Life and Cars...Part 4

Okay, okay, just kidding. There is not really a part four.

Though this does have something to do with vehicles. And it made me laugh that it happened today.

So for work I had to go to this development that has gotten SO huge, it is now been declared a township. This township is for the affluent of southeastern NC. (Read: old money and snobbery only allowed here)

The township has a guard station set up, so those who do not belong, can NOT enter. They are serious folks. No pass, no entry.

Thankfully, I have a subcontractors pass, and the nice security girl always smiles and waves as I come through!

There are signs, that say 'Welcome Home'...nice touch.

In this little township they have a fire station. It is cute.

However, what is NOT cute, is the thirty mile per hour speed limit the entire way through. It is a LLOONNNGG little windy road and it is hard to go thirty. Now don't get me wrong, I don't go crazy and all speed racer on this little township, in my hip, sporty, low profile piece of crapola.


So today, as I was driving a whole WHOOPING 38 miles per hour, I see this white truck pull in behind me. A white chevy that has these weird little green/blue lights going off behind me. And I think to myself, "Is this truck PULLING me?"

So yes, today, I got pulled by the Paul Blart of the township. It was a rent-a-cop. Now to be perfectly honest, I didn't know such a thing could happen. Armed with his white truck with Regent Security on the door, and a sweater that had been embroidered to say Security, he came strolling up and said, "So, do you know why I pulled you?"

Seriously it was ALL I could do to keep from laughing. So I said, "No sir, I sure don't.".."Well you passed me going about 38 miles an hour in a THIRTY mile per hour zone." Silence. "Can I have your license please?" I wanted to DIE. It was just too much humor for one girl to handle.

So he saunters back to his truck and gets back in. And I can't help thinking, what is he pulling my record back there? Five minutes go by and he comes back out. He comes up to the window, hands me his metal clipboard, and asks me to sign saying that I was speeding in the oh so holy township. But I couldn't help but notice, that my security cop was young, bald as a cue ball with bright blue eyes, and had L-O-V-E tattooed on the bottom part of his fingers...so of course I couldn't help but look up at him and ask, "Where's the Love?" To which he tore out my copy of my "ticket" handed it to me and walked back to his "patrol" truck.

So later this week, when I am back in said township, I will march myself down to the courthouse police station POA (property's owner association) and pay their stupid fine. (It better not be huge)

Life and Cars...Part 3

So to answer your question... I don't know what happened to the other lady. We had to ride in the ambulance together, but she didn't say what was wrong. She complained that her chest hurt (but not in a heart attack kind of way) and I think it was from the airbag. But I know that she was not seriously injured. Though I am sure she was sore and bruised as well.

After the accident, I decided that instead of going to get another vehicle, I would drive Sidnei's vehicle. He doesn't have a car payment on it (another incredibly ridiculous and long story) and so I would just have to pay for insurance. Let me just say this as a precursor: I am VERY grateful to not have a car payment.

Now onto why I HATE loathe dislike driving this vehicle.




1. It has two doors. I need four.

2. Two doors= limited space...do you realize that I carry samples with me? They are huge. Probably four foot tall. They don't fit as well as I'd like. I also carry tile, grout, thinset, and anything else that will fit.

3. You are probably wondering, what about the trunk? Well if you have a husband that likes to play with cars, then you'd also have the BIGGEST subwoofer EVER. It allows two inches on all sides of the trunk. Literally.

4. Also if your husband liked to aftermarket his vehicle to death, then you'd have ridiculous blue lights in your dash that a) blind you and b) send you into a seizure from watching them strobe as they were dying out.

5. It is manual. Did I mention I live in a tourist area? Tourists=stupid traffic.

6. My husband put rims on. They look pretty. They scratch easy...especially against a curb.

7. Of course with rims come low profile wheels. Low profile wheels blow easy. That is what started the Life and Cars posts.

8. Low wheels=Low car. Low car means that I literally fall into my car. Falling into my car means I have to get out. To get out, I grab the door and the side of the vehicle and proceed to PULL myself out. In a pencil skirt with a tiny slit on the front, that makes this task difficult. Not to mention all the guys on the jobsite watching the girl that pulled up to the jobsite in a sooped up vehicle.

