“Just don’t break it ’til after I leave.” . . . FAIL.

My brother drove my new orange Honda Fit across the country without a scratch.

We drove it for 3 weeks all over WA and parts of Oregon– up and down the coast with no damage except the sand embedded in the window tracks due to sandstorm. Makes a grindy noise when you roll down the window, is all.

He kept telling me, “Just don’t break it until after I leave.”

And I was doing so well.

Until HOURS before his flight left.

Apparently, on our trip down to Oregon Sunday morning, a rock hit the windshield. Water froze in it overnight and split the windshield. The crack is about 8 inches long now and still growing.

SUCKS SO MUUUUCH!

That’s another $250 out of my pocket (or rather, on my trusty credit card) to replace the windshield. On my brand new car. That won’t stop being a total pill to own.

As if this was all she was worth.

I received the check for Sake from the insurance company today. So far, I looked at it, bawled my eyes out, and desperately want to destroy it in a extremely violent and explosive way.

I don’t know if I can cash this. Just having it exist hurts me to the core.

My baby girl, my baby girl . . .

Journeys aren’t always of the travel variety.

Today we head down to Salem, OR via the coast. Via the OCEAN. Via SEA LIONS. Via salt water and giant waves.

I’m dropping off Tim tomorrow morning in Portland for Foundations, and then I start my lonely driving.

Til now, I’ve been driving with Tim, or Garrett, or it was in a rental car that I felt particularly detached from. Returning from Portland will be my first major drive alone.

Without Sake.

I try really hard not to think of her lately. I still well up in tears. But 2 hours alone in a car without my furry travel buddy . . . I probably shouldn’t hold back. Just sob all the way home.

It’s still so weird– she was here one moment, and gone the next, and that’s too sudden for a person to handle. For me to handle.

This is gonna be a good journey, I decided. Lots of ocean and brother time,  and then quiet time for me. It’s all . . . good, and necessary.

Nature takes over.

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Gov’t and Car Dealerships- tomorrow is looking bleak.

Tomorrow has been deemed Car Day.

This means registering the little thing. Getting plates, registration, a new driver’s license. I’ve looked it up online, and think I have the funds for it, but the government never ceases to amaze me in the ways they’ll screw you or screw with you, so I’m digging deep for some courage and determination. ‘Cause there’s definitely no more money in these pockets.

Then comes fixing a little light that the dealership was supposed to take care of before they gave it to us in Ohio. Fabulous.

In a perfect world, these two tasks should take a half hour and one hour at most, respectively.

I’m blocking off the whole day for them. Wish me luck.

Halloween 2009!

Garrett, Tim and I traveled to the Olympic Peninsula for Halloween. We visited Port Angeles, Forks, The Olympic National Forest, we tried to visit the Sol Duc Hot Springs but an old mountain woman insisted they were closed, Forks, La Push Indian Reservation, Highway 101, and Cape Flattery. Came home driving in the fog with a full moon overhead, and old radio murder mysteries playing. Best Halloween ever.

Here\’s the pictures from Facebook.

At our hotel,

Garrett walks in and announces,

“So apparently, the hot tub and the pool are closed for a reason. It stinks and its cold. “

Things Just Keep Movin’ Along

Tim has been visiting since he brought my car out, so I’ve not been writing lately. Here’re some developments:

• Saw a black bear and about 5 or 6 elk on Mt Rainier last week. I had no idea elk were so freakin’ huge.
• Got my orange Fit!  Love it! It needs a good cleaning, inside and out, and as soon as it stops raining, I’m on that. Gotta get my TPMS light fixed too . . . *sigh* Hondas and their super sensitive dashlights.
• The woman who totaled my car and killed Sake will be getting a ticket! Persistence pays off, the officer had “forgotten” about the case. I still think she should be getting three, but better one ticket than nothing at all.
• Going to Seattle today, and around the Olympic peninsula tomorrow and Saturday. Super excited!
• Carved some pumpkins– Tim’s was awesome, he did “Mah spoon is too big!” and “I am a banana!”  FTW.
• Saw a B-rated movie, Gamer. Re-saw an excellent movie, The Time Traveler’s Wife. After which, Garrett insisted he’s a time traveler too.
• Got a perfect blood test for the first time all year–INR of 2.9.
• I actually feel  . . . not in physical pain. First time since the accident. Still getting treatment to put me back together, but at least I don’t actively HURT all the time now.
• Got two people who like me and are following up on jobs for me, passing my resume` out, and/or would hire me themselves as soon as they had an opening. SO much better than the unemployment gloom, even if nothing comes of it!
• Have a possible roommate to move in with in January. Gotta find a job or source of money to pay rent with, and I hope it comes, because I would LOVE to live with this girl.
• FINALLY get to use my Rainbow Brite costume on Saturday to go trick-or-treating!

Woohoo! And that is all for now. :o)

Scary things!

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The One Where I Swear a Lot.

A woman I don’t particularly care for posted a “Save the Ta-tas!” invitation on another friend’s Facebook profile.

I just saw it and about had a fit.

It’s not enough that women are objectified on every surface in America– magazines, films, ads, commercials, tv shows, book covers– but now we objectify them when they are sick and dying too?

It’s not a hot rack, a set of boobs, that gets cancer, has to endure radiation, chemotherapy, life-changing circumstances, extreme pain and weakness, blame, frustration, disease, sickness, medical complications, medications, relying on friends and family for daily routine needs, fights with insurance, lack of insurance, and more, and possibly even death, IT’S A WOMAN, A WHOLE WOMAN WITH BRAINS, A HEART AND A SOUL.

Not a fucking set of “ta-tas.”

It’s not funny. It’s not ‘cute’. It’s objectification, plain and simple, and worse, it’s of women with their very lives in jeopardy.

“Save the Ta-tas?”

FUCK. YOU.

[Edit:  I admire the work of the Foundation, but I do not agree that "Laughter heals, save the ta-tas®!"  Laughter due to objectification is not healing. Continue work to cure breast cancer, sure, laugh because laughter is good medicine, absolutely . . . but let's not further objectify women in the process. ]