My little sister has arrived.
Actually (of course) that was two nights ago, but yesterday was NOT a good day at work, so it did not get posted. BUT before I post anything about MMK coming, let me post about something else.
There is a story about before my little sister arrived that I wanted to comment on. I made the mistake of inviting a door to door Kirby Vacuum Cleaner salesman into my house. I really did not know what I was getting into, and he was offering to clean our front carpet for free, which is something we have wanted done for a LONG time. So, he came in and started doing his spiel. I did not mind sitting there and listening to him, and the vacuum cleaner was impressive.
The problem came when he got the mistaken idea that we had already agreed to buy it. We thought it was a tactic at first, he said lets go over and sit down and talk about the paper work, and we figured this was the part where he told us we were going to get a great deal and offered us some sort of financing that we would then turn down and say we ultimately were not interested. As it turned out, he thought he had made the sale, despite the fact that "we want to buy it" or "we are in" or even "we are really interested in the possibility of buying it" never crossed our lips. We, of course, are not the types of people that impulse purchase anything that is two hundred dollars, let alone anything that is two grand (which was the price of this vacuum). He went so far as to call his boss and say he had made the sale (which we also thought was a tactic). When we voiced our lack of willingness to purchase, he was all shocked, as in actually shocked, not just trying to acted shocked to make the sale. I felt bad, but seriously dude, ask if people are going to make the purchase before assuming they are.
The funny part is that as the beginning of the whole thing he actually said "at the end of this I am going to ask you for a yes or no on whether you want to purchase this, I don't care which answer it is, but I will ask the question just so you know." He never asked that question, he just assumed yes.
Anyways, so he went back to cleaning the carpet, then called in the big guns, and someone I assume was a level above him showed up and started helping him clean the carpet and talk to us. She was nice enough, but we of course told her the same thing - we don't do impulse purchases like that. She offered us a greatly reduced price ($799), but we still said no, and they started to pack up. She sent him outside with the first box while she finished up and then took the opportunity to ask us what the guy had done to piss us off, saying she would be expected to explain to her boss how he had lost the sale. We tried to explain that he had not lost a sale so much as thought he had it when he didn't, so hopefully he did not get into too much trouble because he seemed like a nice enough guy.
One other comment on this experience. At one point, after having vacuumed up a ridiculous amount of pet hair from one little section of that carpet (he said it was the worse he had seen... oops!), anyways, after doing this, one of his little "trying to make the sale" comments was "So, you agree that cleaning is a priority for you". We both had to fight the urge to burst out laughing. Um. Do you think if cleaning was a priority for us that you would be able to get that much hair out of our carpet? That we would have this many stains? I don't think so. We pointed this out to him, but agreed that perhaps cleaning should be MORE of a priority. Honestly, while I am sure none of our carpets are great in terms of pet hair, I am also sure that that carpet is by far the worst in the house (hence why we had him work on it). Rather than making me want to purchase a new vacuum cleaner, the whole process made me want to take that 2K and pay to have wood or laminate floors put down in that room. That carpet needs replacing.
And that, folks, is my door-to-door salesman story. I did get some benefit out of it - my stairs look better than they have in probably a year. But, from now on I am adopting DH's motto - turn door-to-door salesmen away on shear principle that we don't want them coming to our door, even if the product is interesting
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
11 Hour Work Marathon
Today, I have the great pleasure of working 11 hrs. That would be 7:15 AM to 6:45 PM with a half hour lunch. That is a LONG day. And why am I putting myself through this? For the love of a sister. Tonight my little sister is flying into town and staying for 12 days. I am super excited, but unfortunatley I have to work the whole time because I do not have vacation days yet. In order to make up for this a bit, I have flexed my schedule to get some time off. I figured the best way to flex it this first week would be to work as long a day as possible today when she is not here so I can take time off later in this week when she is hear. My 11 hr day today (along with some other adjustments), will make it possible to only work 2 hrs on Friday morning (7:30 - 9:30 AM) and basically have the whole day to do something. It will be a long, tough day though, and it does not help that I got a migraine overnight.
