It Started with a Journal

Finished the second book in the Airhead series, Being Nikki, and am now on the third. It's so crazy, but entertaining. Stuff like this is why I love Meg Cabot: "What girl wouldn't want a guy to go on a wild computer hacking rampage against a majorly environmentally irresponsible corporation, just for her?" LOLOL.

So I think I've mentioned before that my dad is going to be here in a week or two to help me look for a car due to my current lease ending. I've drawn up a list of places to take him to eat, because he's picky in a weird way, but am also considering making one meal at home, including ginger and green onion crab, and his favorite -- rocky road ice cream. I haven't made chocolate ice cream before, and in this case, I think I would also try making the marshmallows myself also. It's kind of ambitious in terms of the ice cream I usually make, so I'm not positive I'm going to do it yet, given that my dad will quite frankly probably not appreciate it as much as his favorite Dreyer's. :P

I've ordered a cat tree from Overstock. It's supposedly easy to put together. I hope for Jaime's sake that that's true.

Speaking of ordering things online, a couple of weeks ago I ordered some cookbooks from Barnes and Noble, the first time I've ever ordered from them (I usually prefer Amazon and Borders), and possibly the last. After waiting and waiting for the books to arrive, I finally checked their tracking number and it said that it was delivered two days after I placed the order! Except, I so have not received them! I suppose it's possible that someone stole them from my front door, but I've ordered tons of things online and that's NEVER happened. Apparently they are doing some kind of tracking with UPS or whatever, but I was like, you can do that if you want, but the fact of the matter is that I have not received my order and I have no intention of paying for merchandise I have not received, even if UPS comes back and says it was delivered (and why wouldn't they? Why else would they have marked it delivered in the first place?). I mean, I DIDN'T GET IT. I can't go around paying for stuff I never get, if that were the case I'd never order online! This is stress I so don't need.

You know why? Because I had An Adventure the other day -- and not the good kind. It's the kind where I was forced to deface my own car. And yes, it was mostly all due to my own procrastination, but that doesn't make it any less embittering. ( What happened. )

Fuck you, 2009.

I've said it often enough, but really, this year was just one catastrophe after another. It's really only appropriate that I get rear ended before it's over. Otherwise, how could I claim that it's been the Worst Year Ever? There are still 2 months left in this horrible year, and I really dread what might happen in that time.

So tonight I had just gotten onto the freeway, trying to merge, when a backup of traffic caused me to slow down, then stop. Why was it backed up going southbound at 5:45pm? Who the hell knows. Because it's 2009, that's why. I looked in my rearview mirror to see a car coming at high speed toward me. I have just enough time to think, "Shit, they are so going to hit me," and brace myself before it collides, hard, with my car. It was going so fast there was no way it could have stopped in time to avoid me. &*#$!#)*&$

Of course, traffic cleared up after that IMMEDIATELY, because the situation obviously only presented itself to screw me over. But the good thing about that is that I didn't then hit anyone else in front of me. We pulled over to the shoulder -- the other driver was a 19-year-old girl. I called the police to come file a traffic incident report, she told the state trooper who showed up that her ribs had been hurting, so she was touching them and closing her eyes and that's why she hit me. He was like, yeah that is no excuse for not paying attention, I'm going to issue her a citation for speeding. He was like, the coolest police officer type I've ever encountered. Not that they are typically mean or anything, but he was just really nice and sympathetic and actually put me out of my thundercloud bad mood. (Example: Me, handing him documents - "Are you going to write up a traffic report?" Him, smiling - "No, I'm going to get in my car and make some papier-mâché with all this." Later on he was like, "I hope I wasn't too sarcastic. I sensed that you would smile if I said that.")

I already had an annual check up scheduled with my doctor for Thursday, but I'm going to try and move that up tomorrow if I can. I had a mild headache immediately after the accident, but that appears to be gone now ... however, the area between my shoulder blades now ache and I just want to make sure there's nothing seriously wrong that might be hidden.

I've called my insurance company and hers, and from what I understand of rear endings (yes, I am an expert now, given that this is my third time in like 6 years) the other company is going to have to pay for it all -- I will have such a fit if they don't accept liability (my own insurance company has already, of course, claimed 0% liability on this one and will fight w/ the other company if they try to be difficult). Still, even if it all goes smoothly, what a pain in the ass. Like I really needed this. Like anyone needs this. It's so time consuming and lame. Now I have to rent a car (the trooper had me drive away from the scene, but when I drive it you can strongly smell burning rubber, so that is not good), wait for the adjuster to contact me, call Lexus to get a recommended body shop for my car, possibly have to deal with bullshit involving refusal to admit liability or make me pay for this or that, etc. UGH.

The bitch of it was that I was on my way to pick S. up -- we were going to try out the P90X workout -- and he lives like 5 miles from me. One freeway exit. So when I was rear ended, I was halfway to my destination. Arrrghhh. Needless to say, we did not work out. We ended up going to Red Robin for dinner (having leftovers at home just seemed wrong after going through that), and two guys outside were like, "Wow, that sucks. Did it just happen? Wow, that REALLY sucks. Well, it's still a nice car." LOL. Well it's nice that even with my rear fender halfway hanging off, my car has a certain je ne sais quoi. *snort*