I know, I know.....I've neglected this blog for months now. I've been so freakin busy lately though. But I really need to document my day of hell. Before I document why I even moved out here in the first place. This day of hell occurred on my 2nd day here, Thursday March 22.
Oh and this post is really choppy, way sloppy. And boring. It just got so long that I became impatient and I don't feel like I did justice to JUST how bad this day really was. I feel like I somehow left stuff out and idk. It was a long day that kept bombarding me with crap and you just need to understand that now, because I didn't do a good job of illustrating it, even though I used like a million words to do so.
So I was going to rent the smallest size uhaul trailer to move my crap out because I didn't want to deal with finding new furniture. But then the stupid installation of a trailer hitch ending up costing more than what I paid for my bedroom furniture....which was almost nothing. Thank you ksl classifieds, ha. Anyway, I ended up fitting everything I own into my car. Except for a few odds and ends around the apartment which Mary is holding on to and 2 large storage containers that my aunt is so graciously storing for me. Even then....I think I done did pretty darn good with reducing the amount of things that I own to the absolute essentials.
Ok so that's important becaaaause I had to buy new bedroom furniture when I got out here. Hey so ummm that crap is expensive. So, once again...thank you Craigslist. Which I was kind of nervous about because even though the furniture I had bought in SLC from Craigslist was cheap and good enough, it was quite the disaster trying to haul it from one place to the next. More than a few tears were shed during that experience. My elders quorum there was less than helpful. The men I asked either gave me names of someone else who could help instead of offering their own help, or one person actually went so far as to say that he doesn't like feeling like he's "used" for his truck. To which I thought, "eff you, douche." It's called service and I have no one else to help me so okay fine go screw yourself a-hole. Especially cause I wasn't just trying to use him for his truck, I actually felt like we had established a friendship. but whatever.....I digress. Point is, I feared having to deal with the furniture situation again. But it had to be done.
So I got some basics off of there for way cheap from some nice trustworthy people. But since at the time, I didn't know one single person out here, I just rented a uhaul pickup truck to do the job for the day. It costs $20 plus $.59/mile, and you have to fill up the gas where it was when you picked it up (or pay a flat $30 plus $5/gallon). I only planned on driving a total of 40 miles or so, so I figured that I wouldn't end up paying more than $50-60.
So in the morning I went to go pick up my bed. Yes. Yes I did get a used bed from a stranger. Am I disgusting? Maybe. But I do inspect the things that I purchase before I pay money, and it was clearly almost brand new, and lived in a non pet non smoking nice clean home. Plus hello don't we all sleep with sheets? I do. Oh well, I spent easily $100-200 less than I otherwise would have had to. And oh hey when your first paycheck won't come till mid-April, and your previous job was a server, and you have to borrow from your parents (because mine are the BEST for being so great and understanding this past year and half of my life).....that means your broke as hell, man. So yes. Yes I am content purchasing a lightly used mattress. But I picked up the bed at around 730ish am, and that transaction and moving process went very smoothly.
Then around 1030 I left to go to Irvine to pick up my dresser, chest, nightstand set. Not as smooth. After checking it out, I realized it wasn't quite what I was looking for, and decided to call this other lady with whom I had been in communication about a set she was selling in north tustin. An extra 15ish miles each way was not exactly ideal, but I knew I needed to do it. Ok so on the way out of the neighborhood in Irvine I decided to stop by wells fargo to get little more cash to cover the cost of the other furniture. My gps on my phone had told me I arrived at my destination, but I had just missed the entry to the shopping center of what I can now only guess was the destination of this particular wells fargo. So I decided to pull a uturn. TERRIBLE IDEA. Sooo the tire nudged the curb. But ok look I've nudged a lot of curbs in smaller cars with smaller tires, and nothing happens. This was a truck. And yet the tire blew. I was on a street that is part of the free exit. The 405 in Irvine. Just a taaaad high traffic.