I used to get migraines ALL OF THE TIME (of varying severity). However I have not had big problems with them for quite sometime and they had even become somewhat predictable, with only the rare migraine coming "out of the blue" so to speak, so I am not amused by this headache. When I woke up at 3:45 AM with pain I figured there must surely be a big weather change or something, but today looks exactly the same as yesterday, and the weather map does not show any sort of system moving in. So, I guess I just have the pleasure of a random headache. Its not too bad right now. I treated it this morning with a hot compress in the form of a cup of hot water from Starbucks. (normally I would just use my Latte from Starbucks, but I figured if they would give me the extra cup of hot water for free, why let my tasty drink cool off?). A starbucks cup is pretty much the perfect hot water compress available. It holds heat decently, they seal it with those little green sticks so it does not spill when I tip it, and its easy to hold and the right shape to press into my eye ball and nose. Best of all, its refillable if there is hot water available. Granted my coworkers may think I am a bit odd when I walk around (OK, actually just sit at my desk), with a Starbucks cup pressed to my head, but I do what I gotta do. The only thing better than a starbucks cup is pressing my face into DH's neck. That would be even more awkward to do at work though, eh? Someone needs to invent an eye patch heating pad. Now THAT would be heaven on earth during a migraine for me!!
So, this post was actually going to be about the weekend. Maybe I should get to that. The weekend passed REALLY quickly. Friday night we took the Dogs to swim at Alum Creek dog park. When we got there, there was one other lady there with 6 black labs! Quite the pack. They were pretty well behaved and our dogs fit right in with them, though River's coloring stuck out quite a bit!! They both clearly enjoyed the water. After that we rented The Informant w/Matt Daemon. It was pretty good, made most interesting by the fact its a true story. Pretty crazy!
Saturday morning I headed to the farmers market with M and J, nice and early, so we could make an early start for Burton, OH, where my sister was hosting a family BBQ. We got up there around 1:30pm. Other people came around 4:30PM. It was a lot of fun, pretty much everyone came. We ate well, had good conversation, I found out about this grill my uncle has that used to be my Grandpa's, its pretty neat. Despite having tried to plan it so we could stay nice and late, we ended up being some of the first people to leave. Always the case. We need to host something at our house so they call can see it and so that we are not the first to leave!!
Sunday I slept in a bit (it had been a long night, we did not get home until very late due to traffic and then River was hyper from being crated all day). In the early afternoon I went to see Inception with M and W. This movie, if you have not heard, is growing rapidly in popularity and pretty much everyone I talk to on a regular basis here in Columbus either has seen it and recommends it or wants to see it. After seeing it, I can understand why. It is a very good movie, and very original. That said, while I did enjoy it, and I do recommend it, it did not quite live up to the expectations I had set for it, which were admittedly quite high. My biggest demand on fiction, especially sci fi or fantasy, is internal consistency. So you say dogs can fly? Great! I believe it! Just make sure its consistent about which dogs can fly and how high!! This movie lacked a tiny bit of that, and it was enough to fail my expectations, but its still a good movie, really creative and quite beautiful to watch.
Unfortunately when I came out of the movie I did not feel well and started my decline into migraine-ness. I did not get anything done I had planned that afternoon, and as a result, I hope my little sister can tolerate a bit of a mess!!
Thats all that I have got going on. Oh, and my recent addiction to Lego Harry Potter for Nintendo DS (thanks again ILs for supporting my DS dreams). Mmm. Harry Potter.
I used to get migraines ALL OF THE TIME (of varying severity). However I have not had big problems with them for quite sometime and they had even become somewhat predictable, with only the rare migraine coming "out of the blue" so to speak, so I am not amused by this headache. When I woke up at 3:45 AM with pain I figured there must surely be a big weather change or something, but today looks exactly the same as yesterday, and the weather map does not show any sort of system moving in. So, I guess I just have the pleasure of a random headache. Its not too bad right now. I treated it this morning with a hot compress in the form of a cup of hot water from Starbucks. (normally I would just use my Latte from Starbucks, but I figured if they would give me the extra cup of hot water for free, why let my tasty drink cool off?). A starbucks cup is pretty much the perfect hot water compress available. It holds heat decently, they seal it with those little green sticks so it does not spill when I tip it, and its easy to hold and the right shape to press into my eye ball and nose. Best of all, its refillable if there is hot water available. Granted my coworkers may think I am a bit odd when I walk around (OK, actually just sit at my desk), with a Starbucks cup pressed to my head, but I do what I gotta do. The only thing better than a starbucks cup is pressing my face into DH's neck. That would be even more awkward to do at work though, eh? Someone needs to invent an eye patch heating pad. Now THAT would be heaven on earth during a migraine for me!!
