You Have Won!

Friday when I checked the mail I received one of those mailers that has a scratch off thing that says "You Have Won!!" and there is a big picture of a brand new car and in really big bubble letters "$25,000!!" So I call the phone number and the lady says to come on in to claim my unknown prize. I tell my boyfriend, let's call him Frank, what she said and get out of the car to go inside. He tells me that we are going now, because my Mustang is falling apart and I have been talking about getting a new car anyway.

We head to the car lot.

We pull into the lot and walk into the used car building and Frank keeps talking about Chargers and Ram 1500's and Big Shiny Loud Cars. So we ask for Mr. David like the lady told us to and are informed that Mr. David doesn't exsist. Ken is happy to help us. I show him my flier and ask what I might have won. He gives the flier to his manager and says "He will take care of that, let's find you a car." So he finds out what I'm looking for, something that will last, low mileage, front wheel drive, good gas mileage. I keep talking about Rav4's. Frank informs me that we shouldn't get a Jeep, Jeeps have bad engines, not enough headlight fluid.

Ken shows us a few cars, none of them feel right, I like this one, and Frank points out this or that. Frank likes one and I point out that or this. So I ask Ken "What did I win?" $25,000 is a lot of money. He hems and haws and says something about his manager.

Finally we are walking through the lot and from around a corner I see a car. The clouds part and the sunlight hits it and the angels start singing. I walk up to it and notice, front wheel drive! 36 MPG! 23,000 miles!

"Look the dogs will love this backseat, it's a bench and they each get their own window!"

"Wow, we can fit camping gear in the back, lots of room back there!"

Ken pops the hood, only four cylindars but something about shifting up and down even though it is an automatic. Frank says that Jeeps have bad engines. So Ken starts telling him about all the headlight fluid! And elbow grease! And new, better engines! We take it for a test drive and Frank starts noticing how quite it is, even on the freeway. Ken tells him all about roll cages and smart air bags that can tell if it is me or him driving. Frank likes the stereo. It's gray. I like gray cars.

So we get back to the dealership and work out how much it will be for the car, not too bad. I can do that! I ask again "What do you think I might have won?" And Ken says he will ask his manager. I work out my insurance and they take a look at the Mustang. Wow, it really is falling apart, but something is better than nothing. Financing goes well and I hand over the keys to the Mustang and they hand me the keys to my brand new (used) Jeep Compass. "Oh hey, this is for you," says Ken as he hands me a five dollar gift card to Wal-Mart.

Guess What!

Today I start my brand new job. I have been training dogs for the last two and a half years. I'm excited about my new adventure. It is my very first full-time job, I will be sitting at a computer for eight hours a day, five days a week, 8am to 5pm. (I get an hour for lunch!) I am a receptionist, which basically means that I sit here all day and answer the telephone and wait for someone to walk through the door. I get to read a lot. So I decided to dig out the old blog and start updating it again. I may not keep up with it but I thought I would give it a shot, it may become something I really enjoy doing. I work for this little bitty family owned company that has something to do with oil, I mean, I am in Texas so what are the odds really?

Warped Tour

Warped Tour gave many bands their start. Blink-182, Sum 41, Good Charlotte to name a few. Many genres of punk rock music got their start there, skaa, screamo and all kinds of punk came from Warped Tour. Yesterday we saw bands such as 3 Oh! 3 (suburban punk rap?) and as small as Deer in the Headlights (Southern Rock, kind of like a modern Bob Dylan) and bands with a few devoted fans such as Sing It Loud (pop punk gay rights activists) and bigger bands like Senses Fail (Hardcore modern metal?). I found a new favorite band, Anti-Flag, whose lead singer talked about things like tearing down unnecessary barriers between people, like race, religion and how much money you do or don't make. He said that the goverments of the world spend trillions of dollars on creating and sustaining such borders, physical or not. The music was awesome and so was the message. I realized about halfway through the day that it has almost become a modern Woodstock. It's about as close as our generation can get. By 5 in the afternoon, the parking lot it was held in was muddy and they were spraying us with water hoses to keep us cool. Almost all the guys there were covered in sweat and had taken their shirts off, their skinny jeans sagging with the water. People lost shoes in mosh pits, make up was running and everyone was laughing. Joints were being passed around and the parents in the crowd didn't seem to mind. Most people weren't smoking and the security guards didn't notice the few who were. There were circle pits and contests to see who could crowd surf the most. If someone fell down, you picked them back up and the kept doing what ever it was that they were doing.

