Passion

I skipped over some stuff with my last entry (which I posted to G+ first, and then decided I wanted archived, so I put it here too).

Jim got his second paycheck from Knight. It was for negative $1400. He quit. They said he had reported his work "late" and that he would get paid "in the next check", but they couldn't tell him how much he'd get paid. And he had been told three or four different deadlines for the reporting, so it was hardly his fault that he missed the real one.

We bought a Prius. It's a 2005, and it's gold. I hated it for the first day, but when I finally got a chance to drive it on Sunday it immediately won me over. It's fairly comfortable. It has automatic windows, locks, and transmission (well, sort of. it's got Prius transmission). It's like driving a computer - if you have the key in your pocket, the door unlocks automatically when you approach the car. You get in, still with the key in your pocket, put your foot on the brake, and press the round Power button, and the car turns on. You move a lever until the display reads Reverse or Drive, and then move your foot to the gas and the car goes - all with the key still in your pocket. It's insane. It's like driving a spaceship.

We named her Serenity.

Jim went to a meet and greet for SideCar, his new company, Friday evening. It's a ridesharing company that is essentially a taxi service, but cheaper, more reliable, faster, and WAY less creepy. It's all coordinated through smartphone apps. I tagged along in the passenger seat Friday night while Jim gave rides around the city for a couple hours, and it was a lot of fun. We got to chat with interesting people, and we made like $100 in two hours. I think this'll be a much better job for Jim, at least in the short term.

This weekend was supposed to be a mess in the city, so I flipped through event listings on the web to see if anything in particular looked like fun. I found a listing for a steampunk/Oktoberfest combination dance, and we decided to go. This meant we had to put together costumes, so we went wandering around our neighborhood Saturday morning to find thrift stores. We got some decent costume pieces and cobbled a look together, though we didn't have any accessories or anything (no goggles or awesome boots or leather of any kind). The dance was a lot of fun. They had victorian waltzes in addition to polkas, plus a few set dances they taught on the spot, and we had a blast. I even got to wear my nice dancing shoes, which I haven't done since the wedding. We got some fliers for some other events by this group, and we'll definitely be going to more of them.

Sunday we drove Jim's semi to the nearest Knight lot, which was four hours away, in the central valley. Serenity averaged just under 50 miles per gallon (she's meant for city driving, not highway, but I still think that's pretty impressive!). Jim and I played "what's that crop?" on the way through Gilroy and the surrounding area. It's a little sad that we don't recognize fields of bell peppers or strawberries or garlic on the spot. If I had a kid I would insist on having a garden and making the kid help grow our food. Maybe once we get a house I'll start a garden anyway. I should be mature enough by now not to kill plants just by looking at them.

All in all, I'm loving living here. We've settled, I think, and I feel better than I've felt in years. I'm in better shape. Running and biking are enjoyable - my body RESPONDS to requests for action, in a I CAN DO THIS kind of way instead of a OH HELL THIS HURTS kind of way. It's giddying. I feel happy. I am home, and things are of course not perfect, but I made it back to California, after a thousand million years away, and it keeps getting better and it's going to keep getting better. This is good.

 I've been meaning to post...

So, about two weeks ago, I watched the sun rise from my car. From the bottom of a ditch.

It was early in the morning on a Friday. So early, in fact, that the sun was not up. I needed to be at work very early for a financial meeting with my boss and one of our administrators.  I left the house around 6:45. By 6:55 I was in a ditch.

It had snowed the night before, maybe half an inch. There is a long onramp near my house where the speed limit goes from 45 to 70 over about a half a mile. I had just gotten on that. There are two lanes, and most of the cars were in the right lane, still going about 45. The left lane looked mostly clear, so I moved over and started to slowly accelerate, wondering what the holdup was. I mean, sure there was snow, but the road looked clear... Cars had obviously traveled in this lane already, as there were broad clear tire paths...  As I accelerated, I started to fishtail. I've recovered from slight fishtails before, even recently, and was calm and confident as I turned the steering wheel into the fishtail to regain control.  Except... I didn't regain control. The car started to fishtail more, so I corrected again, but it still didn't straighten out, and then I panicked. The car spun in a circle and then suddenly I was in the ditch. I still have no idea what really happened, or how I avoided hitting any cars in the other lane. I must have hit black ice or something. I'm so glad the area isn't two-way. I was very lucky.

Anyway, I checked the car, and checked myself, and nothing was damaged. I was shaken, but not hurt. I tried to get out of the ditch. The car would absolutely not go up the sides of the ditch, which were fairly steep. I made some rather long, mean grooves in the dirt at the bottom of the ditch, both in front and behind me, before I gave up.  I called Jim, who (poor thing) was fast asleep at trucking training in Iowa (where it was 6am...). He responded very calmly to my sobbing explanation and offered to call his dad to come get me with his SUV and winch. I said okay.