So, this post was actually going to be about the weekend. Maybe I should get to that. The weekend passed REALLY quickly. Friday night we took the Dogs to swim at Alum Creek dog park. When we got there, there was one other lady there with 6 black labs! Quite the pack. They were pretty well behaved and our dogs fit right in with them, though River's coloring stuck out quite a bit!! They both clearly enjoyed the water. After that we rented The Informant w/Matt Daemon. It was pretty good, made most interesting by the fact its a true story. Pretty crazy!
Saturday morning I headed to the farmers market with M and J, nice and early, so we could make an early start for Burton, OH, where my sister was hosting a family BBQ. We got up there around 1:30pm. Other people came around 4:30PM. It was a lot of fun, pretty much everyone came. We ate well, had good conversation, I found out about this grill my uncle has that used to be my Grandpa's, its pretty neat. Despite having tried to plan it so we could stay nice and late, we ended up being some of the first people to leave. Always the case. We need to host something at our house so they call can see it and so that we are not the first to leave!!
Sunday I slept in a bit (it had been a long night, we did not get home until very late due to traffic and then River was hyper from being crated all day). In the early afternoon I went to see Inception with M and W. This movie, if you have not heard, is growing rapidly in popularity and pretty much everyone I talk to on a regular basis here in Columbus either has seen it and recommends it or wants to see it. After seeing it, I can understand why. It is a very good movie, and very original. That said, while I did enjoy it, and I do recommend it, it did not quite live up to the expectations I had set for it, which were admittedly quite high. My biggest demand on fiction, especially sci fi or fantasy, is internal consistency. So you say dogs can fly? Great! I believe it! Just make sure its consistent about which dogs can fly and how high!! This movie lacked a tiny bit of that, and it was enough to fail my expectations, but its still a good movie, really creative and quite beautiful to watch.
Unfortunately when I came out of the movie I did not feel well and started my decline into migraine-ness. I did not get anything done I had planned that afternoon, and as a result, I hope my little sister can tolerate a bit of a mess!!
Thats all that I have got going on. Oh, and my recent addiction to Lego Harry Potter for Nintendo DS (thanks again ILs for supporting my DS dreams). Mmm. Harry Potter.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Bigger and Better
Sitting in my living room with my puppies (and one of my kitties) and enjoying the season premiere of Project Runway. It looks like it could be a good season. I just took an hour and a half nap somewhat inadvertently, I was supposed to be reading Middlemarch. Middlemarch is a 19th century novel by George Eliot (who is actually a woman, by the way). I really do like the book, but am just not getting through it fast enough for my book club. I need to press a bit more.
We got some great news at work today. I have mentioned here before we have lost a few people, and gone from a 9 person unit (1 supervisor, 2 helpers, and 6 newbies like me), to a 6 person unit by losing three newbies. As this happened it became more and more clear that something would have to give- no way the organization would let those three (actually four, since one was already empty) cubicles just stand empty. I was pretty worried the unit would get broken up, which would be bad mainly because it would mean losing my awesome supervisor. Well - today we found out that instead of getting broken up, we are getting three new members, also from my probationary class, and they are all people I like. They move in about three weeks and we will go on our way a full and theoretically secure unit for awhile!! The only bad part about this is that it complicates the gifts I was planning to give in about 6 weeks at the end of our probation. I was going to make blankets for everyone in our unit, because they have all commented that they like mine. But - while making five blankets seemed feasible, making 8 seems a bit over the top.
Anyways - thats my life here, its not bad. I am pretty relaxed at the moment which is always nice.
We got some great news at work today. I have mentioned here before we have lost a few people, and gone from a 9 person unit (1 supervisor, 2 helpers, and 6 newbies like me), to a 6 person unit by losing three newbies. As this happened it became more and more clear that something would have to give- no way the organization would let those three (actually four, since one was already empty) cubicles just stand empty. I was pretty worried the unit would get broken up, which would be bad mainly because it would mean losing my awesome supervisor. Well - today we found out that instead of getting broken up, we are getting three new members, also from my probationary class, and they are all people I like. They move in about three weeks and we will go on our way a full and theoretically secure unit for awhile!! The only bad part about this is that it complicates the gifts I was planning to give in about 6 weeks at the end of our probation. I was going to make blankets for everyone in our unit, because they have all commented that they like mine. But - while making five blankets seemed feasible, making 8 seems a bit over the top.
Anyways - thats my life here, its not bad. I am pretty relaxed at the moment which is always nice.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Eat it, Clean it, Dread i.
