My First Uber Ride

No joke.  Today was my first solo Uber ride, and only my 2^nd Uber ride ever.  I only know what Uber even is because of a date last year (he's significantly older than I am and had to explain it to me).  And I only took it out of complete necessity because I needed to pick up my car from getting service, and I’m now forced to swing things on my own since my parents moved earlier today.

[Side note, my car is fixed, and it’s exactly what I thought it was.  We went ahead and replaced the ignition coil in the last cylinder, too, so hopefully something like this won’t happen again.  Knock on wood….]

It took me a minute to figure out how to actually get an Uber.  Apparently, I’m technologically impaired.  But I’ve come to accept this, and I’ve moved on.

After finally figuring it out and summoning my car, my random OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxiety set it, and I of course instantly believed that I was waiting for the man who was going to kill me to show up.  So, I took a screen shot of the guy who was coming, sent it to Lulu, and asked him to avenge me if he never heard from me again.

My Uber showed up and I reluctantly got in.  I did, after all, need to pick up my car.  About 30 seconds after I sat down and verified our destination…

Driver:  I don’t feel well.  What kind of medicine should I take?
Me:  what the fuck kind of question is that?! Um. What?
Driver:  my stomach is upset.  What kind of medicine should I take?
Me:  um.  Pepto?  Or you could ask the pharmacist for a suggestion.

He then proceeded to tell me that he doesn’t have anyone here that he can ask these kinds of questions to, because he’s from New Delhi, and that’s where his family still is.  Oh, ok.  That makes asking total strangers for medical advice completely legit.

Then, his cell phone rang, and he pulled into a parking lot to answer it.  Um.  Aren’t I paying for distance AND time?  He only parked for a half second before getting back out on the road, but he did carry on quite the conversation with a mystery person in a mystery language.  I shared this with Lulu, and he just said “that’s sketchy.”  This did nothing to alleviate my OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxiety, and I immediately began to 100% believe I was going to be sold into some kind of slavery.

After he got off the phone, my Uber driver told me his entire life story, condensed into about 7 minutes.  He moved to American to make money, and he worked as a truck driver and at a gas station before someone told him to go become an electrician.  He took that advice, and 18 months later, he found a really good job.  Now he drives The Uber in the afternoons and evenings just to keep his mind busy.  He lives with 6 other people and detailed the cost of each of his bills (rent, cell phone, food, etc).  He’s saving money so when his citizenship comes through, he can work on bringing his mom over here.  His sister is married, so he’s leaving her in New Delhi.

It was an overwhelming amount of information for what turned out to be a $9 ride.  I did make it safely to my destination, however, and it was free since it was my first ride with The Uber.  All in all, pretty good.  And none of my OMG THE WORST THING THAT COULD POSSIBLY HAPPEN WILL DEFINITELY HAPPEN anxieties came true, so, ya know, bonus.

The Universe is an Evil Bitch Sometimes

My parents are moving essentially 2 states away from me.  Tomorrow.  I’m single and don’t really have anyone else who is obligated to help me in times of need, and I’m not very good at adulting in general, so I’m kinda freaking out about all of this.  As if to drive all of this home, my car once again had engine issues today.  What a lovely way of reminding me YOU’RE ALL ALONE!

I really needed to get out of my house, so I was headed up to see Lulu.  I stopped at 7-11 to get coffee, and as I was pulling out to head toward Lulu I felt a horrible, all too familiar rumble.  It’s like I was suddenly sitting in a nascar… in my tiny car with a 4 cylinder lawn mower engine.  I knew what was coming.  I looked at my dash, and yup.  The check engine light came on and started flashing at me.  Awesome.  I was past the point of no return, so I had to finish pulling out onto the main road and drive down to the next gas station.  Terrifying.  I turned the car off, waited, and turned it back on.  Last time, this magically fixed everything so I could at least drive it.  This time?  Not so much.  Of course not.  Thank God my parents are still around, and thank God they’re not planning on taking my mom’s car with them tomorrow.  They came and picked me up so I could get her car, and then I headed back to the gas station to deal with this mess.

