Well, happy new year! Welcome to 2012! It is everything I hoped it would be, so far.
Let's compare.
Last week, to top off my recent series of shenanigans a.k.a. 2011, I managed to slice my poor little pinky finger with a butter knife. Thank you, frozen cinnamon raisin bagel. On the plus side, now I see the reason in butter knives not being allowed past airport security.
And I decided that I'd like to start the new year with a clean shiny car. So, fittingly, December 31st turned into the King of 2011 Wild Goose Chases: the Great Car Wash Expedition.
Let me first illustrate the situation here. I have not washed my car since I got it. It has dust from at least twelve states on it, plus the cave drawings certain people used to make it look prettier through the grime. It also has several different varieties of bird poop, mud splatters, dead bugs (on the inside and outside), and toe prints on the passenger's side windshield left over from the Sunny V - DE road trip this summer. I finally gave in and realized I couldn't put it off any longer when I noticed flies congregating on the car after work on Friday.
Yeah, gross.
Now, the last time I was even inside a car wash was Christmas break of 2008. The reason? The only 3 places open in Amsterdam after 10pm (at least for the under-21 crowd) are Price Chopper, FasTrac, and the automated car wash.
It wasn't because Kat's car was particularly dirty. We were just bored.
We looked online for nearby car washes, and found that one of the nation's top 50 car washes is only a few miles from our house. Imagine if your job was to scope out the best car washes in the U.S. I can't believe this list exists. Of course I had to check it out, so I convinced my sibs to ride along with me in exchange for sparkling apple cider and we went in search of the famous Prices Corner Car Wash.
We passed one car wash in Prices Corner, but it wasn't THE car wash. Then we passed the real deal, but it was on the other side of the highway, so I had to pull a U-ie and pass another car wash to get to it. Then I got in line, a long, long line... And couldn't read the sign until we were boxed in on both sides. The basic car wash was $14. No way, José. I threw my dirty Golf in reverse and hightailed it out the back way.
...Still grimy. We headed down toward a gas station on the corner of Limestone Boulevard where you get 20 cents off per gallon if you get a car wash with it, but went through the car wash first (apparently that's not how it works). I drove forward with the green light and stopped when it turned red, and in turn the car wash soap-soaked the front half of my car. Then nothing happened, except a couple of tiny tubes trickling water on my front windows.
...And nothing continued to happen until after a few minutes the green light flashed again, ushering me out. Guess how much cleaner my car was? Not. Only now it was streaked with dirty soap, or rather, soapy dirt.
So I parked and tried to figure out what was going on, and formulated my speech asking for help from the gas station attendants. Who were totally trying not to laugh when I explained the situation, especially since there wasn't much to explain except, "I think I messed up the automatic car wash... By the way how do I get that discount on my gas?"
So they refunded my $6 in the form of a free car wash, and I bought gas with the discount, and then the pump I'd chosen refused to print up my receipt with my "free" car wash code. We tried again. Watched the car in front of us very carefully, and did everything the same.
Double soapy scum, no rinse. Not even a drip on the back half of the car.
Same result the third time, even though I followed directions better than I have since middle school. I gave up, and forfeited my $12 as reparation for all the car washes I will never again try to get at that horrible place.
It was not my fault.
Fortunately, the whole thing was audio- and video-recorded (all three times) so I hope someone gets a good laugh out of it.
To keep a long story from getting too much longer, I decided to wash my own car at home on December 31st. Thank you, global warming.
Come to find out, we don't have a garden hose... Nor do we have car soap, and the biggest sponge we own sits in a seashell on the kitchen sink. So I washed my car with old T-shirts soaked in tea tree castille soap, and my sister's help.
Bizz III is now clean and shiny, just like 2012. And I guess that's probably a more green way to get her clean anyway.
I've managed to keep from slicing myself with any butter knives so far this year, and I haven't had to work at all yet. (Hopefully that will be the first thing to change.) Plus, I challenged Craig's farthest champagne cork pop. A proud moment, documented in the morning by the former champ himself (see photo).
New Year's Eve was a lot of fun, even though I did not send my resolutions up in smoke this year. There was plenty of snapping (the quick and silent substitute for "that's what she said" in mixed company, in case you want to adopt it in your classes and workplaces worldwide) and even more laughing, and an unknown amount of pomegranate tequila (absolutely delicious, in case you were wondering). Apparently I am the unlucky team member in a game of pool, so be warned. However, I'm not bad at air hockey...
Craig has a lot of tools, which is exciting. My favorite was a welding mask, which he let me wear for a few minutes because it made me feel like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (a la this video at about 1:00). I love tool chests. You never know exactly what combination of things will be in their drawers, but whatever it is it's always useful. I love useful things, and I love the cool stuff that tools in particular can make happen.
That being said, I did not manage to finish my cedar chest before year end as I had hoped. I opened it up and found that the inside lip is covered with layers and layers of paint just like the rest of it -- I thought I was done with that. Unfortunate.
I'm not feeling particularly refreshed for the year, but hopeful? Definitely. I'm excited to get to know the people I shared the opening moments of the new year with, and I'm excited to get to know new people as well. I'm excited to learn more things and read more books and taste more beers. I'm excited to visit people and host visitors, the first planned guest of the new year being Anna Linn a few weekends from now! I'm excited to stay in touch with far-flung friends and watch all my classmates find new opportunities and passions and whatever else we find this year. Hopefully all good things! I'm excited to listen to new music, watch new movies, to write new poetry and maybe even a novel, this year, and, of course, more blog entries. It's been over half a year now since we graduated, and look how much has happened since then!
I'm not gonna lie, I would be OK if the world didn't end on December 21. I could go for a lot more years like the ones I've had so far -- with a few minor tweaks. Here's hoping.
Cheers.