And the tears began to flow. And flow....and flow......and flow. I called my mom balling my eyes out because I didn't know what to do, then she told me to call my dad, which I did, balling my eyes out. So after he kindly told me to calm down because he couldn't understand me (my voice gets reeeeaaally high pitched and shaky when I cry), he walked me through what I should do. By that point, my phone was at 15% battery left, and I still had to call Uhaul roadside assistance, use my gps to get to the other furniture place, and also to get back home, and also to get back to the uhaul place. The stress of that made me cry even more. Oh and AT&T has the WORST phone service in this area. Doesn't matter where I am, my phone calls drop....EVERY SINGLE CALL. MORE THAN ONCE. DRIVES ME CRAZY. So while coordinating with roadside assistance, the call keeps dropping. Over. and over. and over. and over again. It was embarrassing and annoying. And scary because my battery life kept dropping. I have a car charger, just didn't think it was necessary since my trip was supposed to take an hour, max. Anyway, roadside assistance showed up within 25 minutes, put the spare on for me and I was on my way. But it was really a traumatic experience for me.
So I put the new address into the gps, figuring that I could stop at a wells fargo at my next destination, and I wrote down the directions in case my phone died....which it did. Right after I wrote down the last direction. I got to the new place, bought the furniture, and headed home. Luckily I had my ipod touch with me, which has wi-fi, so I used their internet and looked up directions home. I made it home, but then had the task of taking the long dresser, chest of drawers, and 2 nightstands out of the truck by myself. That was more than difficult. And you know what? I got it all myself, but saved the biggest for last. And that last piece almost killed me. But right before it almost toppled and killed me, the housecleaners (yes we have people that come to clean our home once every 2 weeks......best idea ever) ran outside to save me, along with a roommate that I had no idea was home.
So once we got the stuff inside the gate of our home and out of the way, I went to go return the truck. As I was leaving, I went to lock the door, but realized that the housecleaners were still there so I didn't need to. And off I went. I got to the uhaul place, the dude felt sorry for me so he knocked off $10 from the price, which was great because the price had jumped to $66 after the extra miles I had to drive, plus an extra $10-15 in gas that I had replaced just prior. I walk out to my car, talking my dad on the phone thanking him for his help and guidance that afternoon, when I started crying again because I realized I didn't have my car keys. I would have notice those keys weren't on me had I locked the door to my home. But I didn't. And I drove the uhaul truck, not my car. In case you were wondering how that could happen. Once again he walks me through what I need to do because at this point I was fed up with my terrible day and I was hysterical. Luckily, one of my roommates the night before had the brilliant idea of exchanging numbers. Had she not done so, I would have had to walk home to get my keys. So I texted her and asked the number to the girl who I knew was home so I could ask her to bring me my keys. It worked out, and eventually made it home.
That morning, I thought I would have made it home by 2pm, at the latest. It was about 5:30 or so by the time I actually got home. Oh and I still had NO FOOD and was starving. For almost a full week I survived by driving through a fast-food place and ordering 1 or 2 dollar-menu items. Once/day, no more. I'm broke, couldn't (well, can't) afford more than that right now. Sooooo I was very hungry that week.
So I was planning on ending my blog post there, but then just 2 days later, one of my tires on my car went out. I had just had a tiny sandwich for my meal of the day from Arbys, and had big plans to go to IKEA and walmart. You know, to finally buy food. As I rolled away from the drivethrough, I put my windows down only because it felt so nice out. Thank heavens I did because I would not otherwise have heard the funny noise being made as a result of my tire being so flat I was pretty much driving on the rim. I prayed and prayed as I rushed to the closest gas station to fill the tire with air, since I thought it was just a simple flat tire. And in California, if you buy gas from the station, then buy law they have to provide free air for your tire. So I filled with gas, then had my dad talk me through how to fill my tire up....because oh yeah by the way I've never done that before. After much UNsuccess, a very kind lady came up to help me, then pointed out that my tire was shot. No hole or anything, but some threading had come undone or something....? Can I just say that a couple months ago when I had to drop $350 on a new wheel bearing they warned me that this would happen, that the old messed up wheel bearing had ruined the tire and I needed a new one. But then a different guy said it was just fine, nothing would happen. He was wrong. I'm lucky I discovered the problem the way I did, and not on the 405 during rush hr in the morning on the way to work. Anyway, this guy comes out from this really shady looking car service place asking if I needed help. He could barely speak English, but I somehow communicated that I needed my tire to be looked at. He confirmed that I needed a new tire, and asked if I wanted to buy a used one from them. Once again I called my dad to ask for advice, no tears this time. He advised me to ask them just to change it and put the spare on, then take it to Discount Tire and get new a new one. He also told me that they should probably only charge $10 for the service of replacing the spare, but definitely not to pay more than $20. When he finished, I asked what I owed him, and he smiled and said I didn't owe him anything. What a wonderful, kind person. I insisted on giving him something, but he refused to name a price. So I showed him a $10 bill, and he finally gave in after lots of pushing it away. But seriously, what an great example of service. I've mentioned that I'm broke as hell right now, but this gentleman clearly wasn't exactly rolling in dough either. And I'm willing to bet that he has a family to support, etc. Whereas I.......do not. I have only myself to care for, and even though my parents will help me the second I ask for it. Anyway, great man, and I hope that I can learn to be as selfless as him.
