Our plan last night was simple. Dec21 and I were going to go to the grocery store, turn in a bunch of pennies, return some movies (including the porno) to the video store, get cigarettes for Dec21 and then go to my parents' house. As I said..the plan was simple, carrying out the plan wasn't so simple. Dec21 and I left home at about 8 something at night. Not the best time to be running errands but we had been out earlier in the day having lunch and shopping with my parents and I had taken a nap. We turned the pennies in and got 6.47 out of them. It would have been higher however the machine that counts change takes 8.9% for itself. Unbelievable huh?? That store makes thousands of dollars everyday and they have to take 8.9% of the change you ask a machine to count.

We pulled out of the parking lot of the store and on to the main road to go towards the video store. All of a sudden Dec21 says something..I don't remember what and says he has to pull over that something is wrong with the car. Yep, the same car that my parents gave to us last month that broke down 1-2 weeks ago. He pulls off to the side..and the car just passed out. It didn't move and it didn't make any noise. NOT a good sign. He keeps trying to start the car..it would start for a few seconds then it would say "Nope, don't think so." and shut down. We got out of the car and decided to walk to the other side of the street and call my parents. Now keep in mind it was about 15 degrees outside, pitch black dark outside, it was starting to snow a little, neither of us was wearing a heavy coat, just jackets, and the road we had to cross had a speed limit of 45mph that few actually followed.

After a minute of looking at traffic from both directions, and walking fast we made it to the other side of the street. Dec21 waited outside as I walked into a pharmacy that was a few minutes from closing. I asked them if they had a phone I could use. The cashier said "Local call??" No woman, I want to call a tow service from California, then I want to call the Queen of England. I dialed my parents' number and my father answered. The conversation went as follows:

My Father: Hello. (I heard his voice and although I love my father I couldn't help but think "Damn." because I had a feeling he'd want to be told first)

Me: Hi, is she there?? (Yes I know it sounds strange my saying "she" but lately it just feels weird saying "mom". Don't ask me to explain it because I can't even fully understand it)

My Father: Yeah. (Umm can I speak to her?? Why is it people don't get when you ask if someone is there 99% of the time that's a hint that you want to talk to them??)

Me: Can I talk to her?? (Yes I know it probably sounded a bit rude but when I was 16, I got a ticket for going the wrong way down a one way street and I told my father first. I asked him not to tell my mother because I wanted to break it to her gently. The first thing he did was "(my name) got a ticket." Thank you very much dear father. On a side note the ticket was thrown out of court.)

My Father: What's wrong?? (Yep I knew it. He asked.)

Me: (after a short pause) Well..the car broke down.

My Father: What did you do to it?? (Just what makes him think we did something to it?? I guess he's never heard that cars DO have problems WITHOUT anyone doing anything to them.)

Me: Nothing. (I then told him the story of how it broke down)

My Father: What did you do to it?? (*Sigh* I repeat the story again.)

My Father: Did you hit anything?? (Yeah we hit the side of the road.)

Me: No. (I stopped myself from using sarcasm..it was hard though.)

My Father: Do you know what caused it?? (If we knew what caused it I would have said "The car broke down because such and such is wrong with it.")

Me: No but the oil light came on while we were trying to start it. (What that means I'm not completely sure.)

My Father: I told you two that you need to check the oil every 3-4 days. (Blah blah blah..I guess my father has learned from my mother that EVERYTHING is apparently my fault.)

Me: I don�t remember you saying that but maybe you said it to Dec21 (Okay I really said Dec21�s name. I wasn�t sure if he had said it to Dec21 or not but I thought I�d at least try to keep peace)

My Father: Where are you?? (Okay I guess he didn�t hear me say the location when I told him what happened)

Me: Just passed (the name of the grocery store we had pulled out of).

