New, To Me!

Ok.. I finally gave up on my POS Ford Exploder... w/ or w/out the extra awesome wonky bumper I made out of aluminum energy drink cans and duct tape to replace the "illegal" one filled with rotted rust holes (which, I might add TOTALLY passed inspection the following day.)

 It was time to find a new (to me) car.

This summer (pretty sure it was August) I had been at the health food store next door grabbing something to cook at work for breakfast (I really can not stress enough how cool it is to have a gourmet kitchen on the premises)... and I noticed a car, a model I was not familiar with... but kinda instantly fell in love with. By the time I had made it back onto the deck at work I was just standing there staring at it.

I HAD to know what it was... so I just dropped my groceries and walked back over to it. On my way over the owner was getting in the car.... I just walked right up to his window, put on my best "I swear I'm not nutters" face, smiled, and said "Hi! What IS this?"


Turned out he was friendly too, and he smiled back and told me, "a 1969 Jeepster Commando."

I informed him of my instant love for the car, and he then told me it was for sale! (!!!!)

We exchanged cards & numbers... and 24 hours later I had lost his number. :(
I just figured it was one of those "if it was meant to be..." things, and that clearly it wasn't meant to be.

Jump ahead to about two weeks ago, on my day off, and I had to stop by work to get a number off the computer. Guess who was there talking to my boss?! Only I didn't recognize him at first. When he smiled at me I had smiled back thinking he was one of the friendly customers we get at our shop, and I must have met him this summer. I should add the fact that he is ridiculously handsome, so I was kinda shocked that I didn't remember exactly who he was in that moment.

Once inside at the computer he and one of my bosses walk in, and the guy says to me "Do you remember me?" ... and my brain went into turbo flashback mode (pretty sure there were flames as well as a sonic boom type *whoooosh*) and I suddenly remember exactly who he was.

"I do, and I was always bummed that I lost your number. I loved your car."

"I still have it, it's still for sale."

We exchanged numbers again. This time I wrote his number down in like 8 different places. He came back the next day, and we talked some more... and then a few days later... I got super serious about that Commando.

TODAY he drove it over to me at work, and one friend that works at a repair/tire shop just one street over let me bring it by and put it on a lift. THEN a very good friend, whose opinion I value so much, showed up to check things out too... and to top it off, my mechanic, the guy that has worked on my Exploder for YEARS showed up to help me.
There were others around that knew the ins & outs of classic cars... and they offered help, opinions, and useful information too.


At one point, standing under the Commando, I looked out at all these amazing people, who I might add- NOT ONCE treated me like a stupid girl who doesn't know cars, and promised them loudly "you are all SOOO getting fresh baked cookies!"

I had prepared a list of questions for the owner (& asked many of them when it was just the two of us) ... and I felt a silly satisfaction in hearing the other guys there ask those very same (albeit worded differently) questions. I had a few more questions for the owner like "is there a lien on the car?" which elicited audible grunts of approval for such a savvy question from the crew of awesome that was inspecting the car like it was an alien spaceship and this was Area 51.

As the car was brought down in the lift my mechanic, Louis- his name is Louis- had a very stoic look on his face and asked me to step outside with him... I was worried, and made a joke about how we were "going outside to canoodle."

Once outside his face lit up like Whoville when the Grinch brought all the stuff back, and he told me the truth. He told me how much certain things would cost to get fixed; what could go a while w/out fixing; why I was getting a GREAT deal... and that if I didn't want it he knew a guy that would come there immediately and snatch it up. That was enough for me!

Everyone else said the same thing...

Smiling I went to the owner and said, as calmly as I could, "I want this car."

We went back to my shop, sat down & talked about it... then I took it for a wee spin... and I was soooo sold!

This evening we spoke on the phone as he was feeding his daughter some dinner... and finalized the deal.

I am so freakin' happy about all this it's ridiculous! There are so many more cool aspects to this story... though I do wonder if they are only cool to me....

but I just wanted to get to the part where I show you MY BRAND NEW (to me) 1969 JEEPSTER COMMANDO!!!!!

...and my goofy ass... in 40˚ weather, with a serious wind... & still in flip flops...just about as happy as a girl could be (which is why I don't really care that it's a totally unflattering picture and I look like a 'tard... I'M HAPPY!!!)

 

You've Gotta Ask Yourself, "Do I Feel Lucky?" Well Do You, Punk?

So..... there's been a change of plans this summer. My bartending gig at the place I worked last summer has a .000000001% chance of existing at any point this summer. I was sad about it for like an hour, pissed off for like a day or two... then guess what? Totally over it. Too bad really, since I loved that gig... BUT... like with almost all things we loved once, going back to them isn't always as fun.