The tow truck cost me $175 to go about 15 minutes up the road.  Are you kidding me?!  The guy told me it was because of bad traffic when he gave me the quote on the phone.  We ended up dealing with no traffic, but the tow truck driver charged me the quote I had been given over the phone anyway.  Note to self – don’t use this tow company again.

At least I currently have a car to drive around and a way to get to work tomorrow.  I guess I’ll figure out how to actually pick up my car when that time comes… hopefully at some point tomorrow.

YAY! for adulting!

:-/

....For fun background information, this is the third time this has happened to me.  The first time, I was in Charlottesville.  On a Sunday. (Although I was headed back from Lynchburg, so it could have been so much worse.)  The second time I was at my house attempting to go to Lulu's.  Turning the car off and back on somehow fixed everything, so I was at least able to drive it to the repair place, but... not awesome.  That was also on a Sunday.  Today is Sunday.  Hmmm.

The last two times, it's been a misfire in one of the cylinders, and they've replaced the ignition coil.  I'm betting its that same issue in one of the two remaining cylinders.  At least that's hopefully what it is.  Not like that's an awesome issue to have, but at least I know what I'm dealing with.  Fingers crossed...

My Parents Have No Idea When My Birthday Is

When planning out my birthday week, which ended up going horribly awry nine different ways from Sunday, I had plans on my actual birthday in the evening with my parents for dinner and birthday cake.  We discussed it the week before, and everything was all set and good to go.

Until

I spoke with my mom Tuesday last week, and she said everything was all set for Thursday. 

Me:  but… my birthday’s on Friday.
Mom:  what?  No, everything is set for Thursday.
Me:  ok… but that’s the day before my birthday.  And I have plans that night.
Mom:  but I told the cake people we’d pick the cake up on Thursday.  We’re going out of town on Friday morning.
Me:  ok.  Well.  Friday is my birthday.  I knew you didn’t know what year I was born in, but really? The day now, too?
Mom:  I know when your birthday is.  I just thought Thursday was the 20^th.

This delayed birthday celebrations until today.  (In an amazing twist of fate, my plans for Thursday fell through, but that’s neither here nor there.)  We went out to dinner, and then returned to my parents’ house for birthday cake.  Birthday cake is by far the best part of the birthday celebration.  Not because cake in general is delicious, but because of a tradition that randomly got started many years ago.  I get a child’s themed birthday cake every year.  The rules are simple.  No repeated themes (this was lost on my mom one year, and she requested the exact same cake 2 yrs in a row), and there must be some kind of keepsake toy (this, too, was not followed one year).  The theme is always a surprise, and I eagerly await learning what it is.  In the past, I’ve had Blues Clues, Care Bears, Cars (technically, Cars 2), Happy Feet, My Little Pony (twice), Barbie (the year of no keepsake toy), and Finding Nemo.  Finding Nemo was last year, and I was a little concerned my mom wouldn’t be able to top that.  Then I saw this year’s.

ANGRY BIRDS.

Amazing.  There was a catapult, a red bird, a yellow bird, and a stand up structure with some pigs.  Too awesome.

So, even though they weren’t sure when my birthday actually was, they got major bonus points for the cake, and it was worth the wait.

Side Story:  I meant what I said to my mom about her not knowing what year I was born.  She legit doesn’t… or at least didn’t for a fairly lengthy period of time.  When I was a senior in high school, she filled out a credit card application for me to get a card in case of emergencies, and to use when I got to UVA.  She put the wrong birth year on that application, which made it difficult for me to communicate with the credit card company, as I always had trouble verifying my birthday when trying to prove I was really me on the phone. Ya know, because I kept telling them my actual year of birth, which didn’t match their records.  She aged me by 2 years.  Not awesome, mom.  This year, when putting candles on the cake, she shorted me some.  This mistake is much more preferred, although still.  Come on.  Really?

