red mercury

So.

My car has a name finally after many years of being in my possession.

Lazarus.

Cause that car just doesn’t want to stay dead. :-)

I thought for sure that this time was the big one. It is a 2001 Dodge Neon with almost 181 thousand miles on it. It’s survived numerous trips to and from Texas. It’s been over heated, and run down. Its been through more flat tires in a single winter than some cars go through in their entire lives.

And yet it keeps coming back for more.

As I mentioned last time – this last issue was related to rough acceleration and rough idling. The thing that confused me about this was that it wasn’t a constant thing. Sometimes it’d accelerate just fine, and be quiet as a mouse at a stop light. Other times it chug to get up to speed, and when stopped its shimmy and shake and otherwise sound horrible.

It was initially suggested that it was something with the fuel line, that it was probably gunked up and needed to be cleaned. So I used the cleaner that was recommended to me by these same people and while that definitely helped it wasn’t cured. Figuring that was a sure sign that something was really wrong – I kind of put off getting it looked at.

It was drivable still. I mean, you needed to be careful and a lot of times just cross your fingers but if I took it to get looked at and it was something expensive to fix then I’d have to start looking at getting a new (or new used) car. Which I really did not want to do. I don’t mind the occasional $200 fix, or even $400 fix. Its not a car payment and by and large the car is reliable enough. Its not pretty. It smells of smoke, and has a cracked windshield – but it gets me from point A to point B time and time again.

So it was with some trepidation that I finally got it in to be looked at today. I dropped it off early in the morning and told them that I really just wanted it looked at. If it was going to be something stupidly expensive to let me know first and we’d have to see. They said that wasn’t a problem and dropped me back off at home.

Well as the day went on, and I never heard anything it seemed like my fears were just being confirmed. If it was something simple they’d know right away and be able to fix it. The longer it took for them to call me back just to let me know what the problem was the more and more I figured it was something major.

Finally around 4:30 I gave up and just called them – the guy on the other line didn’t even know what car I was talking about at first. Then he said, “OH! The neon! Yeah. That’s been taken care off. Sorry no one called you, you can come pick it up if you want. All said the total comes to $160.”

I damn near shit my pants. Fixed? Already? And ONLY $160? I was thinking even if it was a small fix it would still be like $300.

I picked up the car, and it was with disbelief that I started it up and it just idled nice and quiet. I pulled out of the parking lot and it accelerated smoothly. I stopped at a stop light mentally preparing myself for the hesitation and rough idling and none came. It was at this point I started laughing manically. I think if anyone was driving next to me they must have though I was having an episode.

I just couldn’t believe that it was such a cheap, simple fix. And that the car was actually running good again!

So – it is with great honor that I bestow the name Lazarus on this car. May it live to see many many more years and hundreds of thousands more miles.

It’ll have a great test to see how it runs tomorrow. Currently expecting BLIZZARD like conditions over night into the morning hours. I was outside shoveling the snow so I could quickly lay down some salt. In the hour or so I was outside, the snow was coming down so quickly that I got a little snow drift in my hair. Which was amusing to me. I managed to snap a cell phone picture of it before it all melted.

Wish me luck on the commute tomorrow.

Till next time…

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So.

How was everyone’s holidays? I hope they treated you well. Mine were…. well – Ok. Nothing outstanding. The last few weeks in December are just WAY to freaking busy. I was getting a bit worn down on the whole family vibe… I mean, I love my family. Really, I feel largely like a different person, a better person, when I hang out with them. But lately, its just been a bit much. Which is a shame, because I don’t want to push them away – I just need a little space now and again.

Is it wrong that the above sounds like a relationship breaking up?

At any rate, the Holidays here are finally over and I’m glad to get that bit of space so that the next time I hang out with the Family (which knowing them will probably be next weekend!) I’ll be in much better spirits and able to joke around.

Danielle seemed to dig her Christmas/Birthday gifts which was awesome. I can’t tell you how stressed I was over that. We’ve done the random ‘Hey I thought you’d dig this’ gift type thing, but this was the first time we’ve had a major holiday together. So there was some added pressure (at least in my head). Thankfully I seemed to do a pretty good job.

Although I’m completely out of ideas for her now. Over the last few months I’ve been making little mental notes when there would be something she’d say she wanted, or didn’t have. With Christmas and her Birthday falling just over a week apart – all of those ideas I’ve stored up are completely run through now. Thankfully, it seemed to work and she liked what she got – but I’m going to have to pay very close attention in the coming weeks for ideas for Valentine’s Day.

