening crunch of metal on metal. a car accident had occured right outside the office. in front of my car. ... with my car? O. M. G. DID THAT OLD GEEZER JUST HIT MY CAR!!!??? ... luckily, no. he hit the old lady in the van in front of him, it was just the odd angle that his car ended up at that made me think he had side-impacted my beautiful, if [more than] slightly dilapitated, tercel. the drive home also did not solve my problem, and i refused to take the highway, fearing that some hideous shudder would soon betoken my vehicle's imminant demise [woah, girl, ease up off the vocab, hm?] and when i got home, i popped the hood, checked my dipstick, and discovered that my oil levels were fine. it was old oil, probably NASTY oil, but there definitely was still enough of it to prevent check engine lights from going on. the problem must lie elsewhere. mom comes out to help me, we check the coolant resevoir, and discover that it is all but empty. my engine's still a little too hot to check to radiator itself, and it's already six pm, so that'll have to wait. in the meantime, i call my dad, discover that my household is bereft of coolant, and take my sister dana along with me for a brief ride to the auto parts store. ... wearing these:



shoes? ... uh, no. slippers, actually. also, actually, not an unusual occurance for me. my slippers are rubber-soled and quite shoe-like, so i often accidentally exit the house in my slippers rather than my shoes. ... ... ...

well, the auto parts store is super close to my home, so i'm thinking, i'll just drive over there, super quick, pick up some coolant, and then put it in tomorrow, and everything'll be fine. well, the auto parts store USED to be super close to my home, at least. it's moved. so now it's another short trip to the new location. luckily, coolant/antifreeze is only $5. yay in-house brands! i've still got a $10 in my wallet, so i'm like, let's go to staples and see if they've got some gel pens that i've been looking for. staples is right next to the old auto parts store location, so it's back to my first stop, park, and it is at this time that i discover i am wearing my slippers. dana thinks that's pretty funny. a. HA. so staples doesn't have what i want, and we go home, thanking god my car hasn't blown up or shuddered or anything nasty like that. it is at this point that i check my infamous pen drawer on a whim and discover that i already own the gel pens i had been looking to buy. ... ... ...

fast forward to this morning, meredeth sprawled out in her bed, sheets all tangled around her, and the doorbell ringing. meredeth moans, turns over as best she can, and goes back to sleep. ... ... ... twelve-thirty rolls around, and she is awoken once again by a doorbell, this time accompanied by more doorbell ringing, and beating on the door. nobody really moved upstairs, and the ringing/pounding continued, so i had to go upstairs and open the door for cute little dana-chan, who had locked herself out of the house. HOMICIDAL STAB. well, at that point, i was up, so i lounged in bed for a while, and then went upstairs and put coolant in my engine. that's when dana-chan finds a twenty dollar bill under the passanger seat. i'm thinking, when the heck've i had $20, and then it strikes me. i went to the bank for my boss the other day. it's my boss's $20. ... ... ... we can't find a funnel, so i pour in the coolant, my radiator is BONE dry, but i really don't want to spill any more coolant than is absolutely necessary, so i leave it dry, and start up the car. the vibrations change after a second, a little more normal now, but the light's still on. i leave it running for a while, but the light doesn't go off, and then it's time to go to work. ... so now here i am at work, praying my car doesn't explode when i turn it on this evening to go home.

on the bonus plan, i've gotten four out of five postcards from the etsy postcard swap i was involved in. one was from one of the girls i sent one to. she ended up being my first sale on etsy! yay! even though it was actually a trade, WHATever. it shows up as a sale, so there! another one was from colorado, another one was from wisconson, and another one was from ... i can't remember, but she did tell me to have a "fabbity fab fab day," so that was sufficiently scary. i'm also noticing that all the postcards i'm getting are store-bought, wereas the ones i sent were homemade. i'm kinda thinking... oops? melissa [the chick that bought from my shop] said she really liked hers, and i've heard from one other girl who seemed to really like hers, too, so i guess it's okay, but... /shrug/

anyhow, to conclude my novel, i would like to say:



it's just sad how long it took me to figure out that this little convenience factor existed. (T_T)