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The car broke down AGAIN today. I'm at work with Eric. I guess we had an impromptu "Bring your mate to work day". I didn't trust the car enough to drive it by myself this morning so I had Eric drive me to work again. Then around 10 I got a message that there's a meeting I need to attend at 4pm across town at our AmeriCorps HQ. Originally Eric was going to pick me up at 1:30 and take me home. I was planning a nice afternoon of napping and Spongebob but noO0Oo. Si I called Eric and he said that he wanted to come get me earlier than 1:30. I said ok. Then I talked to the other members and decided to have Eric bring lunch to my work, so I wouldnt be ditching out as early and pawning off my kids on the others. I called eric to tell him to grab some lunch and come up to the center but his phone was off... he ended up coming upstairs anyway and got us lunch in the mall's foodcourt. He ate his lunch in the room with me and my students, I didnt eat mine though cuz the kids were already getting big eyes and drooly mouths looking at my sub. Most of the kids get shit like donut for breakfast, cheetos and mountain dew for lunch etc... so my ham n cheese musta looked good. Eric had a meatball sub and was being messy, dropping shit on the floor and I told the kids that I was gonna put him in time out. That got a big laugh. Luis said that Eric was being a bad boy. It was all pretty funny. Then around 12:30 I left to take eric back to work. I would have been back to my work by 1 but as we were pulling into the TI parking lot (eric works for texas instruments) the car died. Eric pitched a fit and I screamed at him. Usually I ask him to calm down but he was really freaking out so I yelled something like "CALM THE FUCK DOWN AND SHUT TEH FUCK UP!" He's got a temper, but it only shows for dumb shit. OK the car breaking down again isnt "dumb shit" but most of the time its dumb shit, the anger is misplaced. It scares me when he gets pissed off at nothing. I REALLY dont like being yelled at. The abused little girl in me runs for cover.... I'm used to Lon's lack of emotion... even in arguments Lon wouldnt raise his voice. I havent been around yelling in a long time. It's scary. This was the first time I yelled back at Eric. I'm glad he didnt punch me or yell back etc. He went into work and called a tow truck and the garage, got things rolling. He came back out and waited on the tow truck with me. It's pretty hot out right now, in the 80's all week, which is hot to me. The low 70's with a cold breeze is ideal weather to me, rain preferably.... So this hot muggy sunshine shit is a pain in the ass. The sprinklers came on and made it a little cooler with the wind blowing mist at us. Didn't take that long for the tow truck to show up, and the dude was pretty nice and spoke english and everything. We came into eric's work, I had to get a visitor pass and sign some form saying I wouldnt steal any trade secrets LOL (me in 12th grade math before I flunked out: "Mr. Turner, how do I turn this graphing calculator off again??") We're scrunched in his cubical. He's on the windows computer doing his job. I've been here almost an hour and I'm STILL not sure what he does at work. I'm on his other computer, which is run by some OS Ive never heard of (Solaris 8) and the keyboard is all fucked up. The letters are the same but the punctuation and other shit is in different spots. Not as bad as the keyboard I had to use in France, but almost as bad. I guess we're getting a ride over to the dealership garage around 5, with Mamoon, the dude who works with eric and lives sorta above us, that jumped us the other morning. We're getting a free laoner rental car until the Lumina is fixed. Also I suggested to eric that we go ahead and get the oil changed and a tune up etc. He was checking out the dealership website and there was a coupon for the free rental car with purchase of a 90,000 mile care package. That's $325 but included a tune up, oil change, tranny fluid change, brakes bled, tires rotated and balanced and some other stuff. We're not sure how much it'll be to fix whatever problems were causing the battery to drain. We had the alternator checked at auto zone last night and they said it was good, same with the battery. Some guys at the meeting last night, one of which was a mechanic for 27 years, said it sounds like wiring problems, like something is ritted/rusted out, either the wires themselves or a connection somewhere. he also said that Luminas down here get bad spots in the starters. I think it's got a few different problems. Hopefully we can get everything taken care of in the next couple days....anyway, I think Im gonna go hunt down some "trade screts" to sell to the korean mafia. word.

Always remember to quit while you're ahead.

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