Good weekend here in Columbus. Relaxing, social, nice. Friday - Rented Shutter Island. This is a movie I wanted to see because I read the book about a year ago and thought "hey, this could make a really good movie." As it is, the movie is pretty good but not as great as it could have been. My main complaint is the music - very heavy handed 1970s style horror music pervades the film. It sort of throws the rhythm off, and to me destroys the very suspense it is trying to create.
SPOILER ALERT The biggest issue is that the movie puts you in the mind set that this is a horrow movie and there is something strange going on. The beauty of the book is that it appears to be a normal detective story for quite a while before strange things gradually work there way in and demand that it is more. The music basically takes away any aspect of surprise in the surprise ending. And now I need to type one more sentence so the last sentence does not jump out at people and spoil them anyways. SPOILER OVER
Anyways, it was a decent movie. Saturday morning I headed to the Worthington Farmer's Market with my friend M. I have not been to the farmers market or seen M in about 6 weeks, so it was a nice thing to get back to (we had been doing it regularly in May/June). It is certainly time for the farmers market, delicious produce abound. I got cherry tomatos (yellow and red), little yellow plumbs, and fresh cherries. After that it was a trip to the regular grocery store where I bought even more fruit- berries and mangos, so much goodness on sale.
Back at home I did some hardcore cleaning. I started by the TV in our family room - decluttering, dusting, vaccuming, and pushed my way south across the room with great effort. It took me three hours to thoroughly clean the family room. I moved into the kitchen with slightly less success, but still did a decent job cleaning up the kitchen.
After a day of cleaning, guests arrived for a game of Dread- a role playing game using Jenga as the decision mechanism (the tension grows as the game goes on...). We enjoyed the game, and then also added on some Rock Band.
Sunday morning it was time to sleep in! When I did get up, I baked a delicious Banana - Chocolate Chip cake (see Facebook), and then took a nice nap, spoke with my friend O who is living in England, and then headed up to my Grandma's where I spent hte evening with my Grandma, uncle, aunt, cousin, and two little second cousins. Good times!
Goals for the coming week? ENJOY not having anything planned, maybe get a little more cleaning done, and give the Dogs a bit of extra exercise. Hope everyone has a good week.
SPOILER ALERT The biggest issue is that the movie puts you in the mind set that this is a horrow movie and there is something strange going on. The beauty of the book is that it appears to be a normal detective story for quite a while before strange things gradually work there way in and demand that it is more. The music basically takes away any aspect of surprise in the surprise ending. And now I need to type one more sentence so the last sentence does not jump out at people and spoil them anyways. SPOILER OVER
Anyways, it was a decent movie. Saturday morning I headed to the Worthington Farmer's Market with my friend M. I have not been to the farmers market or seen M in about 6 weeks, so it was a nice thing to get back to (we had been doing it regularly in May/June). It is certainly time for the farmers market, delicious produce abound. I got cherry tomatos (yellow and red), little yellow plumbs, and fresh cherries. After that it was a trip to the regular grocery store where I bought even more fruit- berries and mangos, so much goodness on sale.
Back at home I did some hardcore cleaning. I started by the TV in our family room - decluttering, dusting, vaccuming, and pushed my way south across the room with great effort. It took me three hours to thoroughly clean the family room. I moved into the kitchen with slightly less success, but still did a decent job cleaning up the kitchen.
After a day of cleaning, guests arrived for a game of Dread- a role playing game using Jenga as the decision mechanism (the tension grows as the game goes on...). We enjoyed the game, and then also added on some Rock Band.
Sunday morning it was time to sleep in! When I did get up, I baked a delicious Banana - Chocolate Chip cake (see Facebook), and then took a nice nap, spoke with my friend O who is living in England, and then headed up to my Grandma's where I spent hte evening with my Grandma, uncle, aunt, cousin, and two little second cousins. Good times!
Goals for the coming week? ENJOY not having anything planned, maybe get a little more cleaning done, and give the Dogs a bit of extra exercise. Hope everyone has a good week.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Four Years Ago Today
Four years ago today I was marrying DH, the love of my life, at Kiener Plaza in St Louis. I cannot believe it has been four years. This weekend in NJ we were totally "the old married couple", even though many of our friends there are roughly the same age. Even though many of our friends there have been with their significant others for the same time (8 yrs as of October). I don't mind being the old married couple. Its actually kind of of cool. Other people come to us for advice.
This evening (no longer at work clearly, this is a multi-phase post), we decided to hit the high class and the low class. First we got all dressed up and went to dinner at Hyde Park, where we tried Japanese beef. Good good, good atmosphere, great service. Then, to counteract that a bit apparently, we went to see the A-Team. It was better than I expected, and we laughed a lot. Its been a great four years - here is to 46 more (good golly thats a long time!!!)
