But no.

Today I was out in the typhoon (as per STORM WATCH 2004!!!) at seven in the morning, bringing my car from my old mechanic to my new mechanic. My old mechanic quoted me $800 to fix my car and I was freaking out, until Tim told me (in a semi-nice way) I was being an idiot and letting myself be a victim and then I made some calls and found my new mechanic, who is doing the exact same repairs for $375.

Lesson learned.

When I get my car back, I am going to tongue kiss my new mechanic, because he is nice. (He even gave me a ride to BART this morning, although it was only a few blocks away, because of the typhoon.) And Tim's lucky he is 400 miles away, because I might jump him too. This is why I (sometimes) bring him (some of) my problems, so he can (occasionally) smack some sense into me.

An ongoing problem is that the old mechanic (Ripoff Charlie, tm Jen) is my dealership. I have mentioned before how much I hate my dealer, right? They are the reason I am selling my car. I never want to deal with them again. Not ever, ever. This is why I am selling my car and buying a blue hatchback Honda, my new dream car.

But I have to take the car to Ripoff Charlie's first because the car is under "warranty" so I take it there, and then they tell me that of course whatever is wrong isn't covered by the "warranty" (because why would it be) and that will be $800 please.

In the end I saved something like $300 by taking the car somewhere else. Unfortunately, I have to use that $300 to buy a new digital camera, because it looks like mine is gone forever. It is so upsetting, not the least of which because it was my own stupid careless fault.

But I hope you horrible dishonest people with my camera and pictures of my DEAD GRANDMOTHER'S COFFIN (my dad made me take them) enjoy your karmic payback.

Between this and the whole gay marriage amendment (it's called the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, look into it) I am losing all faith in humanity.

Oh, and on top of all this, my rent check was stolen right out of our mailbox, and someone went to the bank and cashed it. I don't know exactly what's going to happen now, but my bank seemed remarkably unconcerned by the fact that someone now has my bank account information and presumably has stolen my landlord's identity.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is some sort of weird mix-up related to the divorce of my two former housemates, but it is looking doubtful.

I guess the plus side of all this is that I have a decent job now, allowing me to cope with contingencies such as car repairs, a new camera (not immediately, but eventually), and losing my rent money. It's just a lot of stress.

(Also on my to-do list for the week: exercise my Starbucks stock options before they go away, find a tax preparer who doesn't suck, go grocery shopping and also pots-and-pans shopping, and again prepare for the house to be painted-- all my shit somehow is all over the place again. Finish filling out all my paperwork at work. And there are also a lot of things that I would like to get accomplished, but they are taking a backseat at the moment.)

I also have a busy weekend coming up. And plans every night through the weekend. That always makes me stressed out too. I need a certain amount of alone-time (and errand-running time) built into my life or else I go a little nuts.

Even if "alone-time" consists of me laying in bed, staring out the window at TYPHOON 2004!!!, and doing absolutely nothing.