9. A two door car = Looonggg doors. Long doors mean they are heavy. Heavy means that my shins have permanent dents and bruises from the door falling back on them.

10. Special Exhaust. Driving for 5 hours at a time, once I get out of the car, the droning doesn't seem to go away. It also makes it difficult to talk to people because the car is SO. LOUD.

11. The final thing (though I could go on forever) is sometimes it just doesn't want to start. I believe it has a mind of it's on. Usually when it is mad at me and wants me to be embarrassed, I get in the car, turn the key, and CLICK. Turn key again, CLICK. Turn key again, CLICK. Turn key again, VROOMMMM. Take it the mechanic...It is on it's BEST behavior.


Let me just say I am very in tune with this vehicle because I am putting between 900-1200 miles a week on it. FUN!

What kind of car do you drive? Do you love it? If not go get a Honda. And Honda, if you are out there and would like me to endorse you, I'd be more than happy to drive one of your vehicles. Just in case you were wondering!

Life and Cars... Part 1
Life and Cars...Part 2

Life and Cars....Part 2

When I moved home, drove a vehicle my Dad had (2002 Ford Taurus) for a couple of months until it was needed by another sibling. So I went out one evening and came home with this BEAUTY, Brand spankin NEW!


Oh, how I love thee...


This is the BEST vehicle I have EVER owned. It had everything I wanted (except a moon roof) all the bells and whistles. The best thing was the space. I could flip the seats up against the wall, take them out, whatever I need basically. It worked really well for work because I carry samples often, flooring materials, and lots of other things. It got great gas mileage and it was really very comfortable. Me and my Honda Element existed in perfect harmony for 11 blissful months.

Mishaps after buying brand new vehicle:

1)I slide into a SIX foot ditch. I was in traffic, didn't realize how fast the person in front of me stopped. So I went onto the shoulder, but just a little bit. Unfortunately it was a small shoulder and the ground was REALLY wet from rain. So I just kind of sank into the ditch. Thankfully I landed on my side softly. Unfortunately the line of cars in front of me or behind me didn't seem to notice I as in a ditch. So every just kept going. The car landed on the passenger side, so my door was facing up to the sky. I could not open that HUGE door by myself, so I had to wait until my Dad got there to open the door. Thankfully he wasn't far away!

2)Sidnei ran up under my mailbox with my precious baby. Don't ask how he did it. I am not exactly sure what malfunction occured, but I can tell you that I was just OVERJOYED that my hood had a HUGE dent in it.

3)Somehow, my front bumper had a huge crack in it. I don't know where or when it happened. I am thinking someone backed into me in a parking lot or a job site, who knows. But I was NOT happy when I found that out.

4)So this is not funny now, when I look back. Sidnei and I had traveled to RVA to see my mom. Somewhere along the way I must have run over a nail. As we pack up to go, I don't know if I noticed or if Sidnei noticed, but it was brought to my attention. Well, I was really worried about driving 300 miles with a nail in my tire. Sidnei insisted it would be fine and not to worry about it since it wasn't leaking. Well, I am a worry wart by nature and it would NOT be good if we broke down in the middle of nowhere NC on a Sunday night no less. So I kept talking about it and saying "No, we really need to get that out of there." (meaning let's go get it fixed) And of course, Sidnei just kept saying, "Stephanie, It's not problem. It's fine." Back and forth. So next thing I know I hear a PSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
At first I said, "What the..?" and then it was followed by expletives as I realized what he had done. In my Grandmother's driveway, he had PULLED OUT the NAIL. I wanted to KILL HIM. I mean KILL. So of course we got into a HUGE fight. Keep in mind it is also SUNDAY late afternoon. So I made him put on the spare while I went inside and ranted to my grandmother and cooled off. Needless to say, nothing was open so we had to stay another day until we could find a tire company with my special order tire (of course it couldn't just be a normal one everyone carried).

