icarusancalion

The car is totaled, of course, after the accident.

Double scary? I got a recall notice on the airbag two weeks after it deployed. Apparently I had one of those specially designed "shrapnel spewing" models, motto: "If the crash doesn't kill you, we can finish the job! (some restrictions apply, such as requiring the proper humidity, but we'll try)"

The car shopping has come to a screeching halt.

Yes, I have enough for a down payment.

Yes, I have good credit.

But it turns out that grad school (reduced work hours, increased debt) is a bad time to try to buy a car. My income-to-debt ratio is too high.

Of course, not being able to get to (thank god only some of) my grad school classes has had a bad impact. The worst was missing a project deadline on a syllabus ... just, fwip, it went right by me, busy as I was with doctor appointments, crutches, car insurance companies, health insurance companies, and the daily ordeal of organizing rides to try to keep up with my work-and-life responsibilities. Not to mention the total waste of time spent looking at cars that, I discovered Thursday, I can't buy.

Now the project is seriously overdue, the professor hasn't responded to my emails, and I'm ... overwhelmed. I'm picking a couple of small, easy assignments to try to rebuild my confidence as a student, get some momentum going.

Surprisingly hard to concentrate, given how worried I am at my professor's non-response.


ETA: Prof has responded! Now I just have a massive amount of work to do, in as little time as possible. Too bad I work tomorrow--but maybe I can get it done by Monday night.

Looks like I'm going to spend my birthday on crutches. Rested the sprained foot three days after the accident, then had to go back to work on Sunday. Walked ... well, limped ... on it, sat in my usual pretzel positions too much Monday, until I got this pinch-yeowch pain that told me to stop.

When I tried to drive a rental the Tuesday after the accident (about six days after), within about ten minutes, my ankle felt like an over-stretched rubber band about to snap. I could keep my foot down for about 10-15 minutes, then it was too much.

Not painful: numb, weak.

Okay, so driving was definitely out, and maybe this injury's worse than it seemed.

Taking the bus wasn't any better (seven days after). I had to do so much walking from one stop to another that my foot was swollen by the end of the day. I started icing it.

Finally, last Friday, (nine days after the accident), I gave in and got crutches. I needed help staying off of it, and a visual reminder to people that I'm hurt so they'd help me stay off it, too.

It got worse over the weekend. Frickin' block of ice. Numb, pins and needles the other night (two weeks after). Called a nurse. She had me check to make sure I have feeling in the foot, and I do, so that's good. She told me to see the doctor within 72 hours.

Couldn't go to an orthopedist, had to go to my GP first (hello, managed care hoops), and couldn't get in till today (16 days after).

One of my professors is being very kind and understanding. The other one has been hard-hearted and harsh, "Hope you're feeling better. If you miss too many class days, it'll hurt your grade," she says, after I tell her I can't drive, the buses don't go from here to there, and it'll take other students a five-hour round trip to give me a ride.

My whole schedule's screwed up as a result of this injury and I'm quite behind on school (16 days after)--though I've done everything for the teacher who's been kind to me.

When I asked her about taking an incomplete on this class, instead of saying no ... which I would've understood, incompletes mean work for the teacher long after the class is over ... she went straight to the Dean to block any chance that I might. You don't usually go right to do the Dean. Though maybe at this school you do.

They say my only option is take an F and withdraw, then retake the class next fall. Fuck that. Pay for the class twice? Even if I have to miss every session from here on out, it'll only cost 6% of my grade.

More than that, I'd never retake this class. It's a small school. I'd rather spend three more sessions with her, then look forward to ten classes with her in the future.

Four more sessions of this class, and then I never see her again. I'm looking forward to putting her in my rear view mirror. *flips the mirror up so I don't even have to see her then*

Gift horse. Mouth. Dental floss.

I figure most people would be dancing a jig.

I talked to dad and he's offered to pay my car payment (and insurance) while I'm in grad school. I just need to go and buy the car.

Many of you know that I came home from retreat to discover that mom had totaled my car. One month before I was due to start grad school.

The bank won't loan me money to buy a nice, cheap grad student-esque car. They want nothing to do with anything older than a 2006. (I already had loads of fun when a guy tried to cram a 2008 down my throat.)

So why am I looking this gift horse in the mouth? Jiggity-jig, right?

Welp.

Because it's STUPID, that's why. You don't buy a (relatively) new car right before you start grad school! Especially not one that you couldn't afford to pay for if, heaven forbid, something happened to Daddy-O.

What I want to do is buy an older model car, save up as much as I can for the downpayment, and finance only, like, three or four grand.

One thing's for sure. I'm certainly getting the picture on what it's like for the poor. You don't have money so we're going to Force you buy something you can't afford.

Yay! SGA Santa fic is done and in.

I've proved one can write lighthearted Christmas fic while standing in line at the MVA. But then again, it was my fifth trip to the MVA to get my Maryland license and I'd grown immune. I mean, the MVA was like a second home by then.

(I'd say the hold up was me, but as I stood in line Thursday I heard another weary MVA "customer" tell his father, "I thought I had everything this time, but they need your green card papers too, and that's the one document I didn't bring." Yessir, even if you drag a file cabinet, you still won't have everything. Well. I managed it once when I registered my car. But the MVA people looked nonplussed, startled, and strangely disappointed. Then gave me misinformation to make sure it would never happen again. Hence, five trips to get something much simpler.)

I am typing on my brand spanking new computer. It's vast. It feels like a great big mansion of a computer with no furniture yet. And it was so cool helping S. put it together. So doable. One step up from assembling cabinet doors -- until he got to the wiring and then I was lost.

Now to sign up for icenetwork.com and download all of this season's Merlin.

You know what else? I haven't turned on the TV once tonight. Because I have a compuuuuuteeeeeeer.

The guys on the car forums rave about Fast Wax. I tried it this weekend. Thought waxing was going to be a hassle.



My results?

Out. Standing. It doesn't take off all the ground in dirt and road tar, there were specks that I had to get with a fingernail. So you do have to do a good wash first. But it took S. and I no more than 45 minutes to buff my car to a glossy showroom, show-off, oh look, it just turned into a new car finish.

I drove by it in S.'s car and just glowed. It's Sparkly.

Hats off to you, RGS Labs. (And a great soundtrack.)

I bought a car. It's cleaned me out. But it's a good car.

Bought it from our trusted mechanic. It has passed Maryland Inspection. Has 113k miles on it. He bought it for his niece who's giving it up because she needs a four door to ferry her friends around.

Since I bought from him I don't have to take it to him for a look.

And he's here in Germantown. So I was able to get to it. :)





I was willing to settle for anything in my price range that had good gas mileage and was in good condition. I didn't expect it to be pretty.

The headlights on mine are all white. No orange. Much prettier. (The windows aren't blacked out.)

As of next Friday I'll be mobile again. This opens up my job situation quite a bit.


Addendum: I have a kitty kneading my lower back. Nice. Except... eep... erp... claws.