Danny’s Birthday though went really well for being kind of a spur of the moment thing. We (of course) went to Chipotle for lunch. Lauren joined us which was good. I felt like I hadn’t hung out with her in ages. We didn’t have much direction in terms of what to do beyond Chipotle though. Lots of vague ideas but nothing concrete. So we looked at puppies at PetLand after Chipotle, in an attempt to stall for some golden idea on what to do.

Which side note – I always feel a bit conflicted looking at the puppies at PetLand. I mean, they are puppies – so they are cute as all hell. But they come from puppy mills, so they are probably inbred and looking at a life of health complications. To say nothing of the kind of people who buy pets from PetLand. I’d hope if someone was looking for a particular breed they’d just go through a breeder or through any numbers of sites that list shelter dogs of a particular breed. If you didn’t care about the breed I’d hope that they’d just go to a shelter and see whats there. Going to PetLand seems like the… I dunno. I don’t have the right words for it, but I doubt they’d be excellent owners. So whenever I go to PetLand and look at the puppies its always like ‘YAY! Puppies!’ and then mentally ‘Aw. Puppy Mill Puppies.’

Sorry – that was a weird tangent.

So after looking at the (Aw) Puppies at PetLand we ended up back at Danny’s to look for something else to do. Medieval Times came up very early in the discussion but it was a bit last minute and Danny was hesitant to ask for us to pony up another $60 to go. However, when it got to the point that we were looking at the Alsip Park District’s Current Events I asked Lauren if she was OK with spending the extra money. She was and I was, and Danny actually got in for free it being her birthday and all. So off to Medieval Times we headed.

Danny and Lauren had actually gone the year before for Danny’s birthday with a bigger group, but I was working or there was a family party (SHOCK!) and I couldn’t make it. Well I’m glad we went yesterday. It was really cool. It is kind of like dinner theater. The building itself is made to look like a giant castle. Which is kind of cool in and of itself since its set in the middle of suburbia. Which the subversive side of me was very amused with. Also the fact that they have signs directing you to the place was amusing. Its this GIANT lit up castle. How could you miss it? Do we really need signs pointing us to the giant lit up castle? ‘Turn right for Medieval fun!’. Yeah no shit. I almost missed the sign from being blinded by the GIANT FREAKING CASTLE lit up like its trying to be seen from SPACE, but man I’m glad I saw that sign. Now I know where to go.

So we get in and get our tickets, then they shepherd you along to get your picture taken with one of the cast which was a bit awkward. It’d be like going to a Ren Faire and getting your picture taken with the lute player. Our picture was with the ‘princess’ who was friendly enough. You kind of want to explain that she doesn’t need to stay in character for you, but then that’d just be more awkward. So we smile and take our picture with this poor girl who’s probably been standing there for the last hour taking pictures with everyone who comes through the door. We then got ushered through to the main hall which was pretty nifty looking and had a ‘Knight’ Club on one side of it. Yes. A ‘Knight’ Club. I know. Yet I laughed. Pity me.

Anyways – we take out seats, which for being a completely last minute thing were REALLY good. We were dead center of the ‘ring’ they perform in, and about the 2nd row back. The meal was included in the ticket price, as were the drinks. (Well Pepsi at least.) They fed you HALF a chicken which was really good. Ok they called it a Baby Dragon, and there was also Dragon’s Blood (Tomato Soup) for an appetizer. They also gave you a Dragon’s Rib (ribs) on the side. Some kind of potato thing which I’m sure was Dragon’s something or other but I missed what that was called. The food was really good, and I was STUFFED when we left. Also – for being just one waitress (wench) for our row of people I don’t think I’ve ever had my drink so promptly re-filled. So yay wenches.

As for the show itself – I was surprised to see that there was a ‘story’ that ran through the whole thing. It was not Shakespeare but it made the whole thing a bit more enjoyable than just people riding around on horses. And man did they have horses. TONS of horses. Doing tricks and different gaits and different walks and DANCING and all kinds of things. Yes, dancing horses. Its as cool as you think it sounds.

Each section has their own knight to cheer for. Ours was the Black and White knight. I guess last year they had the Yellow Knight and while the girls all thought he was quite handsome, he rode in on some horse that looked like it was only slightly larger than a pony. So it was a nice bonus when our Black and White Knight rode out on a big black horse that was the largest horse out there. (Well short of the announcer who was on some kind of crazy draft horse.)

Beyond having a nice horse I couldn’t get over how much he looked like an acquaintance of mine from Texas. Rick and Nick will know who I mean when I say the guy looked JUST like a slimmed down version of Jason. It was almost freaky.