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Jersey Lake Shore
I would really like to post an in-depth description of the past four or five days. It was a wonderful weekend. However, given the week I am returning to, I just don't think that is going to happen any time soon, so I want to get something down before it disapears into the rapidly receeding past. So here is the speedy posting:
Friday - left work just before noon, went home and packed, headed out, drove accros PA on I-80, it was very beautiful, got into NJ and remembered how crazy their traffic patterns are, found a hotel and crashed for the night.
Saturday - got up at a leisurely 9:30AM, just in time to hit the end of the hotel's breakfast. Checked out and headed for Lake Hopatcong. Some confusion surrounding meeting up with our friends, but ended up finding them at the marina where w would be staying and getting on our friend J's 18' boat w/seven other people around 1pm. Headed over to "Aquapalooza", ate burgers and hotdogs for free and then anchored the boat and spent the afternoon listening to music, swimming, and laughing a lot. When the lake had quieted (less people) we did some tubing, I was pretty good at it. DH and I went together and had the best two-person run (held on the longest), mostly because neither of us wanted to "lose" to the other. Had dinner at a resteraunt we could park the boat at, then headed back to find our rented condo and crashed for the night.
Sunday - got up early (everyone moving before 8am) and headed out on the boat, tried wake-boarding. Not so successful as tubing, neither DH nor I could stand up. Got pulled over by the lake cops for being in the wrong place, but they gave us a warning instead of a ticket, went back to the condo, went grocery shopping and made sandwiches for lunch, spent the afternoon floating around the small beach area at the condo. Headed back out onto the boat when the lake quieted down so a couple more people could try wake boarding. Friend J, clearly the most skilled, had pretty bad crash trying to do a jump, but no permanent damage. Back to the Condo, grilled a late dinner, ate, drank margarita's, and laughed a lot.
Monday - slept in, headed out on the boat to some rope swings, swam and tried out the ropes, ate a late lunch, got some snacks, toured the lake, headed back to the condo, showered and got cleaned up, went for pizza, then headed to Camp Marcella, used to be NJ state camp for the blind when we worked there, now run by Easter Seals for adults with MR and other developmental delays, with one week devoted to kids with visual impairments. Watched their talent show and took a walk around camp, then headed out to the diner then to the bar w/ a bunch of the staff members that are still there (or back) from 2005 when we worked there. Fun night. I DDed, but it was still a blast to see everyone. We got back to the condo at 2:45 AM and did not make it into bed until 4ish.
Tuesday - Got up at 8:30 (WAY to early), said farewell and thanks to J and his GF and headed out, Took a different route home and stopped by New Holland PA to see Aunt ML and Uncle K for lunch. It was great seeing them and they live in a beautiful part of the country, the view from their apartment is really neat. After lunch we headed out again and spend the rest of the day driving across the bottom of PA, then top of WV, then up through Ohio to Columbus. I drove the entire way, making me the ROAD WARRIOR QUEEN and, of course, ALL TIME CHAMPION. It is so beautiful driving through PA in general, it might be the most beautiful state to drive through, and most interesting, with its varied landscape, mountains, tunnels, scenic overlooks.
Got back to CBUS at 9pm.
Conclusions from this weekend (AKA, other things I wish I could elaborate on but don't have the time): NJ traffic sucks but its not a bad place, seeing old friends rocks, I really like boats, I really like water. good seeing family.
Upcoming this week - today, drs appt. Tomorrow, lots of training at work and our anniversary. I need to catch up at work and at home.
Looking at the length of this, maybe its good you got the short version...
Friday - left work just before noon, went home and packed, headed out, drove accros PA on I-80, it was very beautiful, got into NJ and remembered how crazy their traffic patterns are, found a hotel and crashed for the night.
Saturday - got up at a leisurely 9:30AM, just in time to hit the end of the hotel's breakfast. Checked out and headed for Lake Hopatcong. Some confusion surrounding meeting up with our friends, but ended up finding them at the marina where w would be staying and getting on our friend J's 18' boat w/seven other people around 1pm. Headed over to "Aquapalooza", ate burgers and hotdogs for free and then anchored the boat and spent the afternoon listening to music, swimming, and laughing a lot. When the lake had quieted (less people) we did some tubing, I was pretty good at it. DH and I went together and had the best two-person run (held on the longest), mostly because neither of us wanted to "lose" to the other. Had dinner at a resteraunt we could park the boat at, then headed back to find our rented condo and crashed for the night.
