Happy 120th Birthday!

It's the real Founder's Day... Thanksgiving Eve, 1888, Boston Bell Tower (It was actually November 27, so I guess I could just as easily celebrate tomorrow). Sarah Ida Shaw and Elenor Dorcus Pond embraced and said "Tri Delta is founded!" It's cool to be a part of something that has been around and roughly the same for 120 years. I know I'm overly cheesey, but like I said, it is very exciting.

Anyway, today I went to work at HoneyBaked Ham. My job is to show people ham. They tell me, "I have to feed 10 people," and I say, "You'll want 7 pounds of ham," and then I go get a 7 pound ham, and then I unwrap the foil, show them the front, then the side, then rewrap it and bag it, then point to a cash register. It's aaaaaaaawesome. Whatever, it's easy work and pays okay.

Now the entire staff (essentially) is going to Hooter's and I'm going with. The best part? I have a DD, so I'm going to drink a Blue Moon or two. Or... more?

I am feeling a general lack of motivation as far as school goes. I have a LOT of work to do this weekend, and at this motivation level, it will get done laaaaaaaate Sunday night and on into Monday. Woof. I cannot wait for this quarter to be over; none of my classes are really exciting me anymore. I discussed my course in postmodernism and it's lack of anything one might call "sense," but my Communication classes are insane amounts of busy work. I mean, they're easy, but it's just a matter of doing the work--which I don't really want to or feel the need to do. That's kind of a problem in week 8 of 10.

In other (very exciting) news, I got the dress and the shoes, and I am still obsessed with the shoes but could go either way on the dress. I need to decide quickly, however, because ModCloth.com's return policy is kind of strict. So, I need Kate to decide for me if it's a keeper.

Kyleigh (my stepsister Kerrie's 13 month old daughter--Kerrie is married to Greg, who manages the HoneyBaked Ham at which I work) is here and possibly the most adorable child of all time. She's having "wind-down time" at the moment, so I am unable to cuddle her and read to her and play fridge magnets with her (she looooves magnets!), but I did get some time with her yesterday. Babies are incredible. They're so functional and have so much understanding of the world, but can't even speak! THOUGH! She does say "CAT" when she sees my fatso catso, which is possibly the greatest thing I've ever seen. I wish my first word were "Cat." Mom says she thinks it was "Kate," so I'll pretend that it was actually cat. HA.

Is it normal that it bothers me that mom doesn't remember what my actual first word was, she's only kind of guessing? Dad, any insight?

So, many of my friends are on "team mechanic," and I'm torn. I guess I must explain. I had an issue with my axles on my car, and I'd known for a while I needed to get at least the driver side one fixed. So I've gotten several estimates, and they were all around $450 or so. So I finally just sucked it up and took in my car and mentally spent the $450. I'm sure my father will be very excited about that, as he was terrified by the noise my axles were making in August.

Well, I dropped it off at a shop about 3.5 blocks from the sorority house and about 6 blocks from my class that I was off to. I told him to check out the passenger axle and let me know if he thinks it's bad enough to warrant fixing.

Then he insisted on driving me to class. He said, "it's a long walk [again, about 6 blocks], and it's very cold outside." That last part was true, so I let him drive.

He called later and said that yes, it definitely was, but he felt bad upselling me, so he'd do it for $90. INSTEAD OF $220! When I heard him say $90, in my head, it was a $30 discount, then I later realized... no, that's $130. Holy. Crap. He told me he'd have it to me later that day.

He calls again later that day and said that in removing my axle, he noticed that the axle was fused to the bearing and that I had to get a new bearing, but he'd only charge me list price, no labor, so only about $40. Which for a car part is pretty cheap, though I'm not sure how much that particular one generally cost, he again didn't charge me any labor for its installation. He also apologized profusely because I couldn't pick up my car, despite promising it to me. I had told him when I handed over my keys that I needed it by Tuesday of this week so I could get home and didn't care about it any earlier than that. He goes, "Yeah...I know...but...I just feel bad, because I told you you could come in and now you can't."

Then he called me again the next day and said that the valve cover gaskets (?) were also broken and that I shouldn't bother replacing them, but I should be sure to check my oil level constantly. These are two apparently related facts. It would be around $400 to fix it, and he told me it wasn't worth it (this guy owns his own business, and I'm pretty sure if he told me to replace it I would have, or at least asked Tim about it). He also replaced my blown tire (another long and involved story not worth telling) and changed my oil so that adding the new oil from time to time would be more...something mechanic-y. I finally got to pick up my car.

I spent an hour to an hour and a half there talking to him, and I had him look at my shifter that I told him sometimes sticks. He fixed it. He has his bachelor's degree in Criminology from OSU, he's getting his associates in Automobile Maintenace (mostly to claim that he has the coursework), and he wants to work for a car insurance company doing fraud investigation.

..He graduated from OSU in 2006. So...he's young and cute. But if I ask him out, I will have to ask him out. Which means going to the car shop, batting eyelashes embarrasingly, and looking like a doofus. But, he's young and cute (and flirting? I'm really bad at guessing, but he saved me at least $200, and it seems a bit blatant). Patrick says maybe he thinks I'll tell my sorority sisters about him if he's nice. Which I have. Mechanic even said, "you referred people to me before you got your car back? That's very trusting of you." I told him that as long as my tires don't pop off on I-70, I'll be satisfied. He said he almost put that on my final bill but it's a legal document and he didn't want to cause confusion if I have to complain.

Final cost of the two axles, new bearing, oil change, and the spare tire, plus very typically expensive labor? $450.

Oh, and today on my way to work I found out that he also miraculously turned off my check engine light that I was under the impression is constantly on.

So...should I suck it up and ask him out? Where do I take him? Am I in 8th grade?

Anyway, I'm about to go eat wings at the dirtiest place on earth. Holler?