I am one lucky girl with vehicles right? But life goes on.

5)It was March 27th, 2008. It had been almost two weeks since I had come home from my honeymoon alone. I got into my vehicle around 7:45 heading off to work. I was about 3 miles away, when I lady pulled out directly in front of me. I was going about 45-50 miles an hour. I rolled my vehicle three times.

These are pictures from the newspaper:

The offending car



The undercarriage of my vehicle


The front view


If you look closely, you can tell that I really only clipped her with my driver's side. You can tell I was going fast because my little "clip" obliterated her front end. I swerved to try and avoid her, but it just happened to fast. So I clipped and flipped. But the integrity of my vehicle really held up. Honda has amazing saftey features in that vehicle.

Literally, the first lady that got to my car said "Oh my God, she's concious!" I was so very, very, very lucky. Let me tell you, that is one safe vehicle. It is so odd how things S-L-O-W down when you are in an accident. I remember thinking, "Oh my gosh I am going to die" and "Oh my gosh, I am never going to stop rolling." When I did stop, the first thing I did was wiggle fingers and toes, made sure everything worked. Then the lady came up and I started screaming to get me out of there. I panicked. Thank goodness it was morning traffic and all the nurses were on the way to work. It took three guys to open those HUGE doors and one guy to pull me out. The nurses immeadiately put me on the ground and held my head until the ambulance got there.

The only thing that was hurt was my mouth and nose from the impact of the airbag and my hand where I had a very bad air bag burn...that hurt worse than anything! That sucker burned for a whole week! Also I had a very bad abrasion on my neck from the seat belt (Thank God for the seat belt). Other than that, bumps and bruises. And of course soreness. Seriously though, I have no doubt that God was watching over me. I was securely protected by him and I thank Him always for keeping me safe (through it all, haha).

The other blessings that came out of it (and it is my belief that this is why it happened): Is that I no longer have a HUGE car payment to make. After I came home I had a lot of bills with Sidnei's business, final wedding bills to pay off, the honeymoon to pay off, on and on, and we had been cut down to my paycheck only. So money was tight. Not only that, but I was four thousand dollars short on the retainer for Sidnei's immigration attorney. How much did I have leftover after they finished paying the lien on my vehicle? Four thousand twelve dollars and some change. How amazing is that??

Stay Tuned for the Part 3 (and the last installment)of Life and Cars...

Life and Cars...Part 1

Life and Cars... Part 1

Let's just say, as far as vehicles go, I have not been the luckiest girl in the world. Take for instance, 6 months after I got my license I totaled my first vehicle. The 93 Chevy Lumina. It was not COMPLETELY my fault, but I take the majority of the blame. We were VERY lucky. VERY.

The next vehicle was the love of my Dad's life. An 89 Toyota Pickup. It was burgundy with pleather seats. The clutch needed replacing and the gears nearly had to be slammed into gear, but it had over 200,000 miles on it. Now, I did not wreck this vehicle. However...it was put to death headfirst into a tree. At about 4:30 in the morning. Not by me. It makes me cringe to even think about the circumstances. I was such an idiot! (there was no alcohol involved by the way, just plain stupidity) Needless to say, I had to take the fall (the alternative was MUCH worse) and to this day, they still don't know the truth. And to this day, I will NEVER EVER live down the fact that I killed my Dad's heart the day the truck was totaled. (Nevermind the fact that he had totaled it TWICE before me and had it rebuilt each time!)

The next vehicle (are you surprised I even got another one?? yeah me too) was $400 and an 86 Chevy Lumina poo-brown station wagon. We bought it from a good friend of mine at school. It was lovingly named the shaggin wagon, but I can assure you it was not because of any extra curricular activities going on in that vehicle. It was ugly as sin, needed a quart of oil every couple of days, the ceiling was falling out, left a lovely dust on our clothes, and we drove it on a wing and a prayer. Thankfully, I did not kill this car. (Though the little sister mauled it with a rock..ask her.) But we were definetely glad to sell it off to another poor soul...