So I made it Discount tire, and learned that I needed not one.....two.....or even three new tires.......I needed all four tires replaced. And it was legit, not a lie. Any idiot could tell that my tires were barely black pieces of rubber at that point, no traction whatsoever. And to think I drove from SLC to Huntington Beach on those bad boys. So I dropped another $500 dollars on tires that day. And then another $100 in groceries by the time I actually made it to the grocery store. oh btw......walmart sucks here. They have nothing that I like! My favorite greek yogurt, my favorite almond milk, my favorite cheese.....none of it! But there's an albertsons just across the street from my house, and also apparently a store called "Trader Joe's" is the trendy thing out here? I guess I'll have to check it out. OH and Farmers market things all over the place. So I get to eat fresh produce! YAY. I have a lot to blog about my new life out here. But I think this book that I just wrote will have to suffice......I know it was long and I'm sorry if you were dumb enough to take the time to read this boring sob story, I just really wanted to document it. And this is the closest thing I have to owning a journal. Sad I know. Whatever.
But can I just take a minute to be cheesy and spiritual/religious and whatnot? Stop reading right now if this kind of thing makes you uncomfortable. It usually makes me really uncomfortable so I wouldn't blame you. But I'd feel ungrateful if I didn't take a minute to give tribute to the man upstairs who watches over me. Some of you out there may not believe in God, but I really do. And I believe that I had my butt saved more than a few times by Him. I don't think it was simply coincidence that my phone battery stayed alive just long enough to get me around town and not get lost. Would I have found a way to survive and get home otherwise? Well of course. But it would have been so much harder. Had I not felt prompted to roll my window down at Arbys as I drove away, I wouldn't have heard that funny noise, because I didn't feel it as I drove. But I did and made it to a gas station. I also happened to stop at a station that just so happened to have a car shop attached to the back. Which I desperately needed because I don't know to change a tire, nor do I have the equipment to do so. Oh and tithing. I paid my tithing right before I left, and was down to $100 in my checking and $100 in my savings. I almost decided to wait to pay my tithing because I desperately needed the money that really doesn't even belong to me, it belongs to God. But I needed it. Lo and behold, after I paid, my $1000 tax return showed up and I was able to pay my rent for the month of April without needing to borrow yet MORE money from my parents. Blessings my friends, blessings. I also need a minute to point out how great my parents out. I truly could not have made this move all by myself without them answering their phones and being at my beckon and call all day long. ALL DAY LONG. every day. Oh and also for the money they've lent me till my first paycheck rolls around in 2 weeks.
It's been a tough 2 weeks adjusting on my own, and living without Mary. I miss that girl more than I love tortillas and cheese. (and if you know me at all, you know that tortillas and colby jack cheese is my staple food). But I know now that moving was the right thing for me to do right now....even though I knew it was a great opportunity, I was still in doubt whether or not I should really move. I'm so glad I bit the bullet and did it. I've already made great friends in the ward, and really just things are looking up. And I mean let's get real, who doesn't love dollar taco stands on every corner, and also living within walking distance to beach???? Orange County is treatin me real nice :-)
Oh and this post is really choppy, way sloppy. And boring. It just got so long that I became impatient and I don't feel like I did justice to JUST how bad this day really was. I feel like I somehow left stuff out and idk. It was a long day that kept bombarding me with crap and you just need to understand that now, because I didn't do a good job of illustrating it, even though I used like a million words to do so.
