Car stories

I meant to post this earlier, but I forgot (as usual), and it's 2 am now, so I'll keep it (amusingly) short.

I got a car. Awesome. It kicks ass. I got a Galaxy Mica Grey Mazda3 hatchback. If you're curious what it looks like, go to mazdausa.com. Not the fastest car in the world, but for the money, it does great. Plus, there's a "manumatic" transmission, which means its usually an automatic, but when I want to I can shift gears myself (for better acceleration or just for fun). I love the look; both the exterior and the interior are really sporty. And you wouldn't believe the amount of room in the back (thanks to the hatchback).

Anyway, my car rocks, my daily commute sucks. 45 minutes on a good day, but around an hour most of the time (one way, of course). One of my classmates is working at the same place this summer, so we started commuting, which helps a little bit.

But yesterday I spent 3 1/2 hours driving. An hour and a half in the morning (traffic sucked), an hour and a half to San Francisco in the evening and then half an hour back to Berkeley (now that I think about it, going out to lunch added another 15 or 20 minutes to that total).

Today, I ran out of gas. For the first time EVER. And only 8 blocks away from a gas station. I know, I know, I guess I'm lucky that I didn't run out of gas on the freeway, but I'm not THAT stupid. I knew I needed gas, I just thought I could make it to the station. I didn't realize I needed gas THAT badly. I was SO DAMN CLOSE!! 8 blocks. Half a mile. In retrospect, I should have gotten gas BEFORE picking up my friend. Although, really, it was stopping for coffee that did me in.

On the way back from work, traffic was pretty slow on the highway. I was pretty close to stopped, and glanced out the window at the car next to me, only to see it accelerate and slam into the truck in front. We stopped and got out to make sure everyone was okay (they were). The woman driving was wearing heels... and said her brakes stopped working... um, yeah. Whatever.

Her car didn't look too bad off, all things considered. But she popped under the truck, which completely ruined her hood and windshield. I left my info with both drivers in case the insurance companies needed anything.

Nothing like a little road-related excitement to keep the commute interesting....

update (?)

So much has happened in the past several weeks, that its almost shameful that I haven't updated my blog lately. And I will.

But what's gotten me writing this entry is not the major changes in my life, but another hillarious excerpt from my favorite newspaper (well, magazine, really, but they call it a newspaper), the Economist.

If you've never read the Economist, the letters to the magazine from readers, all of which start with "sir", can be informative, interesting and sometimes downright amusing. Case in point:

"Sir -- Marriage is 'a wealth-generating institution'? I can only assume you have not had the opportunity of meeting my wife."

I couldn't help but laugh out loud....