I'm Never Living Down This (non) Jersey Sniffing Thing

Yesterday while out wine tasting, a friend called me with the following story:

I was at the gym and ran into someone I haven't seen in a while.  We started talking and he told me he works in marketing with the Nationals.  I asked him if he goes to games, and he said he goes to about 80% of home games.  I started to ask him if he was at the game where a girl won a signed jersey and he interrupted me and said THE GIRL WHO SNIFFED IT?!  DO YOU KNOW HER?!

So.  Yeah.  Apparently I remain famous around Nats Park for looking like I sniffed a jersey, even though I DIDN'T SNIFF IT.  I of course asked my friend if he clarified that I did not, in fact, sniff the jersey, and he responded with "why would I lie? We all know you sniffed it."

Seriously - I DIDN'T SNIFF IT.  I swear.

Wine Tasting is Fun

I went wine tasting today for my birthday with a few friends... and two random Canadians.

[Side note:  don't ever call people from Newfoundland Canadian.  They get very upset.]

We hit up numerous vineyards in Loudoun... some new, some old favorites.  All in all, we went to 5 different places, and I managed to (mostly) keep it together.

We did make a random pit stop at a little store that had alpacas out front.  I was a bit obsessed with the alpacas, and totally wanted to play with them.  Yuro was confused when we stopped and repeatedly asked "is this a vineyard? can you get wine from alpacas?"  The store owner quickly came outside to manage the group of drunkies trying to play with her animals.  Lulu bought something in the store to try and smooth everything over.

At the last vineyard, which is a favorite because they offer a chocolate pairing with their wine tasting (YUM!), the musician that was there for the day noticed my birthday tiara, and led everyone in signing "happy birthday" to me, and then sang "Friends in Low Places."  That was pretty fun.

All in all, great day.  Much wine was had.  Good times with friends.  I got a photo of myself with a bottle of wine and a Loudoun County sheriff vehicle.  Probably not the best photo decision I've ever made, but I love it.

Birthday Week Shenanigans

I had high expectations for my birthday week.  It was going to be filled with sports (and wins), fun with friends, the Nats, dinner, and birthday cake.  Much of this… didn’t work out.

As we know, the UVA vs GW game didn’t so much go as expected.  Wednesday, I wasn’t feeling well and stayed home from work and slept in.  When I got up in the afternoon to run out and get some juice, my car wouldn’t start.  One jump, trip to advanced auto, and $120 later, I had a new battery.  Just what every girl wants for her birthday!

I had plans to go to the Caps game on Thursday on a date, and was teased with the idea that I might get to meet Karl Alzner.  Amazing, right?  After making these plans, I was offered tickets (that included free beer!) to that very same game from a friend, which I turned down, obviously, because I was already going to that game.  The day of?  Everything fell through.  No date.  No Karl Alzner.  No tickets with a friend that included free beer.  Whomp whomp.

Oh, and there was that whole being trapped in a bathroom thing.

My family plans for my birthday night fell through (more on this later).  So all I had left was my Nats Park tour.

I scheduled this tour weeks ago, and I’ve been super excited about it.  What better way to spend my birthday than at my favorite place??  Everyone at work was going on a cruise on the Potomac, so I scheduled to work half a day, figuring I could get some paperwork done in the peace and quiet, and, if needed, I could help put out any fires or deal with any emergencies that arose (as they always tend to do on Fridays).

What actually happened this morning was nothing like I’d planned.  Thanks to… thorns in my side, my morning ended up being extremely frazzled and frantic, and I scrambled to cram 7 hours worth of stuff into about 4 hours of time.  My beyond wonderful coworkers attempted to do several very sweet things for my birthday, but I wasn’t around for any of it.  I got a text from one coworker with a picture of some donuts from Sugar Shack, saying she had brought some goodies for my birthday, but I wasn’t there to enjoy them, so a picture would have to do.  She was very kind and put a red velvet donut on my desk to make sure it was saved for me.  (Have you had a red velvet donut from Sugar Shack?!  Seriously…. It’s a life changing experience.  I’m not joking.  Life.Changing.)  When I finally made it back to my desk for about 25 minutes before having to run out the door to do something else, I found the delicious donut on my desk, along with a cup of coffee another coworker had brought in for me.  Luckily, it was still warm, and it was MUCH needed.  They’d also hung up several birthday signs around my cubicle.  It’s great working with such wonderful people.

