So, I'm on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, 1:35 in the afternoon right now. So far it's about the worst Memorial Day weekend of all time, maybe second behind the time I broke my arm when I was 6.

Since Julie took the liberty of taking last week off, I got to stay late yet again on Friday. Okay, I can get over that. Even had to stay a little past 5 to help this guy with our fax line and "fixing it" even though there was nothing to fix and nothing to do so it was moot.

Go out to my car, turn the key, nothing. No sound, no lights, nothing but the key turning. Fart around a little bit to see if I tripped the anti-theft system. Doesn't seem like it. Call Fred, ask him to come over and give me a jump. That doesn't work. Look online at what it could be, most people with similar problems get a response of "the battery is dead". So I try to jump start it again, nothing at all. Brandon comes, we fart around a little bit and I decide I definitely need to buy a new battery, it's the next logical step. I spoke with BMW Northwest (in Fife) and they offered all of NO help. I was hoping someone would tell me a trick with the security system but no one knew anything. Then I call BMW Seattle and they are a lot more helpful. Granted, I didn't solve the problem after talking to them, but he was on the phone with me for 10 minutes and it wasn't because I was keeping him on the phone, he was just trying to help. So after all this it's about 8, 9 I don't know, we go home. I research a bit more, Brandon is getting ready to leave. We went to the store, this was the first thing I did not related to work or stress bullshit on Friday (at about 12:00, I believe it was).

We go back to the car on the way to Brandon's parents'. Try a few things regarding the immobiliser, no luck. Try to push start the car. The engine wants to start but there's nothing on in the car so I don't think it would run. We tried that a few times because the engine DID want to start. So, in the process of trying to push start it a few times (I'll mention the steering wheel was locked, turned slightly to the left) the car somehow turned to a different angle. So now, instead of pushing it back to the perfect parking spot it was in, it won't even meet up with the curb on the right side of the road. When the car would try to jump start, it would, essentially, slam on the brakes and cause the car to skid just slightly to the left (the way the wheel was turned). So now we had a problem. Attempting to fix the car was a lost cause, we had given up on that, now we needed to somehow make up for the 5 feet that we were away from the curb. We tried bouncing the car, no luck. Tried push starting it backwards, that didn't work too well because we were using Brandon's car to push mine and the bumpers didn't line up how you'd want them to. We tried using my jack, which apparently is really only for changing the tire (really, that's all it's good for, absolutely nothing more). None of this was working. We tried to turn the wheel, even if just slightly. We tried to manually turn the front wheels or push on them to manipulate the trail, nothing.

So I decide to try something new, if this doesn't work, who knows what we'll have to try. The car is turning slightly to the left, we need it to go to the right. So we push forward and lift the left side of the car so the car is kind of 'leaning' to the right. We put a 2 liter bottle next to the wheel to see if we make any progress. Also, when going backwards, we just lifted from the same side but more towards the back. By golly with each try we were making like 8 inches to the curb, which is really good. So eventually we got it to within about 7 inches to the curb and just left it there, gave up. That was about 4:00 am. Then we had to go to Brandon's house in Roy, about half an hour away. Then I had to drive his car back home to Seattle, an hour from there. I have not had so much difficulty staying awake while driving since I was 17... and fell asleep driving. I was driving as the sun came up, on no sleep. And I guess you can stay up until 6:00 am and not have a good night... and it not be a study night either (I never stayed up all night to study but once, though, took a Final on no sleep). So I was happy to have solved my parking problem, but still had a piece of shit robbing me.

I must say, the timing is perfect, though. Brandon is on his way to Idaho to visit his sister for a week. So I can borrow his car for a week. This certainly sucks, but I had just put away $500 for vacation, so there's money to go toward repairs... which is a real bummer, I am so looking forward to going to Australia, but what can you do? Kind of sucks for the missed opportunity of a relaxed (mentally) and/or fun filled weekend but I think, overall, it's good that it happened on a 3 day weekend (as opposed to, say, a Monday when I would have been leaving for work around the time I got home).

So, it seems this morning my alarm didn't go off, but maybe I was just so tired after 2 hours of sleep that I turned it off. Fortunately I woke up at 10, don't know how that worked out but I needed to get up early today. First called Mom and Dad to make sure the game-plan was a good idea. Then called BMW Northwest to get an idea of cost, if they had any and a tow company. Called the tow company but they couldn't be there until the afternoon, I wanted it NOW. So I call Auburn Valley Towing, they can be there ASAP. Well, I can't be there ASAP, but that's what I wanted to hear. I've been trying to make a transfer for about 24 hours now because I only have $180 in my checking/debit. So I have to visit the bank, which is in the process this weekend of changing over to Chase (from Washington Mutual). I actually was not able to do a "transfer" at the bank either, the guy said I had to do a withdrawal and deposit just for this weekend. After that I head to Auburn, call the tow truck guy, tell him to meet me there, he gets there a minute after me, loads up the car and that was that. $240 but my insurance will reimburse me. All of this and it's about 1:00, I'm not even hungry. You know something's wrong when I'm not hungry after not having dinner last night and not having a meal before 1:00 on Saturday. I went to the store anyway, got some food, I'm eating it now.

Now what should I do this weekend? Any money spending is a bad idea. I probably want to go for a bike ride, hopefully bad luck will not rear it's head then. Folklife Festival is probably out for this weekend, I really wanted to go but doesn't seem like it's in the cards.

So, back to my luck. I'm also lucky to have a good friend like Brandon that will come pick me up in Auburn, help me try to fix the car, then let me borrow his car. I'm lucky to have parents that will loan me money if it comes to that when my car gets fixed. Fred was helpful yesterday too, and he called this morning to see how things were going, he'd be there for me if I needed him. Things really suck right now because I wasn't expecting this weekend to turn out like this, but things could be so much worse. And I kind of hate that, it makes me feel less justified about feeling upset. I'd be so much more upset if I broke my leg or something horrible like that, that would be so much worse than this, but I'm pretty distraught about my car. I mean, I did get the alternator replaced in late December. Then the transmission in March. Then my valve cover gasket and spark plugs 2 weeks ago. That right there is about 3 grand in the past 6 months, then we're talking about another... who knows how much now? Depends on what is wrong. But I wouldn't expect to get it out of the dealership for anything less than $500. BMW labor rate: $125/hour.