Rabbit, Returned

Well, the car stuff has been all wrapped up and thankfully, there is a happy ending. Here's the rundown:

I did get to pick up my car on Monday. The work looked great (Team Toyota body shop) and they armor-all'd my tires - shiny. The small amount of crap that I had left in my car was crammed behind the driver's seat, but it had to go somewhere, right? The inside smelled (still smells a bit) of primer and grease and assorted garage stinks, but that will go away.

The first not so great thing I noticed was the haze on the windows. The front is the least bad, but the rear window is more translucent than transparent at the moment. Good think I have a large quantity of Windex at my disposal.

The second not so great thing I noticed was the metal shavings on the floor in the backseat. I understand that my car wasn't in there for detailing, but clean up your mess for pete's sake. Not only were there the shavings, but my entire interior is coated in a fine layer of dust. I didn't notice how bad it was until I crawled in the backseat to look for an item that was missing. Which brings me to...

Roger. Roger was missing. The 3-inch tall vinyl Roger Rabbit figure that JR had found for me. The one that was velcro'd to the back deck. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I went through my car's nooks and crannies (mmmm, english muffin craving), kicking up dust and avoiding slicing myself on random metal shavings, but he was nowhere to be found. This is unacceptable. Time to take action.

I sent a message to the body shop via their website. A few minutes later, I get a call. I had to let it go to voicemail but was giddy with anticipation. I finally go on break and check my messages. An exceptionally fast talking girl, Jacqueline, said that Roger had been located and he was waiting at the front desk for me! Huzzah! Now I just need to figure out when I'm going to fetch him because I work until 7 and the shop closes at 7. OK, I checked the shop's hours, and they open early enough that I could fetch him before work tomorrow.

Summation of experience:

1. The people at Geico are too nice. Apparently they have a rating system (1-10) where anything below an 8 is considered failing. Poor souls. The one guy I talked to thanked me for every tiny piece of information I gave him. While I'm partial to the polite and efficient way of doing things, some people must really like being fawned over. If I get a survey, I'll give them high marks.
2. The body shop at Team Toyota is crazy huge. It's a collision center, parts department, and a service center. There is a theater room (which I didn't go in), a kids' playroom (got to watch Animaniacs when I dropped of my car), a cafe, and )I'm assuming here) wireless. I did see people on laptops.
3. While the work on the outside of my car was flawless; I have serious issues with the detritus left inside. As I said, I know my car wasn't in for deatiling, but Clean. Up. Your. Mess. Now I have to spend a couple hours this weekend making the interior sparkly again. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding random metal shavings for a while.
4. People aren't automatically thieves and I"m a little ashamed of myself of jumping to that conclusion right off. I mean really, who is going to steal a 3-inch vinyl Roger Rabbit? Perhaps another Rabbit owner, but I have this odd feeling that most body shop dudes don't drive Rabbits. Maybe a Golf, which is the same damn car, but doesn't have the cutesy name. But what do I know?

All in all, this wasn't a terrible experience. Obviously, I would have preferred that none of it had happened, but it mostly went smoothly. I don't know if I would send people to Team Toyota - hard to get past the mess - but the work was solid. And guaranteed for the life of the car. Still, if I find the person who hit my car, I'm gonna take a sledgehammer to their kneecaps. Don't fuck with my Rabbit.

1 is the Lonelist #

As anyone with a calendar knows, today is MLK, Jr Day. A day for reflecting upon the strides that were made by one great man and the people who believed in him. A day to remember how hatred can cut a life short. A day...ah, who am I kidding? For most people, today is simply another day not to have work or school. Alas, I am not one of those people. The perils of working in the medical field, however tangentially. Or at least, it is to me. My podmates had the option to take the day off because their subcontractors are off today, and without them, not much work can be done. You know, I have no idea if my subcontractors are off today. I was just told I had to be here. The point of that is this: I am all alone in my pod. Seriously, there isn't anyone within a row of me.

OK, I'm making this sound like I'm more isolated than I am. There are several people within (not my) spitting distance, but I still feel like I've been separated from the rest of the class so I can't be disruptive. Not that I would ever be disruptive...

In nothing to do with anything I've already written about news, I'm supposed to get my car back today. I've left a message with the adjuster to confirm this. I really want that good news or I'm gonna be unhappy.

In additional NTDWAIAWA news, I saw Sherlock Holmes yesterday. There was definitely more fisticuffs than people expect from Holmes - well, Holmes had this sort of slap-fighting thing going on. I'm sure there's an official name for it, but you can't tell me that the mental picture of a scruffy, dissipated Robert Downey Jr doesn't entertain you. I've only recently started reading the original stories, so I'm not going to make a big stink about how it wasn't true to the idea of Holmes. I don't know nothing about that. The only thing I noticed was that Watson made far more Holmesian observations than I've noticed in the source material. I don't know what it was in particular; the 'stache, the hat, the sideburns, but I found Jude Law really attractive in this movie. Which squicks me out for some reason. Maybe because he's a known philanderer. Whatevs. The movie was silly and entertaining and that's all I was really expecting for my $10.

