Being a Responsible Adult STINKS

For those of you that use MSN you've seen this picture a lot lately...

Last week I was able to maintain my relatively chipper attitude amidst the piling responsibilities and stressors. This week... not so much... As I've said already, I think, I've been doing a lot of clinicals in the last two weeks. Besides working 24 hours a week I've done 29 clinical hours plus going to school in the last two weeks and put 450 miles on my car going back and forth to downtown. Since I got my axles replaced, there's been a slight shuddering feeling in my front end. Now that I think about it I touched my front tires on the curb in front of Thatcher South parking where the parking spaces slope downward when I was on my way to class on Valentine's Day wearing all black. (This was not on purpose.) I still maintain a slight shuddering was happening before I did this. But in the last couple of days 3rd gear/30 mph had become so shudder-filled my watch was jingling on the steering wheel. So... yesterday I took my car back to the place where I got the axles fixed, they looked at it and didn't find a defective axle but a bent right front wheel. 1st strike

This sounds pretty generic in and of itself until you think about how tired and worn out I am and how much I needed a day off with little stress. Carrie and Stephanie left this weekend for Nosoca so I had to get somebody else to drive me down to pick up my car. After switching cars 3 times because she was going out to eat with a friend and that friend was taking her daughter's car... I finally arrived to get my car. 2nd strike I should back up and say that before this I went and got my bill from Southern which FINALLY arrived to see what the damages were there before deciding about the wheel. Upon opening my bill, I found that I owed more than my entire checking account (which had been emptied out to $75 before payday last week because of my stupid car). Upon closer examination I found that my bill is wrong because of Southern's finance office (big surprise, they aren't careful enough to credit back the same amount they deduct) but also because Dr. Ball didn't sign me up for the right organ lessons, then changed after add/drop time giving me two fees, plus signing me up as taking the class for credit instead of auditing (double the cost). 3rd strike Fortunately I was able to come home and figure out, after tearing my room up, that my bill is at least $350 off. I should become an accountant and take over Student Finance. I know more about nursing and music fees than they do. Somewhere in the midst of this I lost it on the phone with my mother for an hour... 3 strikes was enough.

So the moral of the story is: Don't ever think your car is working well, it WILL break. Don't ever think you might be getting to a point financially where you might be able to spend a little money on something you want, not something you have to have like the abysmal blackhole called automobile transportation, because your car WILL break and said financial kitty will vaporize. I know, it's happened to me twice in the last year. Don't think that after 5 years Southern will get your bill right, EXPECT that you will have to go back and fight tooth and nail until they fix it. Don't look at next week's forecast and think you might have an entire day off to relax since you don't ever get a Sunday off, EXPECT that something will go wrong like car breaking or bills being wrong and you will have to spend your day of relaxation hunting down car wheels and yelling at Southern employees. And while you're at it, your poor roommate whose day off it is to, that you took off to spend time with her, might have to help you do all this.

In a way it might be a good thing Carrie's gone this weekend. I think I needed 6 hours of alone scrapbooking time with soft music playing... Anybody want to give me a brand new car with a bumper to bumper warranty for the next 5 years? Or become my financial proxy?