serzy's blog

and how is everyone?

Tonight I was stuck in a mess of traffic. There was a rather large accident on I-95 on my way home and I was stuck in an hour delay behind it. We were all totally stopped; I was sitting in park, interior lights on and knitting. Other people were freaking out. It was equally annoying and amusing to watch.

There were a few trying to pry into neighboring lanes that were also at a standstill, people honking and swerving but the people that got me were the ones driving on the shoulders. The highlight being the twit from Jersey driving BACKWARDS on the shoulder. Now, what I mean by "backwards" is that they had turned around and were driving on the shoulder in the opposite direction of traffic. I was already agahst at the people driving WITH traffic on the shoulder.

Because you getting 100 feet closer is much more urgent than letting the emergency vehicles through.

I don't know... this is going to get all odd because I should have been in bed an hour ago.

I think my point is that I'm glad this is my last week with this commute. I hate highway driving; no one can drive! People randomly cutting you off, people doing 15 under in the fast lane, people not letting people who want to go faster in the fast lane by (kind of funny since I really don't USE the fast lane...), their inability to merge ("omg, I can't merge at 60 so I'm going to stop and sit here." and I swear people are scared of their cars the way brakes get ridden and slammed on.

One more week.

*sigh*

Oooooh... cross posting goodness.

*waves to LJ*

I grew up in Los Angeles, which is 3000 miles away from my current home. There were so many different people there that a wide range of food was available...

I miss this place.

Oh. My. GOD do they have good food. I can still taste the garlic chicken after 10 years away from home. And it's funny, both of my parents are from Kansas. Like small town, know your neighbors all your life, Kansas. They grew up with country cooking (which RULES- screw Cracker Barrel) and here's their kid pining away for cuban food. And the Jewish deli, and the Japanese noodle joint... and don't forget the 20-seat, counter-only burger shop that's always busy because the simple food is just that good..

Don't get me wrong, I love home-cooked meals; I wish I had more time too cook them. But eating out was a treat and this feeling still sticks with me. I think that's why I find these chain restaurants so aggravating. Going to a restaurant was special and I miss that feeling.

I haven't been back to LA in 10 years. It might FINALLY happen next year. I'm actually finding that I'm actually thinking about how many days I want to be there based on how many restaurants I want to go to. =P

Oh, the things that moving brings up. heh. Packing things seems to trigger a lot of things for me...

This is the cutest and saddest thing I've seen all day...

Moving is going well- we're about 1/2 packed. Next week is the moving date!

We did the math and we figured that we'll actually save a few hundred bucks a month by moving. Scary...

We got approved for the apt!

We're set to move on the 17th of this month. 2 weeks. O_O I need to pack and clean like whoa.

So, now it's time to play "Design Sarah's Apartment." This is my new floorplan:

Apt_floorplan

As you all know, I transferred to another location for my job. It's a looong commute for me- 31 miles each way. Boyfriend just got a job in the same area. Hence, we're now looking at moving.

We found a great place- it's in Columbia, MD and is a great community. It's also not too terribly expensive. So we applied for it! We wern't worried- we've never had problems getting apartments before and this was actually cheaper than what we had been paying.

Until we got the phone call the next day from them saying that they couldn't rent to us because Boyfriend had been evicted at some point.

*cue Spock-like gaze in his direction*

After going to the rental office and calmly telling them that they were full of it, we find out where the eviction is showing; the first place we ever lived together.

Now, at this place (owned and operated by Maryland Management- avoid them. Seriously- I can't belive I rented from them a 2nd time after hating them the 1st time. Thank god I don't have them now.) Boyfriend and I were on the same lease, paid every month and had our security deposit returned to us when we left. So the fact that there's anything negative about us from there is amazing to me. What's more, we were on the same lease, but he's the only one showing the eviction.

Needless to say he's looking into this when he has off on wednesday.

I hope that the place we applied for today doesn't use the same 3rd party company to pull credit this time. I really like this place- better than the first one, actually. Not to mention I'm so sick of looking for new places to live.

On a somewhat related note, I can't believe I'm moving to the planned community from hell. I do see why it was successful- it's a really nice place.

I'm going out this morning to FINALLY take more pictures. I haven't had the energy for a while due to my old job's drama. Then it was getting used to my new schedule and building up some money again.