Not All Bad, I Guess

I gotta hand it to GEICO. Once they got my claim to the correct department, everything happened quick enough. I get to take my car in tomorrow morning, and with any luck, will have it back before too long (dare I hope for the weekend?). I still have to pay the deductible, but that's definitely better than paying for the whole shebang. Poor Roger. Who thought he'd need cosmetic work at so young an age? Don't get hooked. I plan on this being a one-off.

As a bonus, I get free dinner tomorrow. Hooray!

Happy Fucking New Year

If I haven't said this before, let me say this: I do not like New Year's Eve/Day. I've had some crummy New Year's experiences, so I decided a long time back not to bother with any sort of enforced merriment. I'm perfectly OK with chilling at home, maybe having a drink, and forgetting what day it is. Last year, I got so wrapped up in my book that midnight passed me right by - and good riddance. And it would seem that this year is no exception.


I woke up this morning and looked out the window. It had snowed some, but it didn't look too bad. I figured it would be slow going, but nothing I couldn't handle. As I crept out of my parking lot, I noticed the roads were a little slicker than I first thought, but still not too bad. I made the right onto Red Lion and immediately noticed an accident on the other side of the road. Then, as I crested the hill, the car slightly ahead and to the right of me skidded, pulled a 270 degree spin, and ended up sideways across his lane. Bummer.

Things weren't so bad until I crossed over Pine and headed down towards the train tracks and Philmont. The cops had blocked off the road and all traffic was being routed into a neighborhood. Unfortunately, I had no idea if there was a way through back to Pine, or if I was going to have to turn around and backtrack. A shit-ton of people had already entered the neighborhood and it was a bit of a mess. The road went down a hill and I had the thought: I sure don't want to go down that hill just to find out that it dead-ends and I have to turn around and try to back UP the hill. Yeah, I should have listened to the little voice and turned. the fuck. around.


I made my slow way down the hill and the road comes up on the train tracks. At this point, I figure that the road dead-ends and decide to turn around - along with half a dozen other people. As luck would have it, there is a jam of crooked cars and a Pepsi truck blocking the way out. It would seem that I was well and truly fucked. Then I have the brilliant idea to check the GPS and see if turning around (again) would help at all. Indeed it would. So with the Pepsi truck creeping up on me, I turn BACK around and coast down the hill and around the curve. Then, as if this hadn't been a big enough pain in my ass, the road promptly went uphill again. Still, I was doing all right...until a lady at the top of the hill got stuck and I had to stop. Not a happy development. I tried to bang it out, but it got slippery and I started to skid. I ended up slanted across the road. Not quite blocking it, but definitely not pointed in the right direction. So fuck it. I took the car out of gear, set the parking brake, took off my seatbelt. I sent a text message to a coworker to give an update on my situation. Then I notice that the oil delivery truck that had been parked across the street was attempting to leave. I had high hopes for him, but almost immediately his wheels started spinning. I kept my eyes on him, hoping that he wasn't going to slide across the road and blow up me and my little Rabbit. He stopped before that happened (obvs).

I decide it's time for a cigarette. I get out of the car, and lo! the salt truck was coming through! He made a pass and I figured I'd give it a few minutes and then try to extricate myself. I step around to the passenger side of my car, which I had managed to at least straighten out, and notice a GIANT FUCKING DENT behind the passenger side door. What the bloody fuck? When had that happened? I sure hadn't hit anything. I think back and maybe remember hearing a bang last night, but memory is a fickle thing and who actually knows what may have happened. 'Sides, I don't investigate every random noise I hear outside my apartment. Might have to change that policy. Now I have calls to the insurance company to make, a body shop to find, blahblahblah. The damage isn't awful, but I'm still mega pissed.

I finished my cigarette and got back into the (wounded) car. A cop comes over to me and asked if I could make it out. Dunno officer, but I'm sure as shit going to try. Not only am I angry about my poor car, but I had to pee. I put the car into gear, slip the clutch and my wheels spin. I tried again while the cop yelled helpful things like: Cut left! LEFT! You got it! LEFT! I did have it and I crawled out of that fucking neighborhood. If the universe has a twisted sense of humor, and I believe it does, I'm going to end up living there one day.

Things were measurably better out on the main roads and I made it to work, no problem. The parking lot was a bit shit, but I was expecting that. I think the name of the company they use to clear the snow is "Half-assed Plowing". Or, "You Give Us Money, We Do Nothing". I smoked another cigarette and then go inside to find out that my project coordinator has been telling people all kinds of wrong stuff about what happened to my car and where I got stuck. My coworker and I decided to run with it and started telling people that I also gave birth to twins while stuck and had to leave them in a dumpster. Just to see how far we could take it.

Anyway, that's my day so far. One bit of good news: I get to leave at 4 and JR said she would come over to cheer me up and we can play really old Trivial Pursuit. That's my idea of a new year's celebration.