THOUGH, I will say that the person I was working with last summer, who just about every customer complained about because she was always in a bad mood, is back there this summer. I found it interesting (and totally flattering & smile inducing) that so many different people had individually come up to me, before the bar reopened, to tell me they had asked about me/requested that I be there again... but the person hired back (who I'll totally admit is quite a good bartender, at least at making drinks properly, she's been doing it for years) is the one everyone complained to me about.

Yes, that's her...& no, I did not take that picture

I would have shrugged that off too, but on opening night it was my best friend's birthday... and a group of mutual friends were out with a bunch of girls at a bachelorette party that had decided to go dancing at my old bar... so, seeing as how it was my best friend's birthday, and I was the designated driver that night (someone had to get us home safe, and the birthday girl could barely sit on a bar stool safely halfway through the night)... I went down there. It was like going to your ex's place after a shitty break up. I didn't like it, but what made me just walk out of there without a word was looking behind the bar and seeing the moody bartender in a short pink wig. Yeah, I found it mildly pathetic, and left.

you've seen MY hair, right?

When I went back upstairs to the other bar I sat down to talk to one of the bartenders I totally think the world of and we laughed about it. THEN some random guy goes and sits right next to me (mind you, the bar itself was rather empty, he had a wide range of bar stools to pick from) and while my initial instinct was to just ignore him and continue my conversation with the bartender, the guy engages me in conversation, has some funny stuff to say, and then asks me "where are you from?" When I told him I lived here on the island, and "in fact I used to be a bartender downstairs", he laughs and says "well why the hell aren't you still down there? You're fun as hell, and way nicer than that grumpy wig wearin' bitch they've got there now." Oh man, I laughed my ass off! He proceeded to tell me how he and his friends had stopped in there at the beginning of the night and she was HORRIBLE to them. Totally cold and unfriendly. To the point that a bunch of guys, after a long day at work, chugged their drinks so they could get out of there ASAP. I laughed harder, THEN I witnessed him complain to the bar staff about her. Yeah, I enjoyed myself immensely from that moment forward. The guy was a lot of fun, and from my home town of Chicago (♥!!!). At the end of the night we exchanged emails and promised to get in touch so we could hang out again when he came back to the island (he and his work crew come out here once or twice a year to do work for a wealthy family from back home that has a 2nd house here) and I took Drunky McBirthdayGirl (and some others) home safely.

I loved that the next day I got a txt from her that said "thank you for driving last night!"
So I sent one back that just said "Thank you for NOT driving!"... and I also got a good laugh via facebook:

*click to enlarge*....this has been deleted in the past day or so, probably by her.

As far as jobs go....I ended up scoring a great job for the summer, full time (& started a few weeks ago... hence the sparse blog posts & comments on yours (sorry 'bout that!!!).... with FREE HEALTH CARE! What? Who woulda thought I'd land one of those, eh? Every day I spend the majority of my day sitting on a lovely wooden deck staring at the ocean... since the deck hangs OVER it.. again... WHAT?! The people I work with are fun, and very nice... and the customers, while mostly fairly stupid tourists, are at least nice. Sounds rather perfect doesn't it?
Yeah, I thought so. I was ready to stick with this job for the long haul all summer, and when the season ended... come back to it next summer.


What changed?

Well, the other day (about a week back, in fact the day after I saw the @#$%* in the pink wig) a friend of mine stopped into the office of my current job and we were talking about the shop he was opening with a few others (it's a motorcycle repair shop & retail store). I sorta half jokingly asked him if he was looking for any help, thinking (at the time) that having 3 jobs for the summer just wasn't enough... I didn't really expect his lit up facial reaction!

A day or two later I stopped by the shop, we talked, and I suddenly not only WANTED to work there, but felt like I NEEDED to.

(I love that we look like a 2 headed freak)

I discussed all this with one of my co-workers (who happens to be a good great friend) and it turned out she wanted to quit one of her jobs and work more hours at the job she & I shared... so you know what we did? We switched!

Today we finalized things, and the switcheroos will take place over the next few weeks.

I still have the awesome job overlooking the ocean, but no more free health care though, 'cause I won't be over 40hrs a week there any longer. It'll be in the evenings (& one 10 hr day) each week now, AND I will be working full time, all day, everyday at the bike shop... and doing a ton of graphic design for a business here on the island that has hired me to crank out a bunch of stuff for pretty good money. FINALLY! Life is good!


Throw in the fact that I stopped at the post office today to check my PO Box and there was a fat check from the state. Guess some taxes got overpaid. Um... again... WHAT?! This kind of thing NEVER happens to me! Way to take it up a notch 2011! You've scored yourself one hell of a fightin' chance at awesomeness!!

Anyone else havin' a strange, yet epically excellent bunch of stuff happen lately? I know the saying goes "misery loves company"... but sometimes (most times) I really enjoy hearing other people's good news instead. So, please, do tell!!