SCREW EVERYTHING

I always seem to break down in this one coffee shop. The same ginger-haired, newsboy cap-wearing, beatnik guy with John Lennon glasses is always working and I swear he's seen me cry more than several times. Once when I was too homesick to function, once when my bike got stolen, once when I had an impossibly hard book editing assignment, and today when the stupidest car problems have me running all over town. I have not interacted with him more than giving him my coffee order, and yet he has been witness to more of my bad days than most people. Sorry, dude. I'll try to keep the tears to a minimum over here.

The car problems started on September 23rd. That was the day I got my Colorado plates and also the day I forgot about my Colorado plates. Whoops. They've been in my glovebox since then and every once in a while I'd remember and be like, "Oh man, I should really change those." But did it ever happen? No. One thing I've found since starting grad school is that all that matters to me is surviving school and staying sane. That means that adult things like cars and bills and residency requirements get put to the wayside and if something goes wrong it's a TRAGEDY because I don't allot time or energy for things so low on my priority list.

This past Thursday, I parked in a lot that apparently had a time limit (Y'ALL NEED BETTER SIGNS AROUND HERE) and got a $20 parking ticket AND a $50 fine for having expired plates. Whoooooooooooooooooops. So I paid my fine, it sucked, whatever. But then when I went to change my plates this morning, one of the screw heads chipped off and left the screw-in part of the screw inside the screw hole (I don't even know how to describe that better. Figure it out). So I got my front plate on a-okay and I got my back VT plate OFF, but I can't get the new one on because there's part of a screw in the screw hole. Ya get me?

I took my car to a repair shop and the guy looked at it and was like, "Wow, that sucks. Can't help ya." And I couldn't think of anything to do except come to this coffee shop to cry and possibly get another ticket since my car doesn't have a back plate.

I'm gonna call the Honda dealership today and see what they have to say for themselves. Maybe I'll get a new car!!!!!!!!! More realistically, maybe they'll figure out my screw situation. I don't know. They're my last hope before I start slamming my head into walls.

ALSO. A crack showed up on my windshield out of nowhere. Didn't hit anything, nothing dramatic happened, it just showed up. Called for cost repairs and it turns out I need to get the whole damn thing replaced. This is an expensive car weekend, lemme tell ya.

MORAL OF THE STORY: SUCK IT UP AND CHANGE YA DAMN PLATES BEFORE THE PLASTIC GETS ALL WONKY AND THE SCREW GETS STUCK IN THE SCREW HOLE, LEAVING YOU SCREWED.