may the thwarts be with you

today, nay, this week, has been a week of thwarting. most of it has been work-related but today, well, i had the thwartyness quintet. live and in person!

thwart#1
began my work saga at 730am. as posted earlier, i didn't get it completed by my scheduled departure time, and in fact, never did...from my POV. ultimately the movers came and i had to leave, taking my laptop with me, thus ending any attempt to work until monday (techincal issues).

while i was annoyed i couldn't finish, it was mitigated by the fact that a) i couldn't really do anything about this situation and b) i did get to have a little fun by meeting liz for lunch and some shopping at VF. hey, i HAD to leave work early!

thwart#2
i've been having a bra (sizing) crisis. since i was at the mall, i decided to look for a new one. seriously, so many stores, so few good options! finally, i found some ok ones at macy's, and was trying to decide between them. as i did this, i put on the bra i wore in today.

oh. that one feels sooooooo much better than all the other ones i tried on today. sigh. guess it's back to wallyworld for me, rock on.

incidentally, when i got home, i found out the delivery *did* complete, so my final thwart level for thwart#1 is only 50%. i reserve the right to up this if it turns out people were wrong about the delivery. :-p

thwart#3
again, since i was determined to have some fun tonight to make up for a difficult week, i planned to go out. to a queer comedy thing up in alameda. so i'm in the car, and immediately when i get on 680 (by my house) it's already backed up. hrm. i go 5 miles in about 15 minutes. i call 511. yeah guess what? the first 25 miles of your 40 mile trip has traffic going 5-15 mph. since i wouldn't have gotten to the event until way late, i bailed and came home. there's always something else, right?

thwart#4
decided to go to downtown san jose. thought there was a good movie playing at the camera 12, browse a bit, whatever. i get parked (WOW downtown gets packed friday nights!) at a garage, then head over to the theatre. yeah, i got the time wrong and no more showings tonight. in fact, there are no more shows. smooth. i noticed en route that most stores were closed so i head back to the car.

thwart#5
the car would not start. at all. i immediately called AAA for a jump. half hour? fine. meantime i go back to tell one of the attendants that i'll have to stay a bit longer, and will pay the extra afterwards.

another attendant, an older asian man, hops up: did you need a jump?
yes, that's why i called AAA.
oh, but you can call and cancel. i can do for you!
oh really?
yeah, i go get my car!

sure enough, there he was a few minutes later and we spent the next 10 minutes trying to get the car going. i do appreciate that someone was *trying* to look out for me... anyway, his guess was that it was either the starter, or the car was overheated (and indeed, it was very hot, considering) and i should try again in a while.

so i head back outside. saw a borders earlier, maybe that would be good. walk over...closed. wander a bit more...i'm getting hungry now. stopped in at mcdonalds for some offensively salty french fries. but still, it was a snack i needed. headed back towards the garage, trying to linger but not toooo much since it was nighttime, downtown, by myself. it's almost an hour later when i get to the car and try again.

no love. so, i called AAA again, and a VERY nice guy came and a) after examining the car, agreed it was probably the starter so b) towed it for me to the dealer and c) even called a cab for me en route, so that by the time we got to the dealership, i only had to wait 5 minutes, tops.

again, totally get that i have a little angel keeping watch over me, and am very grateful. but oh! the thwarting. and now, i get to look forward to spending money on the car. woooo. wasn't like i planned to meet min in portland for the last part of her trip or anything. :-p

ah well. things will work out, of course. they always do. but i am oh so glad it's the weekend. i hope this time weekend = an end to the kind of week i've had. cuz i need a big ol reset button.