Tweets-plus
Ah, Twitter. Whereas earlier my car troubles would've merited an angst-y LJ post, now it's condensed into a 160-character message. I'm learning conciseness yet! But there are some things I wanted to post about in a longer form.
My 2002 Escort, which has given me little trouble for 127,000 miles (a vast majority of them (probably about 90%) mine) may be done. The engine is "cooked" (in the words of the technician) and will cost about $3K to replace. Considering the blue book value is $3K-3.5K, it hardly seems worth it. So, Dad and I have been car shopping.
Because I'm A Plan (since Dad works for Ford), a new car costs about what a barely-used car would. So, I'm leaning toward the Focus. But even at about $15.5K, monthly payments are going to be about half what I have left over after rent. Yikes! Another reminder of how I need a "real" job, of how I was unwise with money (in ways I've mentioned and other ways) during my internship when I should've been saving more.
Also, when I say "my 2002 Escort," the my should be in quotes. Parents bought it, in parents' name (although I was paying the insurance the past year or so). If I go the new car route, this will be *my* car, which is cool.
The car troubles fortunately didn't cause too much consternation with travel plans for Can-Am. My dad's mother (my only living grandparent) came from Oklahoma and stayed at my parents' house for almost a month. Since our flights were about an hour apart out of Detroit Metro, logistics were easier.
I'm not very close to Grandma Idalski. I wish I were closer. There's a few reasons I was closer to my Grandma Homan than my Grandma Idalski, some of them on my end, some of them on their ends. Part of it is that I'm closer to my Mom's side of the family than my Dad's. There are a few reasons for that, too; including that Grandma Homan and some of my Mom's 10 brothers and sisters would frequently visit us growing up. Dad's side not so much.
She's also a born-again Christian who watches televangelists a good part of the day (much to the chagrin of Mom and I). Not once during my visits (and I visited like every weekend and most of this week (unplanned)) did she ask how things were going, etc. I mean, even if she was way off and thought I was still attending college, I would've appreciated a "how's school going?" more than the occasional "Amen"s and "Praise God"s I would hear from the other room.
I also feel like, esp. hearing about sr_orangepants' grandmother during her visit and being reminded she's my only living grandparent, that I should make more of an effort. But, you can tell when she calls because Dad will occasionally go "uh-uh" into the phone for about two hours. And I doubt I'd even know half of the people in the stories she tells.
I dunno. It's one of those "I'm almost glad she's gone" things, which feels terrible to say.
Finally, how not to make a good first impression on your new boss:
-Miss your Monday deadline without giving any reason
-E-mail one story/photo combo Tuesday morning, along with a sob story on why you didn't make your deadline (in fairness, part of it is confusion (on every end) over the new chain of command) and saying I'll get your other three stories by that night.
-E-mail one story Wednesday morning (in which you quote our magazine's publisher ... our magazine is sponsoring the event, so it's semi-justified; either way, not something I can/want to deal with past deadline but will when I meet with the editors in the not-too-distant future)
-E-mail one story Wednesday afternoon (in which you misspell somebody's name, my ultimate pet peeve)
-E-mail your last story Thursday morning, 48+ hours after your original deadline
Thus sums up my week dealing with our entertainment editor, who was actually EIC for part of last year. Hmph.
Jason
My 2002 Escort, which has given me little trouble for 127,000 miles (a vast majority of them (probably about 90%) mine) may be done. The engine is "cooked" (in the words of the technician) and will cost about $3K to replace. Considering the blue book value is $3K-3.5K, it hardly seems worth it. So, Dad and I have been car shopping.
Because I'm A Plan (since Dad works for Ford), a new car costs about what a barely-used car would. So, I'm leaning toward the Focus. But even at about $15.5K, monthly payments are going to be about half what I have left over after rent. Yikes! Another reminder of how I need a "real" job, of how I was unwise with money (in ways I've mentioned and other ways) during my internship when I should've been saving more.
Also, when I say "my 2002 Escort," the my should be in quotes. Parents bought it, in parents' name (although I was paying the insurance the past year or so). If I go the new car route, this will be *my* car, which is cool.
The car troubles fortunately didn't cause too much consternation with travel plans for Can-Am. My dad's mother (my only living grandparent) came from Oklahoma and stayed at my parents' house for almost a month. Since our flights were about an hour apart out of Detroit Metro, logistics were easier.
I'm not very close to Grandma Idalski. I wish I were closer. There's a few reasons I was closer to my Grandma Homan than my Grandma Idalski, some of them on my end, some of them on their ends. Part of it is that I'm closer to my Mom's side of the family than my Dad's. There are a few reasons for that, too; including that Grandma Homan and some of my Mom's 10 brothers and sisters would frequently visit us growing up. Dad's side not so much.
She's also a born-again Christian who watches televangelists a good part of the day (much to the chagrin of Mom and I). Not once during my visits (and I visited like every weekend and most of this week (unplanned)) did she ask how things were going, etc. I mean, even if she was way off and thought I was still attending college, I would've appreciated a "how's school going?" more than the occasional "Amen"s and "Praise God"s I would hear from the other room.
I also feel like, esp. hearing about sr_orangepants' grandmother during her visit and being reminded she's my only living grandparent, that I should make more of an effort. But, you can tell when she calls because Dad will occasionally go "uh-uh" into the phone for about two hours. And I doubt I'd even know half of the people in the stories she tells.
I dunno. It's one of those "I'm almost glad she's gone" things, which feels terrible to say.
Finally, how not to make a good first impression on your new boss:
-Miss your Monday deadline without giving any reason
-E-mail one story/photo combo Tuesday morning, along with a sob story on why you didn't make your deadline (in fairness, part of it is confusion (on every end) over the new chain of command) and saying I'll get your other three stories by that night.
-E-mail one story Wednesday morning (in which you quote our magazine's publisher ... our magazine is sponsoring the event, so it's semi-justified; either way, not something I can/want to deal with past deadline but will when I meet with the editors in the not-too-distant future)
-E-mail one story Wednesday afternoon (in which you misspell somebody's name, my ultimate pet peeve)
-E-mail your last story Thursday morning, 48+ hours after your original deadline
Thus sums up my week dealing with our entertainment editor, who was actually EIC for part of last year. Hmph.
Jason