Me and Cars, Part II

Last weekend, I visited one of my best friends Elizabeth Ferrell and her new little baby, David (better known as Punkin'). Aimee Hicks (another close friend) and I set out on the long seven hour trip to Louisville, KY at about 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon. Aimee was concerned that her engine was running a little hot so we decided to stop in Auto Protocall for quick check-up. Unfortunately, we got there at 4:50 and they close at 5pm. However, the man at the front generously agreed to come look at our car in the parking lot. He established that we had plenty of coolant and that nothing on the service seemed terribly wrong. He also informed us that as long as the temperature gage on the dash didn't pass into the red we were fine. Now, I'm pretty hard on cars (perhaps why I've already been thro two) but Aimee leans more toward safety or paranoia which ever you prefer. She wasn't comfortable just turning on the defrost and therefore cooling the engine so we decided to try Walmart. (I know I know but it's not my car)

Upon pulling up we quickly established that this was only a Tire and Lube Express. However, I decided it wouldn't hurt to ask for some help. I did decide it would hurt to ask the purse-lipped lady inside at the desk so I yelled at one of the mechanics in the garage. He informed me they couldn't do the work at Walmart but he would be glad to take a look. So Duke (our new best friend) came outside and quickly established that Aimee's thermostat is broken. He then informs us that he can call his cousin who could come over and fix it in about 15 minutes if we could get the part. Meanwhile time is ticking away and we decide to ask our respective fiance/husband if we can borrow their cars and both our respective fiance/husbands say no. Well Aimee gives up but I kick and cry till NIcholas relents which is about the same time Duke says his cousin is on the way and Johan (Aimee's fiance) volunteers to rent us a car. We decide to have Nicholas go get the new thermostat (which the people at Autozone say they have but then change their mind but then find it again).

By now it's about 7:00pm and Duke's cousin has still not shown up. Everyone is getting anxious including Nicholas who has shown up with the new thermostat. Finally, Derrick the infamous cousin shows up and goes to work on Aimee's car - in the middle of the Walmart parking lot. He works and works and works. Finally about an hour later he's finished and he says wants to take it for a test drive to make sure everything is working. After instructing us to remove our pocketbooks(his word not mine), he takes a couple of laps around the parking lot and established the fans still aren't kicking on. Seeing our desperate faces, he explains he can cut some wires and hook the fans directly to the battery or we can trust that the high speed wind will keep the engine cool. We chose option two. We thank Derrick and ask how much we should pay him. He instructs Aimee to pay him "whatever you think is fair" We give Derrick as much money as we can afford and the promise of our firstborns. Around 9:00 we set out, Derrick's girlfriends phone number in tow "in case we run into any trouble."

We arrive in Lexington at 3:45am and spend the night there. We go to Louisville and spend a lovely weekend with our friends and the baby, who are just glad we're there. Although my friend Erin asked in amazement, "Where do you find these people?!?"

As Expected

Maggie now has her own Dogster page.

Ed.note: The last post about what I've been doing lately disappeared for some reason. Rest assured that it wasn't that interesting, and most of the links can be found on the left hand side of the page

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions...

I have now received acceptance (or rejection) letters from all the law schools I applied to. The final tally goes a little something like this:

Georgetown: Rejected
George Washington: Waitlisted
George Mason: Accepted
American: Accepted

Overall, I am very happy with my lot and there were no major surprises. Now of course comes the hard part.

I visited George Mason this weekend. While there were certain aspects of the school I liked, overall I don't think I would be very happy there. They are extremely competitive and have a strong focus on economics (not something I'm terribly interested in). The clincher however was when I asked my student guide about gender studies and my interest in this area she pretty much told me to go to American.

American has basically built itself up to be THE feminist law school, obviously something that appeals to me. Also a friend from college visited there and really liked the overall feeling of the school.

Yet, I would still like to see what will happen with GW. Unfortunately, the chances of me hearing from them before my seat deposit at American is due are slim. Ughhh....I'll keep everyone posted.

Only at Centre

Centre College, sometime rival of our alma mater, has a class called "Basketball as Religion."

Interesting Tidbits

When you run spell check on a blog entry, it pulls up blog as a misspelled word (Replace with bloc, Bloch, blow)...

A woman in France married her dead fiance yesterday. She had to get special permission from the president...

I found out yesterday that in some government language schools they serve diluted wine to lower people's inhibitions so that they feel more comfortable practicing their pronunciation...

My husband sent me tulips yesterday officially making him the sweetest man ever!

Were the Grammys held in a high school gym this year?

Though I liked the fact that they pulled Prince out of the closet and dusted him off, the Grammys have pretty much sucked so far. And what's with the early-90's graphics?

Sarah May Just Be Right

According to this article in the NY Times, gay marriage may be one of the issues that defines this campaign.

I don't even know where to start...

I read two stories yesterday that helped me reach an important decision. One was "The Note" an election commentary by abc news. The second was the cover story of Newsweek entitled "Why We Were Wrong" which explored the evidence given for the war in Iraq. My conclusion: that there is a serious chance I could go crazy before this election is over.

I say this because I suddenly realized something very important. Instead of talking about why our commander-in-chief led us into a preemptive war on faulty evidence during this election, we're are going to be talking about whether or not the government should be able to tell me who I should marry. (The answer to that question by the way is no.) This is not to say that I do not believe gay marriage is an important issue. I do. I believe it is an issue based fundamentally on your moral beliefs in homosexuality which last time I checked every person gets to decide for themselves. However instead this is going to become another hot button issue to distract from political issues of governmental importance...like the war on faulty evidence previously mentioned. The true irony here is that the party of "personal responsibility" is going to be calling for it on one issue while passing the buck on the other.

So that is the end of my rant and Nicholas is now officially kicking himself for asking me to blog more.

Why God invented Tivo...

Since the four blogs I check regularly haven't mentioned the incident, I will now state how I feel about the Super Bowl/Janet Jackson incident...

It was just a boob (and what I imagine was a very expensive nipple medallion) get the frick over it.

I feel better now.

Congratulations Are Due...

Sarah was accepted to George Mason Law School today. She is waiting to hear from GWU and American, and we have plans to go visit these schools soon to help her make her decision.

Congratulations are also due to Shelly and Elizabeth, who welcomed a baby boy, David Shelly, into the world on Saturday. He was 9 lbs. 5 oz. and 21.5 inches long. Wow.