Sunday - got up early (everyone moving before 8am) and headed out on the boat, tried wake-boarding. Not so successful as tubing, neither DH nor I could stand up. Got pulled over by the lake cops for being in the wrong place, but they gave us a warning instead of a ticket, went back to the condo, went grocery shopping and made sandwiches for lunch, spent the afternoon floating around the small beach area at the condo. Headed back out onto the boat when the lake quieted down so a couple more people could try wake boarding. Friend J, clearly the most skilled, had pretty bad crash trying to do a jump, but no permanent damage. Back to the Condo, grilled a late dinner, ate, drank margarita's, and laughed a lot.
Monday - slept in, headed out on the boat to some rope swings, swam and tried out the ropes, ate a late lunch, got some snacks, toured the lake, headed back to the condo, showered and got cleaned up, went for pizza, then headed to Camp Marcella, used to be NJ state camp for the blind when we worked there, now run by Easter Seals for adults with MR and other developmental delays, with one week devoted to kids with visual impairments. Watched their talent show and took a walk around camp, then headed out to the diner then to the bar w/ a bunch of the staff members that are still there (or back) from 2005 when we worked there. Fun night. I DDed, but it was still a blast to see everyone. We got back to the condo at 2:45 AM and did not make it into bed until 4ish.
Tuesday - Got up at 8:30 (WAY to early), said farewell and thanks to J and his GF and headed out, Took a different route home and stopped by New Holland PA to see Aunt ML and Uncle K for lunch. It was great seeing them and they live in a beautiful part of the country, the view from their apartment is really neat. After lunch we headed out again and spend the rest of the day driving across the bottom of PA, then top of WV, then up through Ohio to Columbus. I drove the entire way, making me the ROAD WARRIOR QUEEN and, of course, ALL TIME CHAMPION. It is so beautiful driving through PA in general, it might be the most beautiful state to drive through, and most interesting, with its varied landscape, mountains, tunnels, scenic overlooks.
Got back to CBUS at 9pm.
Conclusions from this weekend (AKA, other things I wish I could elaborate on but don't have the time): NJ traffic sucks but its not a bad place, seeing old friends rocks, I really like boats, I really like water. good seeing family.
Upcoming this week - today, drs appt. Tomorrow, lots of training at work and our anniversary. I need to catch up at work and at home.
Looking at the length of this, maybe its good you got the short version...
Friday, July 16, 2010
Essay on a New Car
My husband, and his car-buying ways, has entirely corrupted me.
Two months ago, if you had asked me what I thought about priorities while car buying, and the importance of engine type and size, speed, acceleration, and general mechanical power, I would have said that these things were entirely unimportant. I would have told you that my #1 priority in choosing a car was practicality – things like price, gas mileage, safety, and reliability, with a secondary priority of appearance and image.
This has changed drastically. Depending on your perspective, the purchase of the Chrysler 300C has either corrupted me or enlightened me. That “C” of 300C is the important part. Our new car, besides looking awesome and having loads of little luxuries (like a six-disk CD changer, borderline illegal tinting on the side windows, and a computer system that tells us how many miles until empty and what average gas mileage is), has a V8 engine and excellent acceleration. I did not think I cared about this. I did not think I would even be able to feel the difference between it and my little Mercury Tracer w/its 4-cylinder engine. How wrong I was. Pushing down that gas pedal and feeling the V8 jump to life and smoothly accelerate up to any speed I so desire is one of the more thrilling daily pleasures I have experienced. The car has turned little errands that used to be annoying, like returning, into an excuse to drive the 300C (especially since I don’t get to drive it on a daily basis, to work and back etc).
The interesting part about this is not that I like driving it. That is a minor change. The really change has come in my perspective on, well, pretty much everything mechanical. All of the sudden, as I think ahead to what car I want to purchase when it is my turn for a new vehicle in 2-3 yrs, the engine seems much more important. The idea of purchasing a new car that is not as fun to drive as the 300C is almost painful. I have been investigating whether many of the cars I am interested in come with a bigger engine. On top of that, my interest in other motorized activities has done a 180. All of the sudden, I see a sport motorcycle zooming down the highway, leaning back and forth to change lanes, and think of how fun it looks instead of how dangerous it looks. I see ski-doo ads and wonder how well the brakes work and if they are as fun to ride as they look, or as painful to ride as my friend has mentioned. I think about moving to Minnesota and wonder why I have never been on a snowmobile. In short, I have become a minor acceleration junkie.
