So.

Apparently a car is totaled when its bumper comes off. Who knew? Not me, that's for sure. And it turns out insurance is such a joke.

You see, living in my own little world as I often try to do - it's much more pleasant and things tend to actually make sense there - well, there you have insurance because after paying them for ages and ages when you finally do need to use the services you bought, they fix your car . . . you know, because you've paid them to fix it. Turns out in the real world they can just say "oh, your car is too old so we're not going to bother with it. Yeah, we know that leaves you without a car, so we can either give you enough money to cover about half the repair, or we'll take the car and give you just enough money to buy an even older car . . . which we also won't fix if you ever need us to." Seriously? What the crap is up with that? And tell me one other business where you pay for something and then the person you paid can turn around and say they won't give you what you paid for and legally they don't have to - name one.

So what is the point of insurance? For new cars? Then just how new does a car have to be? And no wonder car companies are always pushing people to buy a new car every year. If you're going to have sort of car bill anyway it may as well be a payment on a new car instead of a repair bill for an old car the insurance doesn't actually cover. And that sure explains a few things about the last couple of years, amIright?

And who came up with this system anyway? Who in their right *cough*yeahright*cough* mind decided it would be a good idea to screw over the people who can't afford a new car for every birthday? Why is the system set up so that the people who try to make things last get shafted instead of the ones who's whole mentality is "consume, consume, CONSUME!!"? Not cool.

On the plus side, Luke has some friends from work who have some sweet skills (sadly, not nun-chuck or bow hunting skills, lol) and connections who think the whole thing can be fixed cheaply enough that we'll actually make money in the end. But while that is kind of awesome - it shouldn't have to be that way. I'm all for having it as an option, but it should not be the only option that doesn't involve spending every penny we've managed to save this year. Seriously, am I the only one who thinks it shouldn't work this way? The only one wondering what the point is in even having insurance?

So that whole situation has been bugging the crap out of me all week and then today I discovered exactly why and how the whole thing happened in the first place. The ultimate irony is that Luke normally drives to work, but the last couple of weeks have been absolutely unbearable. (You couldn't pay me to spend more than about 5 minutes outside right now!) So of course it happens that during the - what, month, three weeks? - that he's going to be driving he ends up in an accident. Go figure. Anyway, today I'm driving him to work, and we're stopped at the very same light where Luke got hit last week. And this car comes up behind me and stops close - REALLY close - to me. Now, I'll admit I'm kind of paranoid about how close the car behind me is ever since I got rear-ended, but you also can't deny that a lot of people follow much to closely, especially when stopped. I mean, come on - are those extra four inches really going to save you that much time? I don't think so. So I've developed the habit of stopping even farther back than what would be considered a "safe" distance behind the car in front of me so when the moron behind me stops on top of me I can put a little bit of distance between us again. Usually works pretty well. Anyway - today. This car stops waaaaaay to close, so I ease forward a bit. Sadly, as sometimes happens, it ended up being a "I move up three inches so they move up six inches" situations. I get uncomfortable if I can't see headlights in my rear view mirror, and I kid you not by the time this guy finally stopped I couldn't even see the hood of his car. At all. Are you kidding me? Then Luke glances back and thinks the car looks kind of familiar . . . and then it tailgates . . . I mean "follows" . . . us all the way to the Convergys parking lot, confirming his suspicion that it's the very same guy who hit him not even ten days ago!! Seriously? Screw his stupid flip flop excuse - this guy is clearly an incompetent menace of a driver. What are the odds? I feel sorry for the other parties, but consoled in the knowledge that at the rate he's going he'll eventually rear end so many people that he'll lose his license.


But now - good news.

Cancel that - AWESOME news.

I WON A BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WON I WON I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, so goodreads is pretty much the awesomest website on the planet for someone like me. And I kind of love it. And you should totally join it and we can totally be friends and (virtually) share books and stuff. And - AND - they give away books. GIVE!!!!! As in FREE!!!!!!

Now, a couple of months ago Shay won a book. It was the first (and at the time only) give away she'd entered. And she won. At the time, I'd entered about a dozen. And had not one any. Needless to say, I did not find that pleasant. But I kept entering almost every give away I stumbled across, and since the official rules mentioned that site activity is a contributing factor to the choosing of the winners I killed time by working my way up to #10 out of 706321 on the never-ending book quiz. (Which may sound kind of lame, but has been actually pretty fun, and I'm prouder than I should be of that ranking, lol.) But to be perfectly honest I figured nothing would ever come of it because I never win things. Seriously. Never. Ever. Ever. In fact, if there were a contest in which I knew for an absolute fact that I was the only person entered - I would still expect someone else to win . . . that is how consistent my losing streak is.

So today. I get the mail. And there's a package. Addressed to me. I'm not expecting anything, and it's from someone I've never heard of. Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . . . 'kay. The envelope is torn, and I can see it's a book. Wait a minute . . . I didn't order a book. Except for . . . wait! I did finally pre-order Mockingjay, after a long internal debate of pre-order-vs-midnight release-vs-buying day of release. (side note: I cannot understand why Hunger Games has not gotten as big as Harry Potter or Twilight. At all.) Did I accidentally order this instead? But how could I have done that? I've never even heard of this book. Wait a minute . . . the title is kind of vaguely familiar . . . maybe I to-read-ed it on goodreads? Wait a minute! Did I finally win a give away?!?!?!?! So I rip open the packaging and see the congratulatory note from the author which makes me feel very popular and special and proceed to absolutely freak out because I WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I finally won something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And it feels pretty good to win. I like it. (the winning thing I mean, haven't started the book yet.)

Here's hoping the free books keep coming!!!

P. ost S. cript
So it's no secret that I absolutely adore Weird Al. Even before he did the most awesome thing in the world - putting Donny Osmond in the video for "White and Nerdy." That still cracks me up every time I even think of it. So while you may have noticed that I posted this on facebook earlier this week . . . well, this song is near and dear to my heart for several reasons. Among them - "Look, limestone! Most people take it for granite." "He's got a special deal this week - two of his heads for one of yours. Anyway you slice it, you still come out a head." Shirley's Temple . . . Dr. Albert Falls . . . ah, the good memories. So glad they (usually) outweigh the unpleasant ones.