Fender Bender - So I got into an accident this morning. Luckily the damage was minimal and to my car only. I met Mike at Starbucks this morning and was backing out. There was a delivery truck in my way so I was being careful to not back into it. Sadly this girl was on the side I wasn't watching as carefully. I barely bumped her but she was a total bitch about it. I guess she honked but I wasn't able to hear her because of my music. And honestly it wasn't that loud! But I felt horrible. I looked and her car was perfectly fine. I saw a slight scratch on mine but she said she could feel something fold so she checked her entire front end. She was exasperated! It ended up that my bumper got pushed out of place. I was totally shaky. She wasn't very nice about it even when she realized I had the only damage. I pulled back into my spot and Mike checked it out. He knew it was something he could push back into place. Mike agreed the lady was a little oddly pissed off considering I had the damage. I felt a little better but honestly this was the first accident I had gotten into in YEARS (I got into one a year or so after I got my license but it was the other guys fault) and this was the ONLY one that was my fault! I think that's what made it so hard to let go. I knew I looked from all angles before backing up but I was so cautious about that delivery truck and the idea that I couldn't hear her honking really bothered me. So it took me a few hours to let it go.
Anyways there's a lot to share! So I will probably just give quick updates.
My Birthday - My birthday was pretty awesome! On the actual day I was so surprised at how many people made an effort to wish me Happy Birthday. :) I felt totally special! I went to work and after work went to my parents for a special birthday dinner.
Saturday, September 6th BootieLA- I went out to dinner at Red Robin with my sister and Andie. Rachel sadly couldn't make it because she was sick... I mean REALLY sick. I felt so bad. And I was bummed she wouldn't be apart of my birthday celebrations like she has been pretty much since we became friends in Jr High. After dinner we drove down to pick up Russ and made our way to Echoplex for BootieLA. Yet again I had an absolute blast! I love that event! I will be going again soon!
AAP Conference in Vegas September 8th - 11th - This was my first business trip and I was oddly nervous about it. But it was actually A LOT of fun! We got to Vegas at about 5pm and my friend Debbie met up with us and we went to dinner. After dinner Debbie and I decided to go hang out and catch up.
Tuesday I was able to sleep in a little since my first class didn't start till noon. I was one of the only people in my class taking the AAP test this year and so the teacher called on me a lot. I was happy to say I knew all but one question he directly asked me. After the class they had a reception dinner. It was interesting to be able to talk to people who have taken the test. I felt more comfortable. After the reception dinner I called Debbie to come meet up with me again and we just hung out at the hotel. We ended up hanging out at Toby Keith's bar in the hotel. It was pretty rowdy and they had a band playing country music, and normally I would say that wasn't my thing, but I was highly entertained by it all.
Wednesday was my long day in classes. It was a lot of information but I was able to talk to more people about the AAP test during our breaks and in one session we broke into discussion groups and at lunch one of the people in my discussion group said I seemed knowledgeable! lol that made me feel pretty good. :) And the end of the day I just wanted to get out of there. My brain was fried. I went to dinner with Jody and my friend Armando met me at the hotel at about 9 and we went out to bowling and then to Freemont Street. He kept asking if I'd done different Vegas things, most of them I hadn't. He was bummed we hadn't been able to hang out before that night but that's how it worked out.
Thursday I was able to sleep in a little because my teleseminar didn't start until 10am. I had to be packed before the teleseminar because as soon as it was over we had to check out. We left Vegas and stopped off at State Line to grab some lunch. I didn't get home till about 5pm. But was thankful for all the information I got and also for the opportunity to go!
Photoshoot - So my friend James came up with this cool idea for a photoshoot. It wasn't the first time I had heard of the concept and thought it was a great idea for a photoshoot. Basically it's been said if you take a fluorescent light and stick it in the ground under power lines it will light up. There are a few different factors that we knew by the article James read. So we decided to test it. We met out in the Oak Hills area and we stopped at a spot and stuck a fluorescent light into the ground and sure enough it started to glow! We decided to try another place that's a little further out that James remembered off the 395. It seemed brighter and we made the choice to set up a photoshoot, but there are a lot of technical things we need to work out so I'm not sure how soon this will be happening.
Labels: Birthday, Car, Photoshoots, Pictures, Rambling, Random, Travel, Updates
posted by Charity at 9/08/2008 11:34:00 PM
Bonsai Tree - Well I got my very first bonsai tree in the mail yesterday! I’m so excited! And a bit nervous too… I know they take a lot of care but I’ve wanted to have it as a symbol of what God is doing in my life. I’ll be posting pictures soon!
My Car - So the last time I wrote about my car I believe it was an emotionally driven post about me breaking down on the way home from Irvine in the end of February. Well weeks later, I’m still breaking down on the freeway! Hehe Though these last few times I’ve handled it better emotionally then the original time. Yes, you read that right… few times… plural, meaning it’s happened more then once since!
Last night I was enjoying a conversation with my friend Andie. I had just ignored a call from the Honda dealership about the car I test drove a week or so ago. They’ve been pushing to get me to buy and I’ve been tempted but know financially right now I can’t afford it. Well as soon as I ignored the call I see all sorts of water coming from under my hood. I look at my temperature and see that it’s fine. So I pull over and check under the hood to see a hose from the radiator to the engine completely split down the middle!
Maybe I should explain what work has already been done to my car. Ok so when I broke down at the end of February what was believed to be the problem was the thermostat. So it was taken out down in Corona and drove like a charm back home. I took the next day off and bought a new thermostat and my dad put it in for me. Things seemed to work well but I kept noticing steam. I was losing a lot of water. So my dad took it again and saw that the radiator had a leak. So I bought a new radiator and my dad put it in. Things seemed to be working ok but I did notice a fluctuation in the temperature and as the week went on it kept getting worse. I was told to try buying a new radiator cap which seemed to do the trick.
Then the hose split last night on my drive home. My dad came to my rescue for the 3rd time. Though it’s become so standard it didn’t even faze me. I took my Sony Cybershot and took some pics of the traffic and played with the long exposures again. My dad replaced the hose and decided to drive it up the hill. Sadly putting in the new hose didn’t seem to fix the problem. It still overheats. So now I’m left with two possibilities. The thermostat I bought wasn’t good (crossing fingers and praying hard that this is the case) or it’s a head gasket (which would suck hardcore!). I’ll keep you posted! My dad took out the thermostat today and I’m gonna drive it around for about a week. If there are no issues then we can be pretty sure that I got a bad thermostat and can just buy another one to replace it. If I still have issues with it overheating then it means most likely a head gasket issue and at that point I will have to evaluate the best solution.
*Update 3/19/07*I had this post ready Friday but never posted it. So here’s an update… It looks like my dad realized that it wasn’t the thermostat but that it was a problem with the head gasket. He put something in the engine that had to set for 24 hours and it’s my last ditch effort to keep my car temporarily running until I can get a newer car. I really wanted a new 2006 honda civic but I don’t believe financially it’s doable at least not at this time. I am going tonight to check it out. Who knows what will happen.
Well I’m off to go eat my lunch…
Labels: Bonsai Tree, Car
posted by Charity at 3/19/2007 12:32:00 PM 