My brother would be proud.
In many ways, this new way of thinking about the mechanical, as thrill and joy providing rather than mere transportation, feels like a betrayal of past ways of thinking – a betrayal of the lifestyle that I have claimed to want for the last several years. I have always alleged that I am highly concerned about the environment, interested in spending my money only wisely and practically, and put safety before almost every other concern in life. I say “alleged” because in honest reflection I am not entirely sure how well I stuck to any of these priorities. That is not entirely true – I am a stickler for safety. It is the other two that are more questionable. I have been struggling for months, unsuccessful, to even remotely kick my growing Starbucks addiction. That is not exactly a practical or productive use of money. We often favor convenience over practicality or environment. While I do insist upon recycling every can or bottle that enters my house, I also use more paper towels now then my family of six ever did when I was growing up. The point is, maybe my priorities have not been what I thought, and while that is not exactly a good thing, I do not think it is the end of the world either. In other words – while this newfound love of speed is a “shock” to my system, it is probably more a shock because the way I have been perceiving myself than a shock to the way I actually have acted.
Then there is safety, which is an entirely different beast. I have, not just allegedly, but actually, placed a high premium on safety throughout my life. It is a trait that was installed and reinforced by my parents. When I was little, I would feel horribly guilty if I rode a bike without a helmet or ended up riding in a car without a seatbelt (activities that usually occurred at friend’s houses whose parents were less concerned). I have told DH multiple times that he is banned from sky diving, from riding a motorcycle, and from various other activities he has mentioned that have presented some significant risk. This attitude has been under transformation for about ten months now. You should note that that is exactly how long I have been working at the Bureau of Disability, and it is not mere correlation.
Working for disability changes the way you view the world, but not in the way I would have expected. If I had been asked to guess how it would change me, I would have guessed that it would make me more concerned about my own health, as I would be more informed about what could go wrong. While this is true to some extent (rather than just thinking “my back hurts”, I think “my back hurts, I wonder if I will have degenerative disc disease? Am I getting arthritis in my spine? I hope its muscular”), the larger change has moved the opposite direction. Dealing with disabled people on a day-to-day basis, or people who feel like they are disabled, as is more often the case, makes you realize just how fleeting life can be. There are so many things that can go wrong, and you have no control over that. Some people would respond to this realization with more fear and attempts to avoid the dangerous, but to me the key part of this new knowledge is the lack of control. Ride a motorcycle, don’t ride a motorcycle, you still might turn out to have multiple sclerosis or be in a car accident or get cancer at the age of 30. Go sky-diving, don’t go sky diving, you still may have early onset arthritis and the retirement you have been looking forward to your entire life may be spent at home on pain killers. While activities like riding a motorcycle certainly carry their own risks, if they bring you joy, they are worth doing, because you do not know if you will be able to do things that make you feel happy or good ten years from now, or even a year from now. My point is, it’s good to live life in the moment a bit more than I have been doing, a bit more that I have ever expected to do, and this is a new attitude I am embracing fully. Perhaps the Chrysler 300C is just helping me move deeper into that.
As a final note, I am not going to run off putting convenience or thrill or luxuery before everything else in the world. There are a number of things I would trade my Chrylser 300C for without a second thought. However, these are all things that I have no control over. So, instead I will drive my 300C, and I will like it. I may even get a motorcycle someday, if that is the direction life takes me.
And that, my friends, is why and how my husband’s car-buying ways have corrupted me. I think this may be a good thing.
Two months ago, if you had asked me what I thought about priorities while car buying, and the importance of engine type and size, speed, acceleration, and general mechanical power, I would have said that these things were entirely unimportant. I would have told you that my #1 priority in choosing a car was practicality – things like price, gas mileage, safety, and reliability, with a secondary priority of appearance and image.
This has changed drastically. Depending on your perspective, the purchase of the Chrysler 300C has either corrupted me or enlightened me. That “C” of 300C is the important part. Our new car, besides looking awesome and having loads of little luxuries (like a six-disk CD changer, borderline illegal tinting on the side windows, and a computer system that tells us how many miles until empty and what average gas mileage is), has a V8 engine and excellent acceleration. I did not think I cared about this. I did not think I would even be able to feel the difference between it and my little Mercury Tracer w/its 4-cylinder engine. How wrong I was. Pushing down that gas pedal and feeling the V8 jump to life and smoothly accelerate up to any speed I so desire is one of the more thrilling daily pleasures I have experienced. The car has turned little errands that used to be annoying, like returning, into an excuse to drive the 300C (especially since I don’t get to drive it on a daily basis, to work and back etc).