After finishing up the rest of what I needed to do, I finally got to skip off to the ballpark (aka, one of my 3 happy places).  My tour ended up being me and Lulu, and a dad from out of town and his two kids.  Damn kids.  Totally stole my birthday thunder.  Stupid kids ruin everything.

The tour was still interesting.  We went into the club area, where I’ve been many times, but they talked about several pictures on the wall that I admittedly haven’t ever paid much attention to.  Interesting information.  Perhaps I should pay attention to more of the pictures in the future.  We also went into the lexus presidents club and into one of the suites.  Obviously, these are places I’ve never been, and will likely never be again.  We also got to go into the media center, which was kinda nifty.  We sat for a few minutes where press does during games, and I saw where the official scorer sits.  Hello, dream job!  Life goals – to one day sit in that seat and officially score a game.  (See also: delusional thoughts of grandeur.)  I tried to convince the tour guide to take us up one additional level so we could see where the tv broadcasters sit.  I even played the birthday card.  No such luck.  BUT, we then got to do the greatest thing of all.  We went into the Nats Clubhouse!  I WAS STANDING WHERE JAYSON GETS NAKED!!  I may have sniffed one of the chairs.  We also got to walk through the dugout and out to the bullpen.  All in all, a pretty good way to spend some time on my birthday.

While there were several disappointments this week, there were also numerous bright spots.  Did I mention I got to be where Jayson gets naked?!  I’ve got wine tasting on Sunday, and family stuff next week.  Always fun to stretch out the birthday fun as long as possible.

So… I Got Trapped In A Bathroom Today

Yep.  That’s right.  I got trapped.  In a bathroom.  What.  The.  Hell.

I was running to our weekly meeting and stopped for maybe only the 2^nd time in the bathrooms in the hallway near the nurse’s office.  Not sure why I never use these, but I can clearly never use them again.

After doing… what one does in a restroom, I attempted to leave.  Simple enough, right?  Nope.  I pulled on the handle.  It turned as it should have.  But… the door wouldn’t open.  Nothing.  I re-locked and unlocked the door several times.  Retried.  Nothing.  NOTHING.  I was officially trapped in the bathroom.  Now… this bathroom is a decent size, but suddenly, as the realization that I was trapped came crashing down on me, the walls began to close in.  Quickly.  Panic set in.  HOW CAN THIS POSSIBLY BE HAPPENING TO ME?!  It also dawned on me that I didn’t have my phone and had no way of getting any kind of help.  So I started to beat on the door and scream.  In a very frantic fashion.  Thankfully, a coworker was walking by on her way to the meeting, and she opened the door with no problem.  And then looked at me like I was an idiot because I wasn’t able to do that very same thing for myself.  I have no idea how she was so easily able to open the door when I couldn’t.  Mind boggling mystery.  But thank god she did.

Never ever again will I use these bathrooms.  For serious.  They’re clearly evil.

UVA vs GW Basketball

I haven’t seen my wahoos play basketball in person for many, many years.  When I saw they were coming up this way to play GW, and so close to my birthday, I decided I had to go to the game.  What better way to kick off my birthday week?!

Then reality hit.  The tickets were not easy to come by.  Stubhub had a healthy markup.  GW wanted you to buy season tickets (although that was eventually reduced to just a 3 game package).  I’m a poor social worker, so investing that much money up front with a hope to sell off all the other tickets was not an enjoyable thought.

So, out of desperation, I reached out to a guy I went on a date with some time last year.  This guy is a legit ticket oak and can pretty much get tickets to anything.  Plus, he works in the GW athletic department.  Score!  We went out once.  It seemed to go well.  He asked if I wanted to go out again.  Ticket oak aside, I did have a good time and legitimately was interested in going out with him again.  Save it for a text with a picture of the view from his seats at a football game, and a text with a link to a story about a guy selling his Nats NLDS game 1 PNC Diamond Club tickets in exchange for a threesome, I never heard from him again.  WTF?!