So I was going to rent the smallest size uhaul trailer to move my crap out because I didn't want to deal with finding new furniture. But then the stupid installation of a trailer hitch ending up costing more than what I paid for my bedroom furniture....which was almost nothing. Thank you ksl classifieds, ha. Anyway, I ended up fitting everything I own into my car. Except for a few odds and ends around the apartment which Mary is holding on to and 2 large storage containers that my aunt is so graciously storing for me. Even then....I think I done did pretty darn good with reducing the amount of things that I own to the absolute essentials.
Ok so that's important becaaaause I had to buy new bedroom furniture when I got out here. Hey so ummm that crap is expensive. So, once again...thank you Craigslist. Which I was kind of nervous about because even though the furniture I had bought in SLC from Craigslist was cheap and good enough, it was quite the disaster trying to haul it from one place to the next. More than a few tears were shed during that experience. My elders quorum there was less than helpful. The men I asked either gave me names of someone else who could help instead of offering their own help, or one person actually went so far as to say that he doesn't like feeling like he's "used" for his truck. To which I thought, "eff you, douche." It's called service and I have no one else to help me so okay fine go screw yourself a-hole. Especially cause I wasn't just trying to use him for his truck, I actually felt like we had established a friendship. but whatever.....I digress. Point is, I feared having to deal with the furniture situation again. But it had to be done.
So I got some basics off of there for way cheap from some nice trustworthy people. But since at the time, I didn't know one single person out here, I just rented a uhaul pickup truck to do the job for the day. It costs $20 plus $.59/mile, and you have to fill up the gas where it was when you picked it up (or pay a flat $30 plus $5/gallon). I only planned on driving a total of 40 miles or so, so I figured that I wouldn't end up paying more than $50-60.
So in the morning I went to go pick up my bed. Yes. Yes I did get a used bed from a stranger. Am I disgusting? Maybe. But I do inspect the things that I purchase before I pay money, and it was clearly almost brand new, and lived in a non pet non smoking nice clean home. Plus hello don't we all sleep with sheets? I do. Oh well, I spent easily $100-200 less than I otherwise would have had to. And oh hey when your first paycheck won't come till mid-April, and your previous job was a server, and you have to borrow from your parents (because mine are the BEST for being so great and understanding this past year and half of my life).....that means your broke as hell, man. So yes. Yes I am content purchasing a lightly used mattress. But I picked up the bed at around 730ish am, and that transaction and moving process went very smoothly.
Then around 1030 I left to go to Irvine to pick up my dresser, chest, nightstand set. Not as smooth. After checking it out, I realized it wasn't quite what I was looking for, and decided to call this other lady with whom I had been in communication about a set she was selling in north tustin. An extra 15ish miles each way was not exactly ideal, but I knew I needed to do it. Ok so on the way out of the neighborhood in Irvine I decided to stop by wells fargo to get little more cash to cover the cost of the other furniture. My gps on my phone had told me I arrived at my destination, but I had just missed the entry to the shopping center of what I can now only guess was the destination of this particular wells fargo. So I decided to pull a uturn. TERRIBLE IDEA. Sooo the tire nudged the curb. But ok look I've nudged a lot of curbs in smaller cars with smaller tires, and nothing happens. This was a truck. And yet the tire blew. I was on a street that is part of the free exit. The 405 in Irvine. Just a taaaad high traffic.