I'm going to Rocks State Park. It's amazing up there- the veiws are astounding!

More people are wanting hats. It's funny, really- they're actually willing to pay some money for them. Not one has offered to "pay for the yarn." Most knitters have had that convo once or twice. ;)

Oh, and the kid was supposed to be on his dad's policy. He called Prgressive and told them to add his son, but no one bothered to do it. So, Boyfriend has a rental now and the truck is getting fixed. The bodyshop said it was $3500 worth of damage ( I was saying $2000-$4000. Not that I've had experience with this, or anything...). $3500 for a 25mph front end collision.

Good (depending how you look at it): the kid wasn't on drugs, he was having a seizure.

Bad: He might not have been on the insurance.

The kid's fine- he's home with medication and not allowed to drive.

Our truck was looked at by their insurance adjuster yesterday, but they can't find proof that the kid was covered. The dad swears up and down that he was put on a month ago, but the adjuster can't do anything until he verifies that with the home office today. Right now, until proven otherwise, I believe the dad. He's been honest with us from the start, so we don't have any cause NOT to believe him.

If this kid wasn't covered, then I will change from "totally understanding neighbor" to "angry neighbor." It wasn't the kid's fault in the least, but I'll be furious with the dad.

We have full coverage, so the truck will be claimed on ours, but we really won't enjoy having to go that route.

This is what we've figured needs to be replaced so far:

Front bumper
bumper brackets
valance under bumper
left foglight
foglight wiring harness
left headlight
left turn signal
license plate bracket
grille
hood
left fender
core support
transmission cooler
radiator

Now, the truck is a R/T, so it's worth more than a regualar Dakota, so we're hoping it won't be a total. This truck is his baby, so I hope it doesn't come to that.

So yesterday promised to be a really good day; new couch, start of the weekend, quality time with Boyfriend, etc. Then, we get a knock on the door at 9pm.

Someone had run into our parked truck.

Cue me running out in my cami, pj bottoms and no shoes to see what was happening. Boyfriend didn't hear what our neighbor had said, so he stayed inside. I get out there and there's a late-model Impala buried in the front end of our Dakota. Sitting in the driver's seat is a kid doing something similar to the junkie itch. No clue if it WAS junkie itch, but that's the best way I can describe it.

I rush inside and tell Boyfriend that someone had hit the truck. Cue him getting pissed off and running outside. At this point the kid had stopped doing the itch thing and was having a full seizure-like episode, so he calmed down and just waited. Luckily there's a lady in our building that's in the Army and knew how to deal with this situation. By this time 3 of us had called 911 and there were cops and an ambulance on it's way.

I don't know when he showed up, but the kid's dad was there; he lives in the same complex as us. He got there as the Army lady was dealing with his son. Here's where it gets odd- he came out of the seizure, gets out of the car, looks at the damage, shoves his dad out of the way and leaves the scene. Luckily, this is when the first cop showed up.

About 3 minutes later, 2 more cop cars pull in along with a fire truck and an ambulance. So, at 9:15 there was 3 cops cars, a firetruck and an ambulance surrounding a car buried in a truck, me, Boyfriend, the neighbors that heard the wreck, the kid's girlfriend that's now loosing her MIND and 2 people that randomly showed up. The kid never did show back up (the cops had stopped him and he was about 50 feet away with them, the paramedics and his dad) at the scene but he was eventually hauled away in the ambulance.

So, this could have been worse. It could have happened at high speed and someone could have gotten hurt. Both our cars could have been a lot worse off. We're still waiting to hear back about the kid, but his dad said that his other son has seizures regularly enough to where he can't drive. Very scary- I can't imagine being the dad this morning.

Dakotawreck1

It doesn't look like much, but the truck actually isn't drivable- it was hit hard enough to bend the core support (it's a bolt on, thankfully) and crack the radiator. The air dam (the part that the license plate is attactched to) is shattered in front and pushed back into the tire, the fog light is GONE, the fender is bucked ever so slightly, the grille is cracked, the hood is bent and the headlight is popped out.

His car needs a new bumper, hood fender and light.

Info was traded, we called his insurence and the wheels are turning. Things will be okay.