Today was Official Deal With Car Stuff Day. Huzzah.

First off, the DMV: I got there 15 minutes before my appointment and they waited on me after about 3 minutes, tops. The lady I got...well, let's say that most of the time when I've gone to the DMV I've had nice people to deal with, but this one was...fulfilling the bad DMV stereotype. She got pissed off at me for talking too fast. I pretty much tried not to talk at at all if I could help it after she chastised me. I also stupidly wrote down the wrong license plate number and she was all, "This person doesn't own this car and it's a 2006." I thought 'oh shit, I am so in trouble," but she processed it anyway. And charged me up the wazoo, of course.

Hoooooo boy. I figured the DMV would be pricey, but the tax bill alone....ARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH. Most. Expensive. Month. Ever.

After that, I debated going to the mechanic, but given what Wally said yesterday, I instead went to the SpeeDee, and a guy came out and asked me what the problem was. "Someone told me it was the valve that needed tightening." He was all, "Who told you it was the valve? THERE'S A NAIL IN THE TIRE." Which, despite my looking at the tire several times, and two other dudes looking at the tire several times, had never actually been positioned in such a way while parked that anyone could see that, until now. I felt like a goddamned idiot. "Does that mean I'll have to get all new tires?" "No, we could just patch it... but there's three other people in line right now, could you come back tomorrow morning?" Uh...I have work tomorrow morning and I took off today to go deal with this. "Well, try coming back around 4:30 or 5, then."

I wasn't sure what else to do, so I ended up going to an auto parts store and finally getting the digital tire gauge L was nagging me to get, along with an ice scraper. I wandered around the place for a long time--the ice scrapers were hidden in the back and no wonder I couldn't find them--but mostly again, I felt stupid for not understanding all of this stuff. I felt like such a goddamned giiiiiiiiiiiirl. There's so many tools and so many options and so very many things that can go wrong with a car. I get the feeling that I'm always going to be wondering when the car is going to break down and how many thousands of dollars it's going to turn out to be, or whatever. I did look at the stuff for how to patch a tire and thought, "That seems...cheaper...than I thought." I wanted to do it myself, but obviously I don't know fuckall about this, or anything. I really want to know. I don't necessarily plan on becoming an official mechanic, but I'd like to be able to understand enough to fix minor shit myself and actually understand what is going wrong and how much it should cost. Dammit, where do I find these things out? I think I may end up asking Wally about this some more next time I see him, because so far I think he's my only lead. I asked Mom if any of her guy friends would be any help, and she was all, "My ex-coworker's husband...." Um, yeah, I doubt that one will do it. But seriously, I do not like being a stupid clueless wittle girl about this crap, not one bit.

Having run out of things to do, I went back to SpeeDee and the line had cleared out marvelously and they took my car in. Twenty minutes later and $20 later, the tire is fixed. THANK GOD. And it was even in enough time for me to hit the zumba class at the gym, which I normally can't get to thanks to its time being fifteen minutes after I get out of work and it takes me that long just to get there without changing.

As for the zumba class...if you'll pardon me having a totally off topic rant here about this: It seems like most of the new instructors at the gym lately are....not super good. They don't seem to be people who spent years in dance class like I did, and their moves are incredibly simplistic. Like, they would be appropriate for those one-off lunchtime workout sessions my work offers once in a while, that are designed to be so simple that you can do them in your work clothes and with no exercise experience whatsoever. The substitute today had pretty dull moves there, and it seemed like she had problems remembering what she was doing to boot. Now, I realize that I don't look or move like the traditional "good dancer" because I was born with no flexibility whatsoever (though zumba is really one of the few dance things I've done where that's not required) and I was the worst one at my dance school because of it, but...shit, I could choreograph a hell of a lot better than this girl was doing.

Then I had to remind myself of the following:
(a) due to giant org regulations, I could not do my regular job and get paid for a second part time job being a gym instructor too.
(b) it would cost me MORE to get certified than I could actually make.
(c) the management there is the same one that oversees my volunteer job, and they are terrible. And they are actively trying to make the regular employees's lives hell this summer. So yeah, I don't want to work there...but I wish they would hire some better instructors. Then again, I guess they had to take what they could get.

After that...I went home and did the laundry (since now I can presumably use my quarters for something other than filling up tires) and watched "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters." And basically keeled over in relief.

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