But, desperate times called for desperate measures, and several people told me to just stfu and reach out to this guy.  So I did.  The result?  Nothing.  Rude ass.

By other means, I was able to get a magical code that allowed me to buy single game tickets to the UVA game.  Tickets were so scarce that our seats weren’t even together.  Only three apart, though, so we had high hopes we could get people to shift for us.  It was going to be a great start to the week.

The day of, I met my friend at Foggy Bottom.  While waiting for him at the metro, I found another UVA fan, and we tagged along with him to a bar since we didn’t know anything in the area.  He and his brother were good people, and we had a very pleasant time over some appetizers and beer at a nifty little place before the game.

The game, however, was a different experience.  GW’s arena is… cozy.  We had seats behind one of the baskets, and I couldn’t see the baseline.  And the top of the seat in front of me may have been shoved into my legs just below my knees.  The guy in front of us was a drunk ass (although he was balanced out by the very nice GW fan next to me).  But whatevs – I was getting to see my hoos!  Sadly, we didn’t play particularly well, and we let GW dictate the game.  That is obviously a recipe for disaster, and we walked away with a big, fat L.  MAJOR sad face.

Fun night out with a friend, but an unfortunate game outcome.  Hopefully birthday week will take a turn for the better tomorrow.

Dude, Where’s My Car?

I’m somewhat obsessed with architecture (well… certain kinds of architecture), and I love wandering around with my camera and pretending like I know what the hell I’m doing with it.  So, I decided to go explore the National Cathedral today on my day off.  I went once a long time ago on a date, and I didn’t bring my camera because I knew I would want to take 23085320423092374234 pictures, and I didn’t want to look like that big of a dork (…on our first date.  If it went well, he had plenty of time to learn how much of a dork I am…).  Ever since, I’ve wanted to go back, but the behind the scenes tour that we did is only offered on weekdays.  Today seemed like an excellent day to return and take all the pictures I wanted to without judgement.

Driving in DC terrifies me, so the trip to the Cathedral was anxiety filled, to say the least (and, literally, I was on one road).  I managed to survive, parked in the garage, and excitedly ran up the stairs to the church.

I had a fantastic day.  My tour was just me and two other people, and I spent a long time when it was over wandering around the nave, small chapels, and crypt level.  Gorgeous.  Stunning.  Amazing.  I had a wonderful time walking around, and took a ton of pictures.  I went back outside and wanted to check out the gardens and get some pictures of the back of the church where the flying buttresses were free standing and different from the sides of the church (look at me with all my architectural knowledge).  It was pretty warm today, so I headed back to the garage to dump my coat, but…. I couldn’t find my car.  Like.  At all.  The entire garage when I got down the stairs looked ridiculously different, and I didn’t even have a clue where my car could be.

Um.  What?

I walked back up the stairs and looked around to make sure I hadn’t taken the wrong ones.

Nope.  Only one set of stairs leading down to the garage.  I walked down them again, and everything still looked insanely different.  Is this some kind of joke?  Did the entire garage somehow change while I was on my tour?  How long had I been inside that freaking cathedral?!  I was seriously BEYOND confused.  The garage was completely different, and my car was gone.  I sat down back upstairs in front of the church and tried to figure out wtf was going on, but didn’t really get anywhere.  I felt like I was in an episode of Seinfeld… only their problem was everything looked the same.  My problem is that everything looked different.

I eventually gave up and wandered over to the gardens.  I think I was just hoping that everything would magically fix itself when I got back.  The rose bushes were all in bloom, so there were lots of pretty flowers to take pictures of, although the strong wind make it a little difficult.  After a while, I was tired, hot (because I was still dragging my damn coat around), and feeling slightly panicked because WHERE THE HELL IS MY CAR?!

After going up and down the garage stairs at least 5 more times, I finally noticed a little door off to the side of the landing about half way down the steps.  I used that door and bam!  Everything looked familiar.  Found my car… right where I left it.   Now if only I could find Kramer and that damn air conditioner he sent down...