The interesting part about this is not that I like driving it. That is a minor change. The really change has come in my perspective on, well, pretty much everything mechanical. All of the sudden, as I think ahead to what car I want to purchase when it is my turn for a new vehicle in 2-3 yrs, the engine seems much more important. The idea of purchasing a new car that is not as fun to drive as the 300C is almost painful. I have been investigating whether many of the cars I am interested in come with a bigger engine. On top of that, my interest in other motorized activities has done a 180. All of the sudden, I see a sport motorcycle zooming down the highway, leaning back and forth to change lanes, and think of how fun it looks instead of how dangerous it looks. I see ski-doo ads and wonder how well the brakes work and if they are as fun to ride as they look, or as painful to ride as my friend has mentioned. I think about moving to Minnesota and wonder why I have never been on a snowmobile. In short, I have become a minor acceleration junkie.
My brother would be proud.
In many ways, this new way of thinking about the mechanical, as thrill and joy providing rather than mere transportation, feels like a betrayal of past ways of thinking – a betrayal of the lifestyle that I have claimed to want for the last several years. I have always alleged that I am highly concerned about the environment, interested in spending my money only wisely and practically, and put safety before almost every other concern in life. I say “alleged” because in honest reflection I am not entirely sure how well I stuck to any of these priorities. That is not entirely true – I am a stickler for safety. It is the other two that are more questionable. I have been struggling for months, unsuccessful, to even remotely kick my growing Starbucks addiction. That is not exactly a practical or productive use of money. We often favor convenience over practicality or environment. While I do insist upon recycling every can or bottle that enters my house, I also use more paper towels now then my family of six ever did when I was growing up. The point is, maybe my priorities have not been what I thought, and while that is not exactly a good thing, I do not think it is the end of the world either. In other words – while this newfound love of speed is a “shock” to my system, it is probably more a shock because the way I have been perceiving myself than a shock to the way I actually have acted.
Then there is safety, which is an entirely different beast. I have, not just allegedly, but actually, placed a high premium on safety throughout my life. It is a trait that was installed and reinforced by my parents. When I was little, I would feel horribly guilty if I rode a bike without a helmet or ended up riding in a car without a seatbelt (activities that usually occurred at friend’s houses whose parents were less concerned). I have told DH multiple times that he is banned from sky diving, from riding a motorcycle, and from various other activities he has mentioned that have presented some significant risk. This attitude has been under transformation for about ten months now. You should note that that is exactly how long I have been working at the Bureau of Disability, and it is not mere correlation.
Working for disability changes the way you view the world, but not in the way I would have expected. If I had been asked to guess how it would change me, I would have guessed that it would make me more concerned about my own health, as I would be more informed about what could go wrong. While this is true to some extent (rather than just thinking “my back hurts”, I think “my back hurts, I wonder if I will have degenerative disc disease? Am I getting arthritis in my spine? I hope its muscular”), the larger change has moved the opposite direction. Dealing with disabled people on a day-to-day basis, or people who feel like they are disabled, as is more often the case, makes you realize just how fleeting life can be. There are so many things that can go wrong, and you have no control over that. Some people would respond to this realization with more fear and attempts to avoid the dangerous, but to me the key part of this new knowledge is the lack of control. Ride a motorcycle, don’t ride a motorcycle, you still might turn out to have multiple sclerosis or be in a car accident or get cancer at the age of 30. Go sky-diving, don’t go sky diving, you still may have early onset arthritis and the retirement you have been looking forward to your entire life may be spent at home on pain killers. While activities like riding a motorcycle certainly carry their own risks, if they bring you joy, they are worth doing, because you do not know if you will be able to do things that make you feel happy or good ten years from now, or even a year from now. My point is, it’s good to live life in the moment a bit more than I have been doing, a bit more that I have ever expected to do, and this is a new attitude I am embracing fully. Perhaps the Chrysler 300C is just helping me move deeper into that.
As a final note, I am not going to run off putting convenience or thrill or luxuery before everything else in the world. There are a number of things I would trade my Chrylser 300C for without a second thought. However, these are all things that I have no control over. So, instead I will drive my 300C, and I will like it. I may even get a motorcycle someday, if that is the direction life takes me.
And that, my friends, is why and how my husband’s car-buying ways have corrupted me. I think this may be a good thing.
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