3.27.02

Stress, stress and more stress.

So remember last time I said my car was on the fritz? Well, I took it to two different mechanics plus did some exploratory surgery on my own all just to decide that no one has any solid idea what’s wrong with my car. One guy says it’s a head gasket. Another says it’s only the intake valve gasket. All I know is I have oil in my anti-freeze, which is one of the signs of a head gasket problem, but also happens to be a sign of an intake valve gasket leak as well. So, yeah, I have no idea what’s wrong. The worst part is, it’s not running poorly. I had no idea this was even a remotely serious problem until I took it in to have it inspected a week ago. Tomorrow morning at 8:00, I’ll be dropping my car off to have the intake valve gasket replaced, simply because it’s the cheaper of the two repairs. However, if they get in there and say, “Oh, we were wrong. It is the head gasket.” I’m going to have to get on the phone to my bank and see about a loan because I sure as hell don’t have about $1500 lying around not getting spent. Wish me luck that it’s only the intake valve gasket. Pray for me, actually.

Because my car is on the fritz, it pretty much rules out my weekend plans of coming home for Easter. Although I would have loved to see the fam again, all hope is not lost for a good time. My friends from my Champaign days are sticking around STL this weekend and have offered to come pick me up out in the burbs so we can go out and have some fun with a mutual friend of ours who is going to be coming into town. I also have some old friends from Champaign that are coming down for a little mini-vacation to do some gambling and I should be able to see them as well. I was hoping to complete the trifecta by meeting Ben’s southern belle this weekend, but it sounds like she won’t be making the trip from Tennessee after all. Maybe someday we’ll meet the legendary Lori, because I’m beginning to wonder if she even exists. (Sort of like Jan’s boyfriend on the Brady Bunch.)

With my recent vehicular difficulties, I’ve come to realize that I’m not doing a very good job of managing my finances, so last night I couldn’t sleep and decided to do a little figuring. I wrote out all my guaranteed bills – car payment, rent, insurance, Netflix subscription, internet bill – anything that is the same price every month. Then I took my best guesses on the bills that fluctuate – utilities, food, gas, thermonuclear warheads – and came up with a pretty good idea of what I spend my money on. All said and done I found out I should have a lot more money left over than I do and should be able to pay a lot more on my credit card bills. I think I’m just mismanaging it to death. But that’s all going to change now starting with April. I’m going to stop buying some things as much as I am – pizza, warheads – so that should help. But I also plan to use my O’Fallon checking account as sort of a savings account where I’ll take money from my paycheck and leave it there for my next credit card bill instead of spending it poorly on DVD’s or books. Dammit, this growing up shit sucks. However, if I can stick to this plan, I should have my credit cards paid off in about 13 months and that would rock my world pretty hard (that is, unless, I have to pay back a bank loan to repair my damn car).

One final note – ya know how I’m always saying there’s very little good television? Well, over the last few weeks I’ve added another show to my repertoire that I highly recommend you check out sometime. It’s MTV’s highest-rated show ever and thus far it deserves that, I don’t know if I want to say “honor”, but you know what I mean. The show is “The Osbournes” – a sort of Real World with the cast being made up entirely of Ozzy Osbourne’s family. Although the entire family is quite literally insane, it’s the poor Black Sabbath front man himself whose brain is so fried from years of substance abuse that he walks around in an almost permanent haze, shaking like an 80-year old man, hunched over and erratic, that is the true star of the show. I swear to God I got more joy out of seeing him take out the garbage than I have watching an entire season of Friends. It’s just incredible to see Ozzy doing the most mundane things because you’re sitting there wondering, “Does he have any idea where he is right now?” Anyway, it’s on Tuesday’s at 9:30 and is by far the only reason to ever tune to MTV, so go check it out.

Well, that does it for the week. I’ll let you know next time what’s up with my car. Hopefully I’ll catch a few movies this weekend – Death to Smoochy (love, love, love dark comedies) and Panic Room (by the director of Fight Club, so you can bet my ass’ll be in a seat) – and I’ll let you know if there’s anything worth seeing. But for now, I bid you adieu.

Space Monkey X