And the tears began to flow. And flow....and flow......and flow. I called my mom balling my eyes out because I didn't know what to do, then she told me to call my dad, which I did, balling my eyes out. So after he kindly told me to calm down because he couldn't understand me (my voice gets reeeeaaally high pitched and shaky when I cry), he walked me through what I should do. By that point, my phone was at 15% battery left, and I still had to call Uhaul roadside assistance, use my gps to get to the other furniture place, and also to get back home, and also to get back to the uhaul place. The stress of that made me cry even more. Oh and AT&T has the WORST phone service in this area. Doesn't matter where I am, my phone calls drop....EVERY SINGLE CALL. MORE THAN ONCE. DRIVES ME CRAZY. So while coordinating with roadside assistance, the call keeps dropping. Over. and over. and over. and over again. It was embarrassing and annoying. And scary because my battery life kept dropping. I have a car charger, just didn't think it was necessary since my trip was supposed to take an hour, max. Anyway, roadside assistance showed up within 25 minutes, put the spare on for me and I was on my way. But it was really a traumatic experience for me.
So I put the new address into the gps, figuring that I could stop at a wells fargo at my next destination, and I wrote down the directions in case my phone died....which it did. Right after I wrote down the last direction. I got to the new place, bought the furniture, and headed home. Luckily I had my ipod touch with me, which has wi-fi, so I used their internet and looked up directions home. I made it home, but then had the task of taking the long dresser, chest of drawers, and 2 nightstands out of the truck by myself. That was more than difficult. And you know what? I got it all myself, but saved the biggest for last. And that last piece almost killed me. But right before it almost toppled and killed me, the housecleaners (yes we have people that come to clean our home once every 2 weeks......best idea ever) ran outside to save me, along with a roommate that I had no idea was home.
So once we got the stuff inside the gate of our home and out of the way, I went to go return the truck. As I was leaving, I went to lock the door, but realized that the housecleaners were still there so I didn't need to. And off I went. I got to the uhaul place, the dude felt sorry for me so he knocked off $10 from the price, which was great because the price had jumped to $66 after the extra miles I had to drive, plus an extra $10-15 in gas that I had replaced just prior. I walk out to my car, talking my dad on the phone thanking him for his help and guidance that afternoon, when I started crying again because I realized I didn't have my car keys. I would have notice those keys weren't on me had I locked the door to my home. But I didn't. And I drove the uhaul truck, not my car. In case you were wondering how that could happen. Once again he walks me through what I need to do because at this point I was fed up with my terrible day and I was hysterical. Luckily, one of my roommates the night before had the brilliant idea of exchanging numbers. Had she not done so, I would have had to walk home to get my keys. So I texted her and asked the number to the girl who I knew was home so I could ask her to bring me my keys. It worked out, and eventually made it home.
That morning, I thought I would have made it home by 2pm, at the latest. It was about 5:30 or so by the time I actually got home. Oh and I still had NO FOOD and was starving. For almost a full week I survived by driving through a fast-food place and ordering 1 or 2 dollar-menu items. Once/day, no more. I'm broke, couldn't (well, can't) afford more than that right now. Sooooo I was very hungry that week.
So I was planning on ending my blog post there, but then just 2 days later, one of my tires on my car went out. I had just had a tiny sandwich for my meal of the day from Arbys, and had big plans to go to IKEA and walmart. You know, to finally buy food. As I rolled away from the drivethrough, I put my windows down only because it felt so nice out. Thank heavens I did because I would not otherwise have heard the funny noise being made as a result of my tire being so flat I was pretty much driving on the rim. I prayed and prayed as I rushed to the closest gas station to fill the tire with air, since I thought it was just a simple flat tire. And in California, if you buy gas from the station, then buy law they have to provide free air for your tire. So I filled with gas, then had my dad talk me through how to fill my tire up....because oh yeah by the way I've never done that before. After much UNsuccess, a very kind lady came up to help me, then pointed out that my tire was shot. No hole or anything, but some threading had come undone or something....? Can I just say that a couple months ago when I had to drop $350 on a new wheel bearing they warned me that this would happen, that the old messed up wheel bearing had ruined the tire and I needed a new one. But then a different guy said it was just fine, nothing would happen. He was wrong. I'm lucky I discovered the problem the way I did, and not on the 405 during rush hr in the morning on the way to work. Anyway, this guy comes out from this really shady looking car service place asking if I needed help. He could barely speak English, but I somehow communicated that I needed my tire to be looked at. He confirmed that I needed a new tire, and asked if I wanted to buy a used one from them. Once again I called my dad to ask for advice, no tears this time. He advised me to ask them just to change it and put the spare on, then take it to Discount Tire and get new a new one. He also told me that they should probably only charge $10 for the service of replacing the spare, but definitely not to pay more than $20. When he finished, I asked what I owed him, and he smiled and said I didn't owe him anything. What a wonderful, kind person. I insisted on giving him something, but he refused to name a price. So I showed him a $10 bill, and he finally gave in after lots of pushing it away. But seriously, what an great example of service. I've mentioned that I'm broke as hell right now, but this gentleman clearly wasn't exactly rolling in dough either. And I'm willing to bet that he has a family to support, etc. Whereas I.......do not. I have only myself to care for, and even though my parents will help me the second I ask for it. Anyway, great man, and I hope that I can learn to be as selfless as him.
