The Fabulous Adventures of...

The Honda CRV. No song title this time. "Baby you can drive my car"?

It's red. It's a manual. It has a rusted undercarriage and is usually going over the speed limit. It has strict safety belt regulations. It's hauled many of you around. It drives in the snow fabulously. It is a beast. The driver's side window is broken. It has a very noisy exhaust system. It's usually messy. It's MINE! :-)

I feel now is the appropriate time to write an ode to my little red Honda CRV. It has carried me many, many miles. Countless trips back and forth to Gettysburg. My CRV and I met in 2003 before I knew how to drive a manual transmission. An all-holiday present from my parents, we continue to be in a long term relationship...and a happy one at that. We even made it through learning to drive manual...I'm sure that was tough on the CRV!

I recall going up the driveway to Fox Run (where I was about to start working) and stalling out. I spun tires and rocks that day! It's no wonder the CRV still loves me.

It overcame the incident pictured below...Anna driving it around the parking lot in Gburg, loaded to the gills with my favorite people.


It carried my mom and I cross country. It saw many things...including:

Kadoka, SD:


Mt rushmore, yellow stone, a tornado, a lot of cheese in wisconsin, the wild wild west...well, you get the picture. My Mom thought it was a sweet ride too.



It carried me from WA south, to my current home. Since being in California, the CRV gets moderately offended from time to time because I chose to walk over driving it, but to make up for my neglect, I take it on some pretty awesome adventures.

Like to Big Sur....



Part of my Honda's enduring identity (and mine) was that it had NY license plates.

Well, this weekend, I paid my dues to the state of California. Laying out $200+ dollars to declare my permanence. I had my car plated here. It was very sad.


The (grouchy) DMV person snatched those beauties right out of my hands (along with 2 months worth of grocery money) and I nearly cried. (Partly because of the remaining $0.93 in my bank account!)




I affixed my new plates and adjusted to them and told the CRV not to despair, we could still drive like New Yorkers. :-)

Here's to the journey of the next 130k miles, CRV! Thank you!

Cheers!

Jobless Money Bags

I just realized that a week has passed with no entry from me. Soon Alison will IM me and tell me to write about something else so she can read it at work. :-P

I guess I'm....busy. I've had assignments and tests and tastings and whatnot due this past week, and it keeps coming! This is my punishment for not doing any work last term. :-) As if wine tasting were harsh punishment. ;-)

On a side note, things have gotten complicated quickly because I cannot seem to find gainful employment here. If you all remember, me coming here was hinging on me being able to find a job. Well, I have applied for every stinking job that has come my way with NO AVAIL. I'm taking a course next week that will certify me to serve alcohol, then I will try to get a job at the cellar door (tasting room) here on campus. I've talked to the head of my school and told him that I need a job or I will be headed home, and he's told me he'll see what he can do.

So, in a moment of panic, I brainstormed that it would be a good idea for me to come stateside after my july res schools, work a vintage on the west coast (some conditions applying, obviously), bank some money, then go back to Oz after Christmas. I've got a phone interview with a winery in OR and one in WA. So, that could be promising. Obviously, this little plan is not without it's glitches and complications, so I have to decided.

So, yea, I hate being poor and apparently unemployable. So, if anyone wants to send some money to pay tuition or some Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Crest Toothpaste, I would like that. Hehe.

That is all, I must go unlock the mysteries of the human sense organs now.

Cheerio