My Father: Do you have enough money with you to get oil?? (It�s 9pm at night, there isn�t car repair place for several miles and the car is broken down. Just how the hell did he think we were going to get oil?? Make a sign and hold it up for all the passing cars that says �Got oil?? Wanna sell it??�)

Me: How would we get oil right now?? (A simple question even if it was said with a hint of sarcasm)

My Father: Okay I�ll see if I have some. (It would be nice.)

Me: Okay so you�re coming?? (Please say yes.)

My Father: Yeah. Now where are you exactly?? (Maybe I should have sent a fax.)

Me: Is she coming with you?? (To be honest I was hoping she was. Nothing against my father but while the men work on the car, I�ll have someone to talk to for one reason.)

My Father: I don�t know. (I guess it was too much to hope for that he�d give a real answer.)

Me: Okay see you in a few. (Ha!! I should have known better than to say that. My father is NEVER just a few minutes.)

I hung up the phone, told the cashiers what was going on and walked to the door. It was locked. Oops. The store was closing and the only thing stopping them from officially being closed was me. I guess that meant I couldn�t ask to make another phone call. Somewhere in this town they should put a pharmacy that is open 24/7.

I walked outside where Dec21 was waiting and we walked back across the street to the car. Neither one of us wanted to wait in the car and basically be sitting ducks for all the oncoming traffic. Now I should have looked at my watch to see what time I got off the phone with my father to see how long it took them to get there but I didn�t. I did notice my watch saying 9:02 about 5-10 minutes AFTER we got back across the street though.

To lighten the mood I tried making a few jokes. For example when I saw on my watch that it was 9:02 I said �What a shame it isn�t 10 seconds into the minute then it would be 90210.� Corny but I thought it was cute. I also looked behind where we were standing over the side of the rail on the road to which I found a very steep hill. My response was �Hmm, I wonder if going up or rolling down would be harder.� My comments didn�t make either one of us any warmer. Dec21 suggested stomping my feet up and down. All that did was make my cold pants rub against my legs and make me colder. It also didn�t help matters that the underwear I was wearing was giving me a wedgie nonstop. Anytime I tried to casually fix it, it would just do it again. I told Dec21 it was like an unofficial thong..or what I prefer to call it: the training thong.

I casually mentioned that I was losing faith in the people of this town and how no one was stopping..not even a cop to which I replied that it was proof that there�s never a cop around when you need one. Well within a few minutes it was like my observation about no one stopping had been broadcast on the radio. THREE cars stopped. The first was a couple in a van who asked us if we wanted to wait for my parents in their WARM van. No offense to them but that just sounds like asking for trouble. The next guy was someone who worked at a car shop I�m guessing from all the stickers on his car. He asked us if we wanted a ride. The next person asked if we needed any help. Finally someone who actually offered help on the car. We said no thanks to all but made sure to point out we appreciated it.

My parents finally arrived as the second car was leaving. Dec21 and my father went to work on the car as I got in the car with my mother. My father had delayed telling her all the details while I was on the phone with him, which got my mother apparently freaking out and worrying that we had gotten into a car wreck. It shouldn�t come as any surprise that the car didn�t start. Although a LOT of smoke was coming out of the exhaust pipe. As it turned out the oil wasn�t the problem..what is the problem we still aren�t sure of. I asked my mother if she was upset. I was expecting her to say yes because it depresses her when one of our cars or one of her cars break down. She said in a rather mean tone �I thought you two were in a car wreck, now do you really think after almost fainting from that I�m going to worry about the car breaking down??� Okay umm..nice talking to you Mom. Must do this again sometime.

Keeping with tradition I was blamed for my mother panicking and as she put it �almost fainting while her heart pounded in her chest.� How it�s my fault when my father was the one that didn�t tell her what happened right away is beyond me. My father CLAIMED I didn�t tell him and that I was stalling. I told him the second he asked, what was I supposed to do?? Read his mind and tell him BEFORE he asked. My mother had asked my father what was going on while I was on the phone with him and from what I was told he told her to wait a minute, yet it�s my fault!! You see..this is why I wanted to tell my mother first. Speaking of which, I got a nice guilt trip from my father about how when I asked to speak to my mother on the phone, it made him feel like I didn't want to talk to him. Yeah that's why I told him right after he asked huh?? I just can�t win with them.

