ode to the almost shoes

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as some of you may know i am madly in love with my car (hah! bet some of you weren't expecting those last two words were ya?) and i have a theory of car ownership formed by *years* of feast and famine. when the feast is on fix the fucking car for all it's worth cause when the famine is on the wonderful thing will make it through fairly cheaply... but you gotta keep it up when you're doing okay.

and i'm doing okay.

so in october i got tires and in november i got a windshield and in december i got a tie rod end and a tune up and a thermostat and some minor stuff and today i went in for a seal. i don't really know exactly what seal i just know that there's oil on one of my spark plugs and it's because of this little leaky seal AND it's why my gas mileage has been sucking total ass lately. i also know that it's under the cam shaft and thus the twenty dollar seal costs two and a half hours of labour.

i also knew that my oil pan had developed a slow leak (basically tiny pinholes of rust) a while back that wasn't really a big deal but was worth keeping an eye on. so i told the nice mechanic to also take a boo at the oil pan to find out how it was doing.

this is important yo since i'm doing a bit of a drive soon and i've had an oil pan shatter and land in the road under my car before and i am here to tell you that you do not get ANYWHERE when that happens.

period.

so, yeah. the oil pan was actually MORE fucked than the seal. fucked enough that i had to change it today. can't complain too much, it waited EXACTLY the eight months that i needed it to and not a second more. worse? not an iota of shared labour in these two jobs. not like a clutch and a tranny which are basically the same labour for both parts. nope, totally unrelated areas of the fucking car.

so instead of 400 bucks on my car i dropped 750 bucks on my car today. joy.

do you know what that is? that's my NEW SHOES and (*tear*) my new bra that actually fits (and is maybe sexy or at least pretty) and a couple of dinners out. i don't think it's my climbing shoes but i'll know in another few days when i see how the numbers shake down.

so, firstly, allow me to apologize to the reader who requested bra shopping stories rather than jeans shopping stories. not this month dude.

second? please join me in a moment of silence for my new shoes that i REALLY want.

*silence interrupted by the chieftains in the background*

currently i have the ones on the left BUT the sole has split so i can't wear them. I plan to get the yellow ones in the foreground AND the black with orange trim ones that aren't in that pic but are HAWT!

anyway, i'm all sad, i thought for sure i could get shoes this month but no.

in fact it almost seems that whenever i decide that i can afford shoes some unexpected expense hits. i just ate the cushion on my credit card and everything.

good news? i just dropped a month's rent on my car AND i can still afford my life and my expenses and classes with the goddess and probably climbing shoes. so i can't *really* complain about it even though i *want* to a lot.

ah well i was discussing feast and famine the other day, was probably a bit presumptuous or something.
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so, yet another month passes in my apartment with my home being rendered uninhabitable for days on end. currently they're refinishing the floor in the apartment above me (which is drowning out abbey road) and then they'll do the floor outside my door and then the apartment across the hall and over a bit.

if it isn't the boiler it's the pipes. if it isn't the pipes it's the bugs and if it isn't those it's the floors and let us not forget shouting in the fucking halls.

i get that they have to work and all but this is getting seriously out of hand.

i wish that i could just move my entire apartment, stuff and walls and floors and closet and all into the building next door. then i could still live in my awesome neighbourhood but i wouldn't have to live in this building with the totally inconsiderate super and property manager.

who still, by the way, insist upon propping open the door to the building without leaving anyone there to watch it and without anyone in the halls.
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regarding nyc i'm feeling some need to clarify.

ANYONE WHO WISHES TO JOIN US IS WELCOME!!

yes bubbles, even you!

i'm only the person whose blog happened to be hosting the comments the day this got started, and since i'm really busy in august i picked a weekend that suited me... pleasures of hosting the discussion.

that said, no one should feel not invited.

k? k.