Man time has flown.  Why it was just the other day I was touring campuses it seems, and I look at my blog and I haven’t blogged for almost a month!  So many things happening all at once; where do I start?

So, I sent off my application to Carroll University.  I’m hoping that by only sending off one application, that it means that I will be accepted.  It’s either that or saw off my limbs and sell them to the black market in order to go to Marquette, because THAT is what it will cost me.

Let’s just say I did a little good-luck dance as I sent off my application.

Secondly, yes, I’m doing web design in my free time.  I have no idea how I got roped into this, but I’m going down to a convention sometime later in January to give a PowerPoint presentation on Joomla (kind of like Mambo and Wordpress).  No idea why, just because I hacked Wordpress to bits and have it displayed so prominently, that people think that I’m an expert on content management systems like Wordpress and Joomla?

God help me.

Also, over New Years I drank entirely too much; and I have to say that if any incriminating pictures end up on the Internets, I can neither confirm nor deny what happened.

You KNOW that it’s a good party when a boyfriend, which happens to be the boyfriend of the owner of the house, ‘fell’ onto the toilet and SHATTERED the water tank.

Yeah, I know that the pictures are horrible, but they were taken with my cellphone.  Nothing says “Happy New Years” like a broken toilet!  Also, I did get a kiss on New Years when the bell tolled midnight, however I’m not sure if it was a kiss or a slobber…Eh, we were both drunk, so who cares!

Oh God, I was just looking at everything that I need to explain, and don’t think I can do this selling pitch to all those people in a few weeks…

Although I try to reassure myself that it was my communication skills that got me to this spot in the first place as far as giving the powerpoint presentation, I’m still nervous as hell.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Now, excuse me while I go and cry silently in the corner.

I walk into a local mechanic shop that was recommended by several people.

“So what seems to be the problem?”  One guy says behind the desk.  I explain how both of my turn signal lights on the dashboard stay on all the time when I turn on my lights, while the speedometer light and any other lights on the dashboard are off.  Let’s just say I’ve been driving, balancing a flashlight on my steering column, for the past week.

The next day, it is the day before Thanksgiving.  I’m going to be leaving for my parents house in about eight hours.

“Hello, is this Jill?”  A gruff voice says over the cellphone static.

“Yes?”  I ask; I always give my shortened name to people when I don’t feel like spelling it out.

“Yeah ummm we’re going to maybe have to keep it over Thanksgiving, right now we are running that test you told us about?”  He says.  I told him that if my car is left out in the cold then the turn dashboard lights would be messed up; if I waited a bit for the car to warm up and ‘knocked’ on the plastic protecting the meters (speedometer, odometer, etc.), then it would switch eventually.

“I see?  Why over Thanksgiving?”

“Well the dashboard is very complicated…”

“Listen, I need that car today,”  I say evenly, “I am coming to pick it up at 3:30 today, please have it put together by then.”

We hang up shortly afterwards.

I go there, and I am out the checkout.  The woman behind the counter slides the single sheet of paper across the counter.

“Four hundred dollars,”  I read aloud.  It wasn’t a question.

“Yes?”

“For a…two dollar part?  I thought he said he just cleaned the contacts and ‘it worked’?”  I asked, sliding the paper back across to her, “I’m sorry I need to speak to someone about this.”

“Of course,”  The woman says as if this happens a thousand times a day.  She calls over a manager, a larger mechanic with a short and neatly-trimmed beard, it looks like his nails have permanent grime under them.

“What’s wrong?”  He says immediately.

“I’m not going to pay four HUNDRED dollars for this,”  I say.

“Well, we did some extensive tests…”  He starts.

“Extensive tests that included leaving my car out in the cold all night?”  I ask, my eyebrows raised.

“Erm…” He says, looking over his shoulder as if calling someone.

“I think I could’ve done that test for a lot less,” I scoff, “There’s no way I’m paying you guys 400 dollars for you to do it.”

“Aaron!”  He shouts suddenly.  He turns away from me and they have a whispered conversation.  Aaron is nodding a lot, and the big sweaty manager is looking more and more like a tomato.

“We’ll have to change that,”  Tomato says, snatching my bill out from my hand and getting on the computer.

Pretty soon he hands it back.

“She’ll deal with you up there,”  He says gruffly; I’m half expecting him to crack his knuckles and call out the hound dogs.

He doesn’t.

“One hundred dollars please,”  the cashier says before adding, “Wow, what’d you say to change their minds?”

“Here you go,”  I say happily, pretending like I didn’t hear her.

I’m sure they saw the new account and said to each other “let’s tell her that we need to add blinker fluid and rotate her bumpers, she’ll believe us!”