MY SUPER SUMMER

I'll tell you what- they were not joking when they said "life comes at you fast. It has been one hell of a ride this summer and it's only been 5 weeks. FIVE WEEKS. You're kidding, right? It seems like quite a while ago that we finally moved out of the dreaded 211 house lol. Getting everything together for that and 65 bartlett.. finishing finals. From there, we started our car search/job search, trying to prepare for the summer…
WE GOT A CAR!
At the end of May, we landed a great deal for our beautiful '02 toyota solara. Haha. The search SUCKED. Going back and forth between… should we spend less and get a crap car for our "first car", like everyone's telling us to, or should we suck it up and put ourselves in half a decade of debt for a better, new car. Was definitely leaning towards the new one to be honest… pj's dad tried to take us to a couple of dealerships. Thought about going for a suzuki or hundai, or pontiac, or nissan… but I wanted a toyota. Couldn't shake my need for that toyota. Toyota is honestly the only brand I trust. I can't explain it, but they've never done me wrong. So, I grew attached to the yaris for a while. Actually went to vineland toyota to see if they would cut me a better deal than shore… and they ended up showing me our baby. Lol. When the guy was talking about it, I was like… I'm not tryin to have that! 2002? Pshhhh. Gimme that new model! Lmao. But I admit, when I saw it, I was impressed. It hadnt been cleaned or anything yet and it was a shiny red sports car, not really what I thought I was looking for. With 2 doors, which I kinda knew I would settle for anyway since I wanted the yaris… but with those sexy windows… you know, the kind with just glass and no top rim. Lol, I dunno why I liked that. The guy was gushing about it… about how the solara is a better car for starters, which it is…. And about how the previous owners took care of it (he wasn't lying… carfax says all lmao, he did it all by the book, all the servicing and check ups and stuff lol). But I wasn't truly impressed until I drove it. It drove as smooth and sounded as good as the 07 corolla we were thinking about getting at shore. The price tag was in the 7,000s… thanks to tito joey's impeccable bargaining skills, we brought it down to 5,000 flat after a few hours. Lol he started off saying we'd only take it for 3,000. they were like, there's no possible way to get it under 6500. tehehee. And the best part is, we paid in full!!! Ok, yeah we had to borrow $1000 from tito joey lol, but paying in full, including taxes and tags, meant we got to keep our insurance significantly lower (only $50 a month compared to 150 if we took out a loan for it!) PLUS no interest?! Wonderful :-D. after we realized that we'd be saving close to 20,000, we decided to go for the solara. Haha. And I love it! I love my car! In a surprising way. I figured paying $5000 for a car would mean it'd be a blah car just to get us by, but I really do love it. I guess when something's yours, you tend to be really biased about it lol. I guess that's why I feel like I have the best boyfriend ever and best dog ever haha. But I do look at the car every day and smile, and think… there's no way I got away with $5000 for this car. It runs like a charm, it's amazing on gas, it looks sexy, and its just fun to drive. Aside from the car itself, it's just great having a car period. Never have to worry about anyone else needing it or having it. Driving around every day and being able to be proud that your transportation is yours. It wasn't a gift, no one's just lending it to you, the bank doesn't own most of it, lol it's yours. Tito joey's donation will be paid back in 4 weeks! Hehe yey!
Which brings me to the job search…and consequent taking over of movie city. Boy has that been a trip. Owning a business is hard fucking work. The constant balancing and checking and budgeting and seeing where to save and where to spend, checking out the trends, not to mention having to be there most of the time for regular transactions… rearranging the store, fixing the system. Oh my geez. Getting everything ready to pay taxes and rent and employees and payroll expense and inventory and utilities and deliveries…posters, booklets… and the trash guy and the soda guy… im sure I'm forgetting some. Lol. But this hard work is paying off. If things continue to stay around where they are… by mid next month, we'll have paid off our car, our Hugo, and our credit debt. Maybe earlier. And by the end of the summer, even with all our expenses, we'll not only have our debt completely cleared (except for school debts) but have enough money saved to cover sept, oct, nov, and dec, rent and utilities, and that's BEFORE our refund checks! Wow. That's such a relief. I'm really hoping to save as much as possible for me and pj to get our own apartment senior year. Or at least one with only 1-2 other roommates. Lol I can't do this craziness anymore. Don't think anyone else can either.
But this work is wearing me out. WEARING ME OUT. I work 50-60 hrs each week, and im trying to get my rest, so I can finally get better!
Being in the hospital sucked. I wish I had the energy to write because I had some great blog/short story ideas. Could have wrote a damn book: "breakfast in bed and other things I'll miss about the hospital" I'm sure the list would include:
1) Staring at the drawing on the hospital bed and imagining that little figure as my friend. We were both so sad, stuck on our damn beds. I felt bad for myself because I felt lonely enough to imagine inanimate drawings as friends. But then I felt bad for him, knowing that he'll never get out of here. Sad.
2) The soup. Oh yeah.. Because who needs solid food anyway? Let's strain the soup of all its goodness and then dilute that with water. I never get enough water these days w/o it.
3) The IV -- I can be so lazy that I don't even have to worry about hydrating myself, or taking pills to get better. Who wants to do that? Wouldn't it be better to lug around this cart on wheels attached to you in a place that makes normal functionality impossible?
Not to say that all my visitors didn't cheer me up. Thanks you guys. I pretty much had someone at my bedside the whole 4 days. You guys are wonderfully loyal… but it felt like shit… taking all that time out of people's days to sit in a hospital and deal with me, who just could not bring herself to be as pleasant as I wanted. In a nutshell, being in the hospital sucked.
And on top of that, I won't really get better for 2 weeks. Wtf is that? I'm just trying not to end up in the hospital again until I'm about to give birth….
Missed 3 days at Countryside that I have to make up.
Ay… countryside. I know I can't come back next year. It's not like I hate it there… I don't. it's just that my boss has me in the office all day doing corporate/secretary work and I'm just not feelin it. Today I got to bring the wii in and me and the seniors played for 3 hrs lmao. It was great. They loved it. The best was when elsie's face lit up after she bowled a 112… she said… "wow… I never thought I'd be able to bowl again." and Peggy… used to be a great bowler when she was young. Was in a league and everything… now she's stuck to a wheelchair… but she's loving being able to play again. Hehe. Those are the times I love my job. Still, working there is exhausting and it's not just the hours… what I learned from my 2 jobs this summer -- I do not want an office job and I would love to own my own business. Lol. I guess there's something about knowing you deserve whatever you're making… about getting out of something what you put into it… about being proud of progress… as much as it's a pain, it's a rush.
Does that mean I'm stepping away from publishing? Hell no! haha I still fully believe that that's my calling. Not even solely because I want to do it… I guess I kinda just feel like of all the things I COULD do… I would be the best at this. Of course, I could be wrong lol. It's just that I would also love to be an entrepreneur as well… risky business…
So anyways, going up to the bruns tomorrow. Get to see the new place, now that it's ours. Move some stuff in…. Going up again the next week to meet up with my freshman peer mentee, who seems real cool….
Well, I suppose that's long enough… lol until next time ;-)