After that, I left for college and was without car. That is until my sister came out to school with me the following year. My parents gave us a 2000 Hyundai Elantra! I loved that thing!! I did not wreck this one either! Though little sister happened to get to this one too...and tried to play it off like it happened in a parking lot! AH HEM. She worked with a friend of mine, who happened to over hear her and she was caught red handed! But lucky for her, it was on it's last leg anyway. The transmission kicked the bucket (along with the radiator and thermostat) and that was all she wrote for that little beauty.

After the Hyundai went kaput, I bought my very first vehicle! A 2002 Honda Civic. I LOVED that car. It was beautiful and amazing. She was mine, all mine! Here she is in all her glory...the only picture I have of her! This was in Moab, UT at Jeep Safari (so that's why she is so dirty)!


I drove it until I moved back east. I traded it in before I came back because I worried about driving it cross country by myself. (This was right after the freak winter storm in New Mexico where the guy died trying to go get help for his family...it freaked me out because it was February, and you just never know!)

Stay Tuned for Part 2! It just keeps going and going...

Life and Cars...Part 2
Life and Cars...Part 3

What a Wonderful Morning...

What a wonderful day, zip a dee do daaaaaaaa zip a de aaaaaay. (Is that how it goes? I never know when it's just sounds and not "real" words)

This is what I keep telling myself anyway.

As I sit in my car.


On the side of the road.



Very close to the pothole I hit that blew a hole in my tire.

Yay!



Please let the tow truck come fast.

And please let it just be the tire that needs replacing.

You gotta love life.

And the people that don't lock their internet so that I have something to do while I wait!

And:

I hate my car.

In fact later, I will post as to why I hate this car. In depth. Because I just feel like it.



**Update: It is ONLY the tire! I should be on my way soon!

Preparations

Having come to terms with my current situation, I am now preparing for my eventual departure.

Preparation #1- Download Skype. I have never used skype before. But it may just be the best thing EVER. Skype is a program that allows you to call others and if you have the necessary equipment, you are able to video chat as well. This will allow me to be able to talk to anyone in the states that also has skype for free! And for a fee (that is a lot less expensive than a regular call)I can call those that do not have skype as well! Yay!

Downside: My dinosaur computer neither has a mic nor a camera. So I can message all day long, and I can listen, but I can not talk back!

Preparation #2- Buy new computer with necessary equipment. Dell is having a president's day sale. And the newer model of my computer is about a 1/3 of the cost of when I originally bought it. So I am selling my laptop and another desktop that I have. Thankfully this will pay for almost the entire computer. It has more storage, more memory, a web cam, and I am sure a mic, but I should probably double check.

Downside: I would have to wait until March something or other to get it!

Preparation #3- In order to sell my desktop, I have to go to my storage facility and pull it out. So I went to storage. I thought while I was there, it would also be a good thing to go through Sidnei's clothes so that I can prepare a box to ship there. And find out if it is possible to get a bag together for him so that he can arrive in Brazil with something to wear.

Downside: There is a 5x10 full of our things. OUR things. The things that symbolize what it was supposed to be like. Presents that I couldn't bear to open by myself. Bedding purchased by my Mom that I was SO excited to use. Pictures that have never been hung. Furniture. Dishes. My wedding dress. His clothes still smelled like him. It was painful. I'm not ashamed to admit that when a box of clothes fell on me, I sat down on the floor and cried.

Upside: I stood back up, looked at these things, and said, Stephanie, these are just things. In the end, they don't matter. Am I still sad? Yes. I feel like we have lost a year of our lives. But I am grateful for what we have learned. It was quite the steep learning curve. I know, I know...I went all Hallmark special on you, but it really is what I thought.

Downside: After being in the storage center for two hours. Struggling to fit everything back in and lock it up. Figure out how to load everything in my amazingly small car, I have a sudden realization. I had found the monitor, the keyboard, and all the accessories to the computer. But not the actual tower. I wanted to seriously injure something.