Anti-Flag - This Is The End (ForYouMy Friend)

Aliens, Faerie Tales, and Ghosts; Oh My!

I went to the library and got quite a few books, We can keep them for three weeks, so I grabbed many more than I should have! I have already devoured four of them, and they were very good.

Wicked Lovely is about a girl who sees the invisible faeries the cause chaos and mischief around the world. One of them seems to single her out and she cannot figure out why. I will not spoil any books for you, but it is very well written and very very good!

Ink Exchange is the sequel to Wicked Lovely and is mostly about one of her good friends, just as good as the first one!

A Great And Terrible Beauty starts out really slow, but once you get past the first two chapters, it takes hold of you. It is about a girl whose mother is murdered. They are English but live in India. She begins to see visions of moving shadows as she is sent to a prep school in England, set in the late 1800's she is an out cast to the other girls until one of them approaches her with a rule breaking dare that she accepts. Kept me guessing until the very end, I will definitely be checking out the next one when I next visit the library!

The Host is by the author of the Twilight series, Stephanie Meyer. It is about and alien species that call themselves souls. They take host bodies and without them cannot survive. After most of the 'settling' of Earth is complete, a soul that goes by the name Wanderer is inserted into an adult human body that was part of the resistance. The human girl's consciousness starts to fight back, putting up walls that don't allow the soul access to certain memories. This book was excellent from the very first page, I would recommend it to anyone!

Bliss I did not like as much as the others. It is about a 14 year old girl in 1969, her parents raised her on a hippie commune. Her parents avoids the draft by going to Canada and sending her to live with her grandmother in an upper class, racist area of Atlanta, Georgia. Her name is Bliss Inthemorningdew and she makes friends with a girl named Thelma and is a story about how sometimes it's better to not to make friends with the 'weird kid' at school. Their school is an old nunnery and legend has it that a girl threw herself from the third story window. Are the voices Bliss hears this girl's cry for help or her mind playing tricks? The book contains a bitter-sweet love story and tells of the cruelness of teenage girls.

All of the books have great plots, sweet love stories, and horrible tragedy. More to come as the summer wears on! Happy reading!

Ugh

I think we said about 25 words to each other between going to the library, JC Penny's, Garden Ridge, and the grocery store. Well I take that back, maybe we said 100 words. I definitely did more talking than she did. Colorado won some tickets to Warped Tour and since we had already bought ours, the first choice was to bring Tall and Red. Red refused, so Colorado asked one of his friends, who happens to be an attractive, single young lady. Tall is very excited and Red has expressed her distaste. Colorado and I think it is time for her to get a taste of her own silly medicine. Tall does everything for her, still. Walks her dog, buys her food, asks her before doing almost anything. This is one small step for Tall, one giant leap for our apartment. Hopefully this will solve more problems than it creates. Fingers crossed for Sunday!

Washington

Red has decided to leave. Leave Tall, her fiance. Leave Colorado, one of her first and best friends in Texas. Leave me, her best friend. She is going back home, to Washington. We are all very sad, kinda hurt and resentful. She went home for two weeks and decided she didn't love Tall anymore. He has been so sad lately. I haven't posted since I found out, I was hoping she would change her mind. Tonight is the first night we will get any kind of girl time. We are going to the library and the mall. Tall won't let us have a girl night if he is here. I miss my best friend and I feel like he is ignoring the fact that all of us are loosing her. Anytime she says anything about spending time without him, he sulks until she changes her mind. Oh well...

Mt. Evans, Snow, and Trees

We went up to the highest paved road in North America, it was snowing about half the way up and it was so pretty from the top of a snowy mountain. We stepped outside the car and into a 32 degree snow flurry! It was so much fun. We also drove up to beautiful Estes Park. I tend to take pictures of the mountains, and nothing else, but they are pretty pictures. Colorado's Aunt and Uncle took up mini golfing, Colorado won, and to get Salt Water Taffy. CO was so pretty and I can see us living there, but it is so good to be home!