Man. What a week.

This was my first week a the new job. That part of everything is going really great. I love my job, and I love actually working for people who seem to know what they�re doing! Definitely makes a difference in the job.

That was the good part of the week.

The rest of the week was spent dealing with bad drivers, avoiding said bad drivers and my stupid Saturn.

Last Saturday, I was on my way to school to get some of my CEUs (continuing education units), so I can keep my massage therapy license that the state has issued me. Basically, I have to get 25 hours every two years.

When I was very near the school , it happened.

It was just before 9:00am and there wasn�t a lot of traffic on the road. I had just gotten off the interstate and was approaching the school. I was stuck behind the only other car on the road, who apparently didn�t know where they were going because they were poking along at 15 miles an hour. I got in the turn lane, and when I was almost even with the other car, they decided that they wanted to, not just turn into my lane, but turn into the lot that was to my right. And they proceeded to do so. Without looking around them AT ALL. I don�t know what made me see them, but I was able to swerve to the right to avoid hitting them. The only bad thing is that to my right was a curb, which was followed by sidewalk. My car went into General Lee mode as it jumped the curb and landed on the sidewalk (at this point, I would just like to point out that I am VERY thankful that 1. There was no one on the sidewalk and 2. There was no electricity pole in my immediate path). All that was lacking was me yelling �Yee-haw!� after entering the car via an open window.

The person stopped, which surprised me, but also tested my temper. I�m a redhead of Irish decent. I�ve got a temper. I�ll snap at someone if I go to the vending machine and hit �Pepsi� and a Diet Pepsi is distributed to me. So, seeing the woman who caused me to jump my already shitty car over a curb and risk farther damage to it�well, it easily could have turned into a WWE Smackdown Main Event. I guess it was a good thing that I acknowledged that I was pissed beyond all reason, because I forced myself to focus on my car, even crawling UNDER the front part to make sure the axle was still intact and unbent. Plus, I figured that if I did want to pounce on the woman, she never would have seen it coming. Element of surprise, my friend.

The really ironic thing about the timing of the accident was that I had just been thinking during the drive that I needed to get my car in for a tune up. I really wish a police car had been behind us, so she would have at least gotten a ticket or something for being a bad driver. I didn�t have time to make a Citizen�s Arrest; I had a class starting in 15 minutes.

I didn�t call my husband or even tell him about the incident until later that day. I figured I didn�t need to get him up early on his one day to sleep in. There was nothing he could have done and I didn�t need to get him worrying.

So, the week continues, as it has a habit of doing and I finally get the car into the shop on Thursday. Robert is following me because I don�t particularly fancy sitting at a garage for the better part of my day off. I decide that I should stop and put a little bit of gas in my car, so I can actually get it TO the shop. The gas station I chose has TWO pumps, so I get in line. There is no one in or near the truck in front of me, but soon I see a bent over OLD man, who was probably buddies with George Burns back when they were kids, approach the truck and fill it with gas. After the pumping of gas is complete, he gets into his truck, starts it up, puts it in reverse and starts heading my way. After about a foot of backing up, I realize that he has no intention of going forward, so I start laying on the horn. My car was off at the time, in an attempt to save what little gas fumes my car was running on, so there was no way I would have been able to turn it on, kick it in reverse and get out of his way in time. Luckily, someone was laying on their horn and he had to stop to see what the commotion was all about. He stopped probably three inches from my car and he honestly looked around like he couldn�t figure out where the honking was coming from.

I think he had the hearing aid set on �low� that day.

I finally got my car to the shop and about three hours later, they call me and report that it will cost $827.38 to fix. *sigh* I hate the car. I really do, but he said that if we get this work done, it will be in pretty good running order (and we actually have a really honest mechanic that we�ve been going to for years). $800 was going to be cheaper than we could get a decent used car for, so we got the work done.

Luckily, we had our emergency fund in place. Unfortunately, this drained most of it.

I could go on a rant about how much I hate Saturns and how I will NEVER buy another Saturn or how if it came down to a NEW Saturn or a USED Honda for the same price, I�d go with the Honda, but I�ll spare you.

For now.