Preparation #4- Language. I do not know Portuguese. I know southern. My relaxed words, slow drawl, and long I's, do not help pronunciation of Portuguese. In fact, I find that I quite often that in my head I say it correctly. What comes out of my mouth is an entirely different story. So in order to not look like a complete buffoon, I thought I would try to learn some of the basics. Thanks to a WONDERFUL sister, she ran into a friend who is learning French. She uses a site call Live Mocha which is similar Rosetta Stone online. It allows you to network with others that are using the same language, find native speakers that can review your work and assist you, and other things as well. And the best part is it is ALL FREE! I am going to take my first lesson tonight (if all goes as planned, since I have to go back to the storage center. ugh.) and I will let you know how I like it!

Downside: Thankfully, I can't find one for this!

Preparation #5- I need a bathing suit that fits me.

Downside: I have to try on bathing suits.

Preparation #6- Sidnei no longer has a wedding band and I would like to go and re-buy him the same one as he had BEFORE it sank to the bottom of the ocean.

Downside: I need his finger to size it. And the money to pay for it.

Preparation #7- I need to save money.

Downside: See 2, 5, and 6.

Preparation #8- I need to figure out the best way to obtain my visa without it taking too long. I would like to see my husband rather soon. I am thinking of going with a tourist visa first and working from there. I will email the consulate first though (since no one EVER answers the phone there) and see if they have suggestions.

Downside: Have you ever tried obtaining a visa? The whole process is really a pain.

Preparation #9- Find out information on shipping our things down to Brasil. Container? Or Boxes? I don't know. Must Research.

Downside: Either one of those will probably be expensive, please refer to number 7. And will more than likely take a long, long time.

Preparation #10- Get husband out of jail. (This should probably have been number 1, so...just so you know, these are not in number of priority.) I am SICK of waiting for this to happen. The waiting may very well kill me.

Downside: I may not get very much sleep or see the light of day for a while. Wait, is that a downside?

So as you can see, there is much to do. Even though I know nothing as of yet. But it is better it feels good to be working towards SOMETHING rather than just be limboing around saying maybe this and maybe that. I can actually make lists and focus. And if by some SLIM chance we stay here...well then we will be better organized, styling and technologically up to date.

A little Valentine's LOVE

Well let me just say the actual day of Valentine's was a total BUST. But that is alright BECAUSE look what I got!!...



I participated in a Valentine's Day Swap from Andrea at My Chihuahua Bites and my swap partner was April from Deltakids! Thank goodness for April because I would have had such a sad little Valentine's Day! Look at all my goodies!!

1. Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues Can I just say I love this because there is SO much I didn't know about all these places! Sidnei and I have some traveling to do!!

2. The book House Call by Darden North, MD I have my FIRST ever signed copy for a book! I am so excited to start this! I will let you all know how it is!

3. My very own heart shaped cookie cutter! Thank you! I had gotten one for everyone BUT me!!

4. Royal Fudge Sauce straight from Indianola, Mississippi! My little heart goes pitter patter, as the ice cream awaits *sigh*

5. Mississippi Delta Fudge Pie also from Indianola, Mississippi! This is amazing! It comes in this cute little box and only takes a couple of ingredients to make! I am trying to save this for a special occasion, but it is SO hard to wait!!

6. Delta Magazine This little gem has all kinds of articles on different happenings and people in Mississippi...but *ahem* they left April out...so we are going to have to send a letter to the editor!!

7. And last but my ABSOLUTE favorite is my new ZUM body lotion and mist! I LOVE IT! The scent is rosemary mint, it is strong, but seriously, my dry hands love, love, love it! And my dry scratchy elbows want to send you a personal thank you April!

April I can not thank you enough for a WONDERFUL package! I love that it was Mississippi themed and you put such a personal touch in it!

And to Andrea , you are the best for doing this! It was so fun!

If you haven't been to visit either of these ladies you need to GO!
Andrea
April



***EDITED TO ADD:

hahahahahahahhaha I must say I got a pink bag of hershey kisses...sadly, they didn't make it long enough to take the picture! They were very much enjoyed, just in case you were wondering April! hahahaha ahhhh that made me laugh!