So I made it Discount tire, and learned that I needed not one.....two.....or even three new tires.......I needed all four tires replaced. And it was legit, not a lie. Any idiot could tell that my tires were barely black pieces of rubber at that point, no traction whatsoever. And to think I drove from SLC to Huntington Beach on those bad boys. So I dropped another $500 dollars on tires that day. And then another $100 in groceries by the time I actually made it to the grocery store. oh btw......walmart sucks here. They have nothing that I like! My favorite greek yogurt, my favorite almond milk, my favorite cheese.....none of it! But there's an albertsons just across the street from my house, and also apparently a store called "Trader Joe's" is the trendy thing out here? I guess I'll have to check it out. OH and Farmers market things all over the place. So I get to eat fresh produce! YAY. I have a lot to blog about my new life out here. But I think this book that I just wrote will have to suffice......I know it was long and I'm sorry if you were dumb enough to take the time to read this boring sob story, I just really wanted to document it. And this is the closest thing I have to owning a journal. Sad I know. Whatever.
But can I just take a minute to be cheesy and spiritual/religious and whatnot? Stop reading right now if this kind of thing makes you uncomfortable. It usually makes me really uncomfortable so I wouldn't blame you. But I'd feel ungrateful if I didn't take a minute to give tribute to the man upstairs who watches over me. Some of you out there may not believe in God, but I really do. And I believe that I had my butt saved more than a few times by Him. I don't think it was simply coincidence that my phone battery stayed alive just long enough to get me around town and not get lost. Would I have found a way to survive and get home otherwise? Well of course. But it would have been so much harder. Had I not felt prompted to roll my window down at Arbys as I drove away, I wouldn't have heard that funny noise, because I didn't feel it as I drove. But I did and made it to a gas station. I also happened to stop at a station that just so happened to have a car shop attached to the back. Which I desperately needed because I don't know to change a tire, nor do I have the equipment to do so. Oh and tithing. I paid my tithing right before I left, and was down to $100 in my checking and $100 in my savings. I almost decided to wait to pay my tithing because I desperately needed the money that really doesn't even belong to me, it belongs to God. But I needed it. Lo and behold, after I paid, my $1000 tax return showed up and I was able to pay my rent for the month of April without needing to borrow yet MORE money from my parents. Blessings my friends, blessings. I also need a minute to point out how great my parents out. I truly could not have made this move all by myself without them answering their phones and being at my beckon and call all day long. ALL DAY LONG. every day. Oh and also for the money they've lent me till my first paycheck rolls around in 2 weeks.
It's been a tough 2 weeks adjusting on my own, and living without Mary. I miss that girl more than I love tortillas and cheese. (and if you know me at all, you know that tortillas and colby jack cheese is my staple food). But I know now that moving was the right thing for me to do right now....even though I knew it was a great opportunity, I was still in doubt whether or not I should really move. I'm so glad I bit the bullet and did it. I've already made great friends in the ward, and really just things are looking up. And I mean let's get real, who doesn't love dollar taco stands on every corner, and also living within walking distance to beach???? Orange County is treatin me real nice :-)
