PERSONAL Good-Bye Old Reliable
Ever since I moved to Chicago, two things have remained a constant retreat--a mini vacation, if you will--allowing me to escape any and everything going wrong. The first was my large picture wall--the entrance to my apartment--which was loaded with pictures from Big Rapids and Albion. When times were hard, right after moving to Chicago, I would spend time putting more pictures up... or just looking at them and remembering easier, happier times. The wall was a safe haven for me, and a way to surround myself with familiar faces when their were only new ones around me.
My other haven was, of course, my car. Having it with me in the city meant I could leave whenever I wanted. If things really REALLY got hard, I could put myself in my car and drive away--getting the rest of my stuff later. Or, if things were just kind of hard, I could head to a suburb for the day or head back to Michigan for the weekend.
But the times they are a changin. As I look to move from my apartment to Chelsey's (first of April), my picture wall is going to have to come down. And, as such, if pictures start coming off the wall on their own I'm just pulling them down instead of trying to put them back up. This past weekend I'll pulled two more pictures down. I must have pulled a dozen or so pictures down by now, and my entry way is starting to look a little sad. What was a wall of pictures is now a wall with pictures scattered on it.
Additionally, in the six years I've had my car, the only problem I've had is an annual breaking of the right side mirror (I'm on mirror number four?). However, recently, I've had more and more serious problems. In November, as I was loading up my car to head home for Thanksgiving, I noticed my keyless entry "remote" wasn't working. When I hopped into my car, completely packed for the extended weekend, I was unable to turn my car on. I had a dead battery! But it wasn't from leaving a light on or anything... it was just completely sans electricity. Thankfully I have Triple A, so they came (three hours later) and jumped my car for me. When I got back to BR, the car dealer correctly diagnosed my battery as "bad" and I had to get a new one.
The next time I tried to go home, in December, I couldn't start my car again. Again I was totally packed, but this time it didn't seem like the battery. My car showed me the "security" idiot light and I had to look it up in my manual to see what that meant. My car has a security feature wherein, if it doesn't sense the correct key, it won't allow gasoline into the engine thereby not allowing the engine to turnover. Makes sense... and is a cool feature, if it works. When the owner of the vehicle can't start their own car with the correct key, there's a problem. I WAS able to start the car with a different key (thankfully I have like three keys), and head home for the holidays. Well, $400 some-odd later, I shouldn't ever have that problem again.
Now for the newest problem. This Saturday was one of the coldest in recent Chicago history. It was a bitter, biting cold... and Chelsey had an afternoon rehearsal up North of me quite a way. Since I don't do anything useful normally, I suggested that I drive her to rehearsal. When we got to my car, it didn't want to start (that's how cold it was)... but it did. Unfortunately, the heater did not start. That's not entirely accurate. My fan is broken... so no heat or cold will ever make it into the cab of the vehicle until I get it fixed. I felt so bad... because Chelsey was shaking cold all the way up to rehearsal (and all the way back after rehearsal). I also feel bad for her because, in the week since it broke, I have to drive with a window down to keep the windows from frosting over. It works, don't get me wrong... it would probably be dangerous if the window wasn't down... but Chelsey just sits there and freezes while I'm cold but not too uncomfortable. So I HAVE to get it fixed... but who knows how expensive that will be--or when I'll be able to get to a good dealership to get it fixed. *Huge sigh* My car used to be indestructible... but now it's starting to show its age. Just like me.
TV Jonny Moseley On SNL... Worst. Host. Ever.
Wednesday afternoon, I was flipping through channels to find something to put on whilst working on the computer. I was both fortunate and unfortunate enough to land on E! for an episode of Saturday Night Live. I've seen some pretty bad shows, thanks to some really out of place hosts, but Moseley showed the personality of a corpse. I mean, I saw the Senator McCain show in 2002 and McCain did about a million times better--that's not saying much. I just remember McCain at least having a lot of enthusiasm for it. But for Moseley, they even wrote a scene "Super Buzzers" that had the host say about three lines... and even those didn't come out well.
So what do you think, kiddies? Who's the worst SNL host of all time? Bohne, I'm directing this question to you... as you might be the only person who could talk about this with any authority.