My mother called a guy to come out and tow the car to his garage. He asked on the phone if she wanted it towed to the garage. No hot shot why don�t you tow it to a car lot and sell it?? While waiting in the car for the guy to come out my mother said that they would take the movies back. Umm..I don�t think so!! We had the porno with us and I don�t even want to guess my mother�s reaction to finding out we rented a porno. Not to mention if my father knew we rented a porno..that would just be a little on the uncomfy side. I did my best to talk them into lending us a car and we�d just take it back tomorrow. The answer was no. Typical.

One of the main thoughts that kept passing thru my mind was �Of all days to have a porno in the car.� It wasn�t even a good porno. My mother then suggested they drive us to the video store. Okay simple solution, that way they don�t have to actually see what exactly we rented. It didn�t help though that on the box for the porno was a note that said �Warning: Adult Movie�. Yeah a nice little advertisement to our sexual curiosity. I told them we forgot one of the movies, which we had done to which she said we could just take it back tomorrow, my father could take it back or we�d just wait an extra day. Yeah sure make us pay a late fee for no reason. We made it to the video store and returned the movies without them having a clue about the porno. You know, it�s not that I�m ashamed or embarrassed that we rented a porno..I just don�t think my parents need to know and give us strange looks and a lecture.

The cigarette store was closed so we went back to the same grocery store that this little adventure began at. My parents wanted to get some groceries and although I was tempted to sit in the car, I went in and looked at magazines. I asked Dec21 if he wanted to get a soda. He said yes and I asked him which one and then I headed towards the cooler to get it. My mother started going off about how it was a waste of money to spend one dollar on a bottle of soda instead of waiting until we got home to drink the sodas we had there. It�s a lecture we have heard many times from her. Well we were going to the get soda anyways and she threatened to cut us off for the night if we got the soda. Okay excuse me but are we overreacting a little here?? We didn�t ask her to pay for it or drink it. I got so annoyed and it didn�t help when Dec21 was trying to stop us from getting into an argument right there in the store and said to never mind about the drink. Okay that just got me more annoyed. It was blackmail that I have doubts she would have stuck to.

By the time we got home the snow was picking up. I was SO exhausted after everything that had went on over the passed 2 hours I didn�t have the will power to write this entry. I barely had the energy to get on AOL IM and chat for a little while.

So here I am..sitting in front of the computer that won�t connect to the internet right now for whatever reason, so I can put this entry up and I�m also waiting to find out what�s wrong with that damn car, get it fixed and to find out what the cost will be. My mother insists she didn�t have problems with the car when SHE drove it. Now is it just me or does that sound like something a used car salesman would say?? My mother has also said lately that one of her other cars she considered giving us is having a lot of problems as well but the car she gave us is problem free. Yeah sure, that�s why the car she gave us is having problems left and right and we have yet to hear a single complaint about that white car lately.

Oh, by the way..did I forget to mention that yesterday was my father�s birthday?? My mother�s last birthday she and I got in a nice little argument, which of course is always fun..NOT. On Dec21�s birthday, my father got sick. Then yesterday all that mess with the car happened on my father�s birthday. I guess for my birthday this year I�ll get in a nice fight with my mother because the car will probably break down, my father will get sick again and cough in my direction and I�ll try to protect the cake and instead I�ll trip and fall face first into it. Maybe I can sleep thru my birthday this year and convince everyone else to do the same.

As of 11:25pm: We found out what�s wrong with the car and I�m not sure exactly how to explain what�s wrong with the car so I�ll just say the amount it�s going to cost to get fixed. About 300 dollars. I hate that car.