the thin line between optimism and delusion…

I am sad and angry. My car is broken. It broke down in the middle of broad street today, directly in front of the holiday inn express. The only thing that even made this okay is that I was in the right lane. Otherwise, I think I might have started to cry. I am not a crier, I probably cry a few times a year at the most. ButI was beyond frustration. I don’t like to break down. I don’t play around with how much gas is in my car, because I don’t like to give out of gas. If something is wrong with my car, I take it in to have it fixed. And this time was no different.

My car started acting crazy, and I took to the shop. I took it to the Mercedes people in athens. Now, let me preface this by saying that the mercedes people in Athens suck. I haven’t taken my car there in a long time because in the past I have had bad experiences. The men that work there like to talk to me like I am a dumb woman that doesn’t understand. I don’t trust them. I mean, I bought the stupid car from them, I think that they should be a little more friendly. I haven’t taken my car there in a long time because my warranty ran out and they aren’t nice to me. And to be fair, they have new people working in the service department now. Regardless, I have bad feelings, and my dad doesn’t trust them either. So when they charged me a bunch of money just to tell me what was wrong with it, my dad told me to bring to home and he would get Mike in Augusta to fix it.

Mike is an imports guy, and has been fixing my dad’s cars for years. Mercedes told me it was going to break down on me at some point, they didn’t know when. Well, Daddy took it home, and Mike fixed some stuff and looked at it every day for a week and told me that the other stuff didn’t matter. The check engine light kept coming on. I was in Augusta yesterday for an eye doctor’s appointment (a whole other story) and I had Mike look at it again. He said it wasn’t a big deal. Stuff that could be fixed, but stuff that wasn’t necessary. Something about the oil gauge that was wrong. I drive the car back the Athens today, and on the way back from Circuit City (powercord problems), the car completely stalls out. It is in permanent neutral. Neutral in reverse, and in all gears. No gears. In the middle of the road.

Luckily Cristina is with me, or I might have lost it. In Athens. I call Mike. Mike wants to come pick me up, until I tell him I am Athens. I call mercedes, they give me the number of a towing truck, I call the number, a women picks up the phone and hangs up on me. While I am calling these people a British dude comes out of the holiday inn express and wants to help. He wants to push my car. We try to explain to him that he can’t push it himself. He wants me to back it up on the sidewalk. He REALLY wants to help. Cristina and I REALLY want him to go away. He was trying really hard to be useful, but he didn’t know anything about America, and even though I do have a european brand car, my car was made in america.

Finally I call information and Barrett’s towing comes and gets me and the tow man is so nice and helpful, I could have hugged him. Katie was sweet enough to leave work and come get Cristina and me. First my computer, and now my car. Oh well, it could be something important. I’m just glad I was in an good mood today otherwise, or I really would have started crying, which would have rendered me even more useless.