So we cheered for our knight in his events and watched the different events they had. They’d joust, and sword fight, and try to get their pole through this small ring. (Which sounds vaguely dirty now that I am trying to describe it.) They also had some guy come out with his hawk who would do laps around the entire dining hall, which was pretty neat. In the end our knight actually ‘won’ and helped finish the story that was going on. It was also pretty damn cool seeing Jason Lite kicking ass with a sword and jousting pole. All in all I think it was a lot of fun. I would like to go back there again sometime soon with a larger group. I think a larger group would only add to the fun. Half the time I felt like we were the only ones cheering on our knight. (Although it did give me an excellent excuse to break out my ‘WOO’. When I woo’ed earlier at Chipotle it only got everyone in the place to look at me like I was nuts.)

Beyond that – there really hasn’t been much going on. New Years was kind of a bust, which sucked. But I think next year I’m just going to plan my own thing. Despite trying to plan something for two-ish months, nothing ended up happening. I kept waiting for others to come up with what they were going to do, since any suggestions I had were shot down early on. In the end nothing really came up. I still could have headed out to Danny’s, but I was wary of driving around on New Year’s Eve with all the amateur drunk drivers and thousands of cops. So, without a place to spend the night, I just stayed home and decided that next year I’d just throw a big shindig out here.

At least if there is a ‘party’ being held out here there will be something for me to do. Even if its just Lauren and Danny that show up. Although all of you fine people reading this should consider yourselves invited. I figure we’ve got enough space here to have room for people to crash on couches or take up a spot on the floor. Plus next year New Years Eve will fall on a Friday which will make it much easier to get everyone out here. We’ll have multiple TVs going, with probably one dedicated to Rock Band or something. Liquor, beer, pop, food, tv, games… I think it could be fun. Can’t be worse than spending it alone right?

Beyond the holidays though – I’ve had some annoying car trouble. I know, shocking, me having car trouble. This time it seems like it might be something major. I’ll be getting it checked out this week to find out for sure. But within the last week I’ve had to get the car jumped 4 (!) times in one day to get it started, and its not been very happy about starting or stopping. I took the advice of my Uncle and Cousin to add some SeaFoam to the gas which seemed to help – but it still not running right. Hopefully it’s a nice simple couple hundred dollar fix. If its more – in the $600+ range – it’ll just be time for a new (to me) car.

I need something dependable for all the driving I do. An average day for me involves waking up in Joliet at 4:30AM. Driving to Bolingbrook. Leaving Bolingbrook to hang out with Danielle in Alsip. Leaving Alsip to head back to Joliet to get to sleep by midnight. For those of you not familiar with the area that comes out to about 75 miles all said and done. Which is a lot of driving. I don’t really mind, but when your car doesn’t want to stop, and/or start – it becomes a problem.

So I’ve got that to worry about. Hopefully it’s a simple fix and I won’t need to worry about getting a new car. If its not though – what can you do? I’ve got 180 thousand miles on this car. It’s survived several trips to and from Texas, and it has taken all the abuse I can throw at it. A new car wouldn’t be the end of the world. I just wouldn’t really be looking forward to a car payment.

If I did have to take on car payments at least I should be looking at a slight pay increase at work. I don’t really have any concrete details – those should be coming in the next few weeks – but it does look like I will be getting some kind of a promotion at work here soon.

Nothing fancy, and not exactly what I would want – but a step up from what I am doing now. The empty spot in this department should be announced tomorrow at which point things can finally start moving on getting me into that now vacant spot. With the holidays and all, things got kind of slowed down. Here’s hoping that I’ll be able to talk a bit more freely about everything before the end of January.

Beyond all of that? Not much to report.

Me and Danny did go see Benjamin Button, which was ok. I think it might have been a bit too hyped up by the press and such. Still a movie I’d readily recommend going to see, but don’t expect the movie of the decade or anything. Also – as I’ve been writing this I’ve been listening to the latest album by Mute Math. The album is also called Mute Math and I have to say I’m pretty damn impressed with it. It should pop up in the recently played list over there on the right hand side of the page. Check it out – Typical is a pretty damn good rock song, and Reset is a pretty damn good track as well. The whole album kind of blends into itself which I mean as a compliment. I love albums that flow together like a cohesive whole.

Finally – Sorry for the EPIC length of this post. I need to post more often to avoid having a small novel to spit out.

I think that is about it for now. Hopefully I’ll have more to report on soon with the job. If not – I’ll try and post a bit more often so these don’t become so unmanageably long.

Till then…

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So.

38 days later. (Not quite as catchy as 28 days later, but oh well.)

I still don’t really feel like going through all of that stuff from the last few months. Every now and again I get caught off guard realizing that one of my family members is no longer here – but beyond the suddenness of it all I don’t really have much to offer on the topic.