I sat in the ditch for about an hour. I left the car on for a while to keep warm, since my giant coat only goes down to my thighs, but I didn't want to kill the environment, so eventually I found an extra sweatshirt in the back of the car and put it over my legs to keep them warm and turned the car off. I had my phone with me, so I chatted with my knitting group friends online. One of them suggested I keep a blanket in the car. There is one there now, alongside my first aid kit, umbrella, jumper cables, spare tire...

A tow truck came by and the driver offered to get me out of the ditch. For $150. I said no thanks.

Eventually the sun came up. It didn't really get any warmer.

A cop car drove up and parked at the top of the ditch. The cop got out, and I got out, and he walked down into the ditch to talk to me.

"How much longer are ya gonna be here?"

"Uhhh, someone is coming to get me. He should be here in 15 to 20 minutes, maybe?"

"Well, you can't stay here."

::blank stare::  "I can't get out on my own. Someone will be here soon to help me."

"Did you try backing up?"

::looks at long deep grooves in mud behind car::  "Well, yes..."

"Let's try it again."

I was dubious, but I got back into my car and rolled down my window. The cop directed me to turn on the car and just back up straight, along the bottom of the ditch, for a good 15 yards.  Then he told me to turn my wheels slightly. I did so. I accelerated in reverse... and the car stalled. I went forward again. He told me to try again, but not to turn my wheels quite so much...  I did so. I backed up about 100 yards at an extremely shallow angle... and then was at the top of the ditch.

I felt like the world's biggest idiot.

I thanked the cop and drove away. I called Jim and told him I was out and okay. I called Jim's dad and told him I didn't need him anymore, even though he'd already driven an hour in morning rush hour traffic and snow after being woken out of a dead sleep to come get his son's girlfriend, and was only five minutes away. He was an extremely good sport. Remind me to take him an extra bottle of wine on Saturday.

I got to work more than an hour late. Needless to say, I completely missed the meeting I'd gotten up so early for in the first place.

Yay winter.

I need:
*the plates and registration for my car.
*to do laundry.
*to finish my genetics homework.
*more hours in a day.
*more long-sleeve shirts and sweaters.
*new pants.
*to write more often.
*to look into seeing a counselor.
*to see a dentist.
*to get laid
**consistently
***by someone who loves me.

I wish:
*for world peace.
*for more money.
*Yale were in California.
*my dad weren't living in his truck.
**I could do something about it.
***I didn't feel guilty about not being able to do something about it.

I'm glad:
*I have a car and I don't live in it.
*I got 27/30 and 3/3 on my latest genetics assignments.
*I got two Honors and three High Pass scores on my cell bio midterm.
*I'm making friends.
*I have food in the refridgerator, including a turkey I'm going to cook this week.
*I'm in grad school.
*there isn't much time left before Christmas break.

I set my alarm for 6 am but forgot to turn it on. At 7 I woke up and stumbled blearily downstairs and out into the street to feed quarters into the meter in front of the apartment, where my car is "parked." If the steering wheel wasn't locked up and the key would turn in the ignition, the car wouldn't be parked there still; in fact it wouldn't have been there for more than ten minutes while I ran and got my laundry and threw it in the backseat. But the steering wheel is locked up, and the key won't turn in the ignition, and countless phone calls and all the pulling on the steering wheel in the world later, the car is still there.

So it's 9 am and the meter has been fed, and now I'm just waiting for the tow truck, so that I can begin my morning at a Ford dealership instead of transforming yeast cells. So far this vacation isn't shaping up to be much fun, but it hasn't technically started yet, so maybe this is just the tail end of my crappy week.

You know what I want to know? Why does the car even HAVE that mechanism? And why isn't there a simpler fix? Something like, "stick the key in this other lock and unlock said steering column, and then proceed with life" would still prevent theft, because it would require the key. And then I could have done my laundry and picked up my packages in Orange and gone climbing and my Thursday would have been awesome.

I have recently become addicted to Death Cab for Cutie. The only song I'd ever had was We Looked Like Giants, but I downloaded the whole album, and then another album, and now I'm in Death Cab for Cutie overload. I know it's so emo, but I love this stuff.

In case anyone was wondering, New Haven is really pretty and peaceful at 7 am. We even had frost this morning. Maybe it will snow soon....

My car needs a name. So far I've determined that it's a girl (and she now has a very chic roof rack installed on her head). Currently the favorite name possibility is Yoko, but I'd love some more ideas. What have you guys named your cars? What names have you had for cars before, or what do you think would make a good car name?

Maybe I'll even use my much-neglected poll option and have a vote if I get some good suggestions. Yaaaay, interactive journal entries!

Today... I bought a car.

I am now a real adult.