Well, it's had it's ups and downs

My day that is. Luckily, the first thing was an up, I did get a budget day, which was good, because I got to deal with the first big down, my car needed to go into the shop. The check engine light came on yesterday, turns out I have a bad EGR valve, and it needs to be replaced. Diagnostic ran me $76.95 (or thereabouts) the repair will actually cost somewhere in the region of $470. This is not something that I can right now. To be honest, there isn't even a credit card I can put that much money on. Poor now.

:::wry smile:::

Anyway, after discussing this with my dad, it has been decided that I'll hold off at least until my next paycheck, and just seriously limit my driving until then. To work and to home. All work and no play make Emily a dull girl.

On the better side, I finally got sick of my computer freezing up every hour or so and requiring me to force it to reboot, so I opened the case and pulled out everything connected to the CD burner (which appears to be the culprit, as the computer freezes up every time the little red light in the front of the burner turns on). Granted, now I can't use said burner, but my computer has been on for nearly 3 hours and hasn't frozen yet. Nor has the little light come on. So, this is a happy. See the happy? ----> :o)

On the very good side, Harry Potter arrived today (yes, late compared to all of you who had it on Saturday, but plenty early enough for me to enjoy it).

So... that's where we are so far. I'm off from work, currently without a vehicle (as I haven't figured out how to pick it up yet), need to clean my apartment and figure out how I got myself into this financial hell and how I plan to get myself back out of it, and have a book that I really really really want to read, but shouldn't. Given all of this, I'm sure I'll be updating more later.

and what started with ups and downs, ended badly

So, I was all prepared to say that all in all, the day off today was a blessing. I was able to figure out that my car isn't going to blow up, and will survive until I can scrape together the necessary funds to fix it. I was able to figure out that my financial situation is slightly uglier than I had thought, but was able to find some ways to improve the situation with relative ease. I didn't manage to clean the whole apartment, but I did get the terrifying garbage out and wash the majority of the dishes. And I watched Buffy, and made some cards.

What I haven't yet mentioned was the near loss of my keys and the subsequent dumpster trip to find them. While I was rushing to get the particularly vile garbage out, somehow my 'beaner got caught on the garbage bag. Fling went the garbage bag into the dumpster, fling went my keys. One thing in my favor, few people around at the time. Second thing in my favor, relatively little garbage in the dumpster. I managed to get into the dumpster gracefully (or as gracefully as one can climb into a dumpster), located the keys and even managed to remain standing on a strategically located couch cushion that happened to be among the contents. Things took a turn for the worse while attempting to get out. On the first attempt, I lost my balance 2/3 of the way out of the dumpster and fell backward, landing on my ass in garbage. Luckily, nothing wet, unfortunately, everything smelly. Second attempt was a success, made it out and safely onto the ground. Needless to say, immediately after hitting the ground, I threw out my shoes (an old pair of flip flops) and headed for the shower. Now, I've got one less pair of scrub pants to wear to work this week, one less pair of sandals, and a new assortment of bruises.

Yeah, not so convinced the day off was a blessing because I can guarantee, if I hadn't had the day off, I wouldn't have been trying to be so productive, and hence, wouldn't be taking out the vile garbage and wouldn't have ended up throwing my keys in the dumpster. Thus, if I had worked today, I wouldn't have fallen butt first into a dumpster. Teaches me to be a slacker.