If anything, the whole experience showed me that I really don’t have much to say about death. In fact – the thing I was most worried about was seeming flippant about death. Everyone just wanted to rehash the whole thing over and over and over again. When really – what else could you say? My Aunt Audrey was not the greatest person, she stole money from my mother, my father, my uncles and my aunts. She stole money from her bank job, was almost arrested for that. She used my sister for money and for transportation (so she didn’t have to waste her own gas). She lied about almost everything. She was ex-communicated from the family for almost a year by my grandmother.

But through it all she was… well she was family. And so she was always welcome back eventually.

The thing that got me was how everyone was overcome with the desire to explain these things. That she was, on the surface, not someone who you would trust further than you could throw her – but that she was a decent person underneath it all. We all knew these things though. So the act of going over and over it all was tiring. It seemed useless. She is dead, what the hell good did it do to tell us how she was a good person underneath it all?

So I was understandably, I think, a bit aloof during the whole funeral and mourning process. I miss her, and wish she was still her – but I don’t have any guilt for how things ended, nor how I treated her.

The problem now is that the guilt brought on from her passing seems to be an everlasting thing. My grandmother can’t seem to let a family party pass without saying how ‘wonderful’ her family is. And other family members seem to think it’s their crusade to let us know how loved we all are. (You see this is important because it was decided when my Aunt passed that she never knew how loved she was. Which is debatable if you ask me.)

All of this is great in theory. We do have a great family. And yes we do all love one another. Those are all well and good things to discuss, but the motivation for discussing them now rings so hollow that I can’t even stomach the conversation. I just want to tell them all to deal with their guilt on their own. Keep the process internal and we’ll all get along much better than having to constantly discuss death and the ramifications for our actions and how you were justified for disliking someone while they were alive. (Despite their shortened time on this Earth, and how really – you did like them underneath it all.)

Basically – I’ve not been fun at family parties.

And of course, with all this talk of death – I can’t forget mentioning my sister loosing her baby. I really don’t know what to say though. It is a horrible situation – one I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy – and yet it happened to my sister. I can only hope that the next time around the timing is better and that they have better luck. And there better be a next time, I sure as hell ain’t having any kids – and one of us Meyer children needs to be the grandchild producing machine. Sorry Beth – but I nominate you. ;-)

Oh yes – there is also the issue of Bob the King of Serfs.

For those of you who never had the pleasure of meeting El Roberto in person, count your lucky stars. No matter how many stories I tell you of his idiocy, his selfishness, his meanness, his racism, his hate, his greed, and his complete lack of humanity – you’ll never really get a grasp for how awful a human being he is.

And that is a good thing.

And moving away from him has been as welcome a change as you would expect. Granted, I always though I would have left him behind of my own accord – gotten a place of my own and been getting my feet wet in adulthood yet again. I can’t really complain though, considering that my mother has finally left him behind and we’ve all left him behind. He put up a fight about leaving the townhouse we were all living in, which was stupid for him. He can’t afford the place on his own, and its at least two times bigger than he needs. Whatever though, the place we’ve moved into has enough room for all of us and it has been good for my mother, my sister, and Jerelle to have each other to lean on. Bob can have that townhouse all to himself to sit alone in and while away his hours. He only has himself to get upset at now for leaving a random light on, or not putting the pizza cutter in the exact spot it should go in in the dishwasher. Somehow I doubt he beats himself up over those things, but I still like to think that late at night he sits awake in bed listening to the sounds of an empty house and realizes what he let get away from him.

It’s not the justice he deserves, but its close enough for me to sleep with a smile on my face at night.

It doesn’t hurt that I no longer have to worry about any of the millions of insignificant things he would raise hell over. A light left on, a cabinet door not closed all the way, a glass left in my room, a door closed ‘too hard’, laundry done ‘too late at night’, where the pizza cutter goes in the dishwasher, phone cords being glued into the wall, fans being unplugged for being left on, my room being searched like I’m a common criminal, and many many other things not worth listing here.

…

Otherwise – things have been ok. The new place is working out well. The job is going ok. There could be more to talk about there soon – things are afoot, just not sure how everything will fall into place. I’ve also not really talked about Danny here, but that’s probably for the best. I doubt she’d like if I gush about her for all to see. Suffice it to say I’m about has happy as I’ve been in years, and I owe much of that to her.

Trying to figure out what to do for New Years – anyone have anything going on?

Hmm. I think that about covers it.

Hopefully I’ll have more to report on the job front soon. Fingers crossed that it won’t be another 38 days, or 2 months, or several years.

Even if it is – you’ll know I’ll eventually get around to updating here.

Till next time…

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