Another interview and a bleeding car to fill my time.

October 23, 2003

I had a change of plans yesterday. Originally I was going to take MAX downtown, meet my Dad, and we’d grab a beer at Bridgeport so that I could get my debit card back. When my car began needing triage, I changed my plans so that I would DRIVE downtown (it’s been a long time since I’ve done that with the exception of driving through downtown), pick up my Dad, and then drive over to Lake Oswego so that the car could go into the shop. I heard back from the person I emailed about a job several days ago, and we arranged a meeting yesterday afternoon, but not after I had to clear up a slight misunderstanding.

I need to remember to be careful about some of the lamguage I use on my website from time to time. I don’t mean because I may offend someone’s sensitive eyes, but since I’m pouring out parts of my feelings onto a screen, sometimes I say things that may get misconstrued, particularly if a reader doesn’t know the backstory. Well, the woman who I emailed read through part of my site, and she was somewhat concerned about my application for the job because it’s in food service and I had mentioned how I should just get a “crap” job. In other words, she said that if that was my feeling about the job, I shouldn’t apply, but if I was serious she would be happy to speak with me. Oops. I used the term crap job to describe something like bagging groceries, flipping burgers, that sort of thing–you know, an after school job a high school kid would be doing–and not any food service job. My aversion to food service came mostly at the hands of the bumbling management of Papa Muprhy’s last summer (and the owner’s decision to not get involved with the management’s choices) and not the industry itself. In fact, I would enjoy working where I applied because it’s pretty upscale and serves a hell of a lot more than the same pizzas over and over. During my interview, though, the woman who I talked to was a little concerned that I was overqualified for the position and that I wouldn’t be happy, but I assured her that I would be just fine. She said she just needed to think about it for a little while, which I can understand. I couldn’t answer some of her questions too well like “How long do you see yourself working here?” because I didn’t know. I told her that I wouldn’t leave her in a lurch, though, because I respect employers too much for that. It was an eye-opener, though, that’s for sure.

On my way to the interview, though, my car exhibited some odd-yet-strangely-familiar behavior. Three quarts of oil in two days, the pressure gauge for the oil was over the center mark when I started the car, and by the time I got to the interview (a good 15-20 minutes), the gauge was reading down towards the “low” indicator. What the hell? I checked behind my car wen I got out, and sure enough, the same little semi-circular spray pattern.

My car was bleeding to death.

I hate driving that car sometimes, especially in the rain, both because I have these awful memories of when I didn’t have good tired on the car and I came serious close to an accident not once, but twice, and because it has such a varied history of problems that it can call upon to potentially strand me somewhere. I had one beer at Bridgeport and my Dad and I headed home, and I was struck with some of those memories. Five o’clock traffic, raining hard, heavy traffic, same part of town where I had skid around a lot when I first drove the car. That and the windows fog up very easily, so naturally I got to lose visability, too. I was a bit on edge to say the least. Old memories die hard, you know?

We went home and got the Escape, and then we both drove down to the mechanic’s. I checked behind the car after I got out, and again, a nice semi-circular spray pattern of rainbow-colored liquid being slowly washed away by the falling rain. That’s oil, so am I dripping TWO different kinds of liquids? Man.

So now I’m stuck here at my Dad’s house for a little while. My stepmother is out for the day and took the Escape, so I don’t have anything to drive, and of course my Dad’s at work. I could take the bus somewhere if I really needed to get anywhere, but not someplace simple like the store or Blockbuster–and I’m not walking. Nope. Nuh-uh. No way. The weather’s nice today, but I learned my lesson on that one. No walking long distances for awhile longer. I have some computer work that I can do for my Dad, but I may until tonight to do that while NBC’s “Must See TV” is on. I’ll still watching “Friends”, “Scrubs”, and “ER” regularly, so at least I know I’ll have good stuff to watch tonight, car or not. I also have my book here that my Mom gave me for my birthday, so I can start that, too. So it’s not like I don’t have choices.

Ooo, but “Law & Order” is on now. That may take priority. Later, all.

Posted in Beer, Geekery, General