Yesterday was the kind of day that made me think that sticking my brain in a blender set to "puree" might feel better than the barrage of inevitable auto expenditures quickly coming our way. In our economy today (compounded by the financial flounder we call "the first year of marriage"), it's not like you can ever really be "ready" to spend obscene amounts of money to fix your car, I know. And truthfully, I should just be 100% grateful to have it at all…and I am! But ugh, today? Let's just call a spade a spade. This thing isn't so much a "car" as it is a money-sucker.
It has latched itself so tightly to our bank account that I just don't even know what to do. It all started off by bringing the car to Discount Tire thinking that they might balance the tires and clear out the ice and snow and poof! Problem solved! Let's go get Starbucks! But no. They balanced my tires, yes…and told me I needed an alignment. Ok, that's totally fine…I assumed a simple balance would be far too easy, so I went over to get an oil change and schedule an alignment at Todd Wenzel. TW informed me that because of the weather, they'd had a bunch of cancellations and they could take care of my car right-this-very-second, if I had an hour and a half ("or so"). I did, because I'd taken a personal day, so to the back my car went.
About a half hour later, they called me back to show me some problems with my car. I think they might have pegged me as a cryer (or an idiot, one never can tell) because they explained things very, very carefully to my tiny little woman mind (no, they weren't really condescending, I'm just feeling snippy right now). I actually understood what they were saying! This is totally impressive because they were throwing words like bushings, suspension, steering column, brake pads, traction, etc, my way. It's already paying off to be a DeHaven! Essentially though, what he was getting at was that before it even made sense to have an alignment done, they had to replace the bushings on both sides of the front…and hey! that's to the tune of $725! Here's a barf bag. And THEN he tells me about the grease and the joints and the muscles (not really) of my steering column…and how there is no more grease…so the joints are rubbing together…and this is bad. No good. Need to fix it. But it's a steal! $225! Oh, (heh, she's not taking this so well)…do you want another barf bag? Oh and one more thing that is totally manageable because we've gotten the big numbers out of the way…your low light is out. We can fix it. For $45 please.
So I ended up taking my (very un-fixed) car home, to hopefully find someone who can do it for, oh, I don't know…$50? Yes, that would be very nice.
And then let's just make everything fifty frillion times worse by admitting that I didn't have my most shining "wife" moments yesterday, either. I pushed Dorian, my TeddyBear, to actual real-life (very warranted) anger. We were both wrong in our own way, but oh, I'd love to go back to yesterday and just eat my words and strangle my pride…because let me tell you that nothing is worth frustrating the Most Amazing Person in the World that badly.
So after things were figured out and as calm as they could be for the moment, I went to the only escape a one bedroom apartment can really offer on such a flipping cold night…the shower. I turned the water to as hot as I could handle, got in…and I cried. And cried and cried and cried. I was crying so hard that at one point, when I thought I'd spent all my tears, I was shampooing my hair and realized that the water dripping down my face wasn't just from the shower head. I was still crying. I think it's fair to say that I'd been holding my emotions in for a while…because I'd love to believe that a stupid car repair and a silly fight weren't the only things that could drive me to those kinds of tears. But I don't know. Suffice it to say, I'm glad yesterday is over.
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