My sister sent me the CD a long time ago, whereupon Jenfu promptly pillaged it. (It's okay for Jenfu to pillage things sometimes. I find it charming, and then I pillage back.) I planned to get it eventually and in the meantime, Jenfu could put hers in the karaoke machine and we could sing the entire thing! Plus, she let me be Buffy.

Then I broke down and bought the CD anyway, sometime right before Christmas, so I could have it for my drive to Los Angeles. While I was in Los Angeles, my car CD changer broke with five or six CDs stuck inside. One of them was, of course, the Buffy CD. Once again: no Buffy for me. I think I had listened to it twice.

While Tim was here, a mere few days ago, he took apart my CD changer in an effort to fix it. It was noble, and he did a lot of neat things that didn't actually result in a working CD changer. But he did get my CDs out. I was so excited! Now, at last I could have my Buffy CD!

Driving into the city tonight to meet up with Jenfu, I listened to my Buffy CD for the first time in a long time. (Using the portable CD player-cassette adapter-cigarette lighter combo.) I was so excited! Hooray! I'm under your spell, Buffy CD!

I had a free pass to go see a movie, and both Jenfu and I desperately wanted to see Pirates of the Caribbean. And so we did (with Josh) and boy did we love that movie. It is the best movie ever. Homoerotic pirates. Lots of fun references to the Disneyland ride. Spooky special effects. Johnny Depp, who is sexy with gold teeth. Bling bling!

Unfortunately, I chose to park on a side street called Bad Idea Road. (I had a funny feeling. I knew I shouldn't have parked right by the Jim Jones temple.) My car window was smashed when we got back to the car. They took my portable CD player, with the Buffy CD still inside, among other things.

Curses!

I have had a bad feeling for a few days now, and I actually took a bunch of CDs out of my car two days ago. I looked through that stack of CDs when I got home tonight, and it looks like I saved my most important CDs: a couple of mixes that are very special to me, and my two White Stripes albums, They Might Be Giants, and Joni Mitchell. So it could have been worse. I actually can't think what they might have taken; I guess it can't have been all that important.

Right now I am mostly worried about my car. I hate the idea of there being no window and it sitting outside all night defenseless. I don't know what to do, though. I don't have cardboard or duct tape, and it's two in the morning. I am never going to be able to sleep if I don't do something, though. I am going to do some type of makeshift plan and then get the window fixed in the morning. What a fucking pain in the ass.

The window will probably cost $150 at the least. I am afraid it will be more, and of course I don't have the money, but what can I do? Then I will need to go get a new CD player and accoutrements. (Replacing the headphones is going to be the hardest thing. They are the only kind I've ever liked and I've had to replace them twice now and they are hard to find.) That's $60 plus $20 plus $10 plus tax. I don't know, a hundred bucks?

So I am guessing that my free ticket to Pirates of the Caribbean is going to end up costing me a good $300 or so. Plus whatever I spent for popcorn.

That movie, though. Orlando Bloom! Johnny Depp! People saying "Arrrgh!"

It was almost worth it.

My night (after writing the above) ended up being pretty sleepless.

I toyed with the idea of sleeping in my car. Which is to say, I put on three layers of clothes and dragged a blanket and pillow into my car, and battened down my hatches and tried to go to sleep. But I had parked next to a tree (to conceal the open window from shady passers-by) and covered the window with cardboard, and the branches tapped on the cardboard and sounded exactly like a pirate breaking into my car for some raping and pillaging of booty.

I then decided that my actual booty was more important than my car and went back to bed, vowing that I would get new car insurance the very next morning. I couldn't stop imagining my car getting stolen and me with no insurance-- what would I do? I would be so deeply, desperately fucked.

I woke up this morning and my car was still there. Serious relief after a night filled with horrifying scenarios. I had an appointment early, but before I went out, I called to have my glass replaced and then I called my car insurance people who reinstated my policy. I am now financially crippled, but I don't care. I have a little thing called "peace of mind" and like the MasterCard people say, that's priceless.

Then I had to drive all the way down to San Mateo (the city, not the street) for a meeting. I am working on materials development for my tutoring job. We had a meeting with a conference call! If you have a meeting and it involves a conference call, you are certainly an important person. The meeting was great fun and productive, and I think I am making a valuable contribution to the company, and yay!

Then I got on the freeway, which reminded me that commuting to work sucks dick. Traffic from hell, and I was going to miss my auto glass appointment! Then I had a bright idea, because my auto glass people also have a branch in San Francisco. I got off the freeway and called them. "Why don't you bring your car in right now!" "Great, where are you located?" "On Bryant, between 6th and 7th." "Wow! I'm on Bryant and 8th. I'll be there in ten seconds." I really was, too.

They fixed my window for cheap. In fact, they charged me the same price as they did for the other window (the vent window) which broke a few months ago. It came out to $130 or so. Not nothing, but certainly not the $200+ I had been fearing.

Oh the other good news is that I found my CD player headphones in the back of my car. Not expensive, but like I said, I love them and I hate every other headphones I have ever had, and I use them all the time for biking. What considerate pirates, leaving me my headphones.

Then I was forced to use not one, but two of the most disgusting public restrooms known to man, which probably gave me Hepatitis C, even though I did the patented "use your thigh muscles and don't touch anything" technique of bathroom-going.

Then I walked past seventeen (at least) bail bonds places and one huge police station in search of a place to eat. I finally found a grimy bar that served food, and I had (of all things) garlic prawns in lemon butter sauce. Seriously. Their menu was like: "Cheeseburger. Buffalo wings. Garlic prawns in lemon butter sauce. Nachos."

I hadn't eaten all day, and they were fucking good. Almost as delicious as:

Then more traffic, traffic, errand, traffic. Now it's seven and I'm finally home and how's that for a day off? Especially since I have to go out again and run more errands. Deposit check so that insurance payment doesn't bounce. Figure out where redwoods trail is. Go find Johnny Depp and see if he'll pat my hair comfortingly while I nap on his lap, and possibly steal gold doubloons from his pocket because I really need some gold doubloons...

Actually, maybe I'll skip right to that last thing. Mmm. Pirates.