Blessed Is The Mundane

After 32 hours I got my car back, good as new and I was excited to drive it again-finally! It would have been nicer if that had been the case when I first got it back and there hadn't been all those little things that weren't done right, but it's all good now and all I want is the mundane. I have a strong tolerance for monotony and all these little kicks in the ribs the cosmos keeps throwing me has reminded me how much I struggle when the unexpected (especially the negative) happens. If only it could just stay mundane, but alas in 2 weeks I take my husband to court to find out if he's getting the DUI or a lesser charge. Finding out the UHP will be testifying does not bode well, however. But then again, it's 2015 so if our luck has any say, we're totally screwed on that.

Until then I spend my days cleaning up the every other day vomit-fest from my poor old, Crazy-with the occasional empathy barf from Mojo and trying to get my daughter potty trained. Between cleaning puke and pee, in addition to cooking and cleaning it's no wonder I feel like I have enough on my plate already and just want to have the resources to deal with those things for now.

On a lighter note, I bought a new sewing machine-I'd received a flyer about a killer sale on sewing machines and since mine is missing some parts and isn't as user friendly as a destructive newbie like myself needs, I succumbed to the purchase, using my stashed money I'd received from my only advance on my published book. In looking at my sewing books for beginners I'm thinking, "Yuck. I know these are beginner projects but do they have to look that shapeless?" Then there's the whole finding the size as what you buy is not the size you are in the patterns and you have to measure, adjust, etc. I thought, "Hmm. I wonder if I could just take mine and my daughter's clothes and trace them-create a pattern that's already measured to fit perfectly and just add a little seam allowance for the sewing? Turns out-this is a common thing! Gotta love Youtube-it showed me how to install my daughter's car seat and now it's showing me how to trace your own clothes to create patterns that fit in styles you already love-and it's FREE! Because really, at this point I'm only interested in making t-shirs, tank tops, stretch pants and jammies-for me and my daughter. For readers that are interested, Professor Pincushion on Youtube has videos on how to do this very thing and save you the time of searching for the right style, in the right pattern, for the right size, yada-yada. Go no further than your closet!

Repair Fun

So 2 weeks ago we received the 2 parts to replace our washing machine-yay! My husband was astonished to find the belt a good 2 inches shorter than the one our washing machine had eaten. That and a new pulley had to be installed. After sweating and swearing for several minutes with both of us trying to stretch a measly half inch out of that very short belt, my husband was ready to throw in the towel and I slumped away, feeling yet again defeated by the bad luck cosmos.

However, once upstairs I heard a loud exclamation and bump and my husband came up and said, "It's done. It's fixed." Wow. I looked him over carefully, sure that when I'd left he must have turned green and hulked out in order to make that thing fit. But yay! It's done and that has been fixed.

Yesterday I picked up my car. I thought I'd be thrilled but I kept finding little things that just reminded me my baby was no longer brand new. The inside of the replaced door had a slight gap that wasn't there on the opposing door. There were dirty prints on the roof where I sat. The driver side mirror was fogged and once home I was unable to remove the film with any manner of cleaning agent. There were 2 scratches in the tint on the window of the replaced door-tint that was a Christmas gift from my husband and was only two months old!

I got home ornery and depressed. I felt like my car had been violated, held against her will for a month while she was beaten and bruised and then rinsed off and given back to me. And here's the kicker-they held it for so long and were so careful because I was related to one of the workers. However, that cousin told me that they weren't even going to look under the car which I'd told the other guy TWICE to check because the reflector was concave from driving over rocks the size of softballs when we were hit. My cousin had to tell them to do it. Apparently autobody shops cut a lot of corners in order to turn out like 40 cars a day, they need to beat the insurance rental coverage so they "hurry" things along. I'm not a car aficionado or anything but aside from the things mentioned, there were a couple other little things I noticed because knowing cars or not, I know MY things, as most women do. So, word of advice if you ever have to take your car in for repairs from an accident, know someone that works there, take someone with you that knows cars, or KNOW your car. The things I found will be fixed, as promised by the guy working there, but there we go, another day without my car when they had it for almost a month. Yikes! Imagine if I weren't related!

And the hits keep on comin'!

Wow, I don't think I've ever had so much bad luck in my entire life as I've had this year. In addition to everything else, there was some more damage to my car and the ETA for me getting it back (right now anyway) is the 15th. Originally they'd said 9-10 business days. I've been without my car for a week now (boy do I miss my car and so does my daughter who sadly keeps stating, "Momma's car broken" and it's looking like 2 weeks more. Let's just hope the car IS done by then because my insurance will only cover the rental until the 19th. Sigh.

On top of that, the washing machine decided to break yesterday. Oh yay, my day for doing laundry down the tubes as we look into finding the parts to repair it...another $100+ down the drain. It just gets better and better.

On the plus side, my daughter did have a wonderful 3 day 3 year old birthday celebration and we saw very little of Ms. Hyde...she did make a devil of an appearance on her birthday when it was time to leave the pool and go to lunch. In fact, I've never seen an episode like that since I watched Sally Field perform her famous freak out as Sybil! Ms. Hyde has been coming out semi-regularly though. She showed herself to my parents tonight when it was time to leave. Kicking, crying, fighting, the whole spiel. It's almost one of those moments where you think, "Is this where I call the exorcist?"