Let's compare.
Last week, to top off my recent series of shenanigans a.k.a. 2011, I managed to slice my poor little pinky finger with a butter knife. Thank you, frozen cinnamon raisin bagel. On the plus side, now I see the reason in butter knives not being allowed past airport security.
And I decided that I'd like to start the new year with a clean shiny car. So, fittingly, December 31st turned into the King of 2011 Wild Goose Chases: the Great Car Wash Expedition.
Let me first illustrate the situation here. I have not washed my car since I got it. It has dust from at least twelve states on it, plus the cave drawings certain people used to make it look prettier through the grime. It also has several different varieties of bird poop, mud splatters, dead bugs (on the inside and outside), and toe prints on the passenger's side windshield left over from the Sunny V - DE road trip this summer. I finally gave in and realized I couldn't put it off any longer when I noticed flies congregating on the car after work on Friday.
Yeah, gross.
Now, the last time I was even inside a car wash was Christmas break of 2008. The reason? The only 3 places open in Amsterdam after 10pm (at least for the under-21 crowd) are Price Chopper, FasTrac, and the automated car wash.
It wasn't because Kat's car was particularly dirty. We were just bored.
We looked online for nearby car washes, and found that one of the nation's top 50 car washes is only a few miles from our house. Imagine if your job was to scope out the best car washes in the U.S. I can't believe this list exists. Of course I had to check it out, so I convinced my sibs to ride along with me in exchange for sparkling apple cider and we went in search of the famous Prices Corner Car Wash.
We passed one car wash in Prices Corner, but it wasn't THE car wash. Then we passed the real deal, but it was on the other side of the highway, so I had to pull a U-ie and pass another car wash to get to it. Then I got in line, a long, long line... And couldn't read the sign until we were boxed in on both sides. The basic car wash was $14. No way, José. I threw my dirty Golf in reverse and hightailed it out the back way.
...Still grimy. We headed down toward a gas station on the corner of Limestone Boulevard where you get 20 cents off per gallon if you get a car wash with it, but went through the car wash first (apparently that's not how it works). I drove forward with the green light and stopped when it turned red, and in turn the car wash soap-soaked the front half of my car. Then nothing happened, except a couple of tiny tubes trickling water on my front windows.
...And nothing continued to happen until after a few minutes the green light flashed again, ushering me out. Guess how much cleaner my car was? Not. Only now it was streaked with dirty soap, or rather, soapy dirt.
So I parked and tried to figure out what was going on, and formulated my speech asking for help from the gas station attendants. Who were totally trying not to laugh when I explained the situation, especially since there wasn't much to explain except, "I think I messed up the automatic car wash... By the way how do I get that discount on my gas?"
So they refunded my $6 in the form of a free car wash, and I bought gas with the discount, and then the pump I'd chosen refused to print up my receipt with my "free" car wash code. We tried again. Watched the car in front of us very carefully, and did everything the same.
Double soapy scum, no rinse. Not even a drip on the back half of the car.
Same result the third time, even though I followed directions better than I have since middle school. I gave up, and forfeited my $12 as reparation for all the car washes I will never again try to get at that horrible place.
It was not my fault.
Fortunately, the whole thing was audio- and video-recorded (all three times) so I hope someone gets a good laugh out of it.
To keep a long story from getting too much longer, I decided to wash my own car at home on December 31st. Thank you, global warming.
Come to find out, we don't have a garden hose... Nor do we have car soap, and the biggest sponge we own sits in a seashell on the kitchen sink. So I washed my car with old T-shirts soaked in tea tree castille soap, and my sister's help.
Bizz III is now clean and shiny, just like 2012. And I guess that's probably a more green way to get her clean anyway.
I've managed to keep from slicing myself with any butter knives so far this year, and I haven't had to work at all yet. (Hopefully that will be the first thing to change.) Plus, I challenged Craig's farthest champagne cork pop. A proud moment, documented in the morning by the former champ himself (see photo).New Year's Eve was a lot of fun, even though I did not send my resolutions up in smoke this year. There was plenty of snapping (the quick and silent substitute for "that's what she said" in mixed company, in case you want to adopt it in your classes and workplaces worldwide) and even more laughing, and an unknown amount of pomegranate tequila (absolutely delicious, in case you were wondering). Apparently I am the unlucky team member in a game of pool, so be warned. However, I'm not bad at air hockey...
Craig has a lot of tools, which is exciting. My favorite was a welding mask, which he let me wear for a few minutes because it made me feel like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance (a la this video at about 1:00). I love tool chests. You never know exactly what combination of things will be in their drawers, but whatever it is it's always useful. I love useful things, and I love the cool stuff that tools in particular can make happen.
That being said, I did not manage to finish my cedar chest before year end as I had hoped. I opened it up and found that the inside lip is covered with layers and layers of paint just like the rest of it -- I thought I was done with that. Unfortunate.
I'm not feeling particularly refreshed for the year, but hopeful? Definitely. I'm excited to get to know the people I shared the opening moments of the new year with, and I'm excited to get to know new people as well. I'm excited to learn more things and read more books and taste more beers. I'm excited to visit people and host visitors, the first planned guest of the new year being Anna Linn a few weekends from now! I'm excited to stay in touch with far-flung friends and watch all my classmates find new opportunities and passions and whatever else we find this year. Hopefully all good things! I'm excited to listen to new music, watch new movies, to write new poetry and maybe even a novel, this year, and, of course, more blog entries. It's been over half a year now since we graduated, and look how much has happened since then!
I'm not gonna lie, I would be OK if the world didn't end on December 21. I could go for a lot more years like the ones I've had so far -- with a few minor tweaks. Here's hoping.
Cheers.
LOLing hard at the car wash fiasco... leave it to the Swanson's!
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