Embracing the quirkiness

Lately I've been very disturbed by all the things that are wrong with my 2003 Saturn. I spend a lot of time in my car (as evidenced by the 131,000 miles I've put on in 6 years) so I've been fighting all the little issues that I've been having with my car. Today I finally decided to give up and embrace the quirkiness of my car. And isn't that sometimes the thing that makes you cool? For example, in the movies isn't it always the bad boy/outsider girl/loner/rebel that drives some old beater or has the high school locker that requires you to hit it in certain spots to open it? Well that's my car. So from now on I'm going to embrace the fact that only I know where, and how often, you have to hit the dashboard in order for the CD player to accept the CD. And that only I know to expect that in 90 degree weather or higher (which we're obviously not having this summer) the passenger side door will stick on the bottom and slam back and hit you in the face if you're trying to get out. Or exactly where to hit the plastic panel in the tailgate to silence the loose screw that is rolling around and can't be retrieved.

So there you have it. You can now consider me one of the cool kids.

Ellen (subtitled: a very sad day)

I usually get my car fixed at the Saturn dealership. I know people say you shouldn't do that but they're actually good and they're very reasonable. Never once have they charged me more than the original quote. The lady in the service department, Ellen, is fantastic and she's the only one that I'll deal with there. The other person working in that department is a major tool, jerk, idiot, rude pain in my ass. Can you tell how I feel about him? Normally when I have to deal with him I call Lincoln immediately afterwards and tell him I'm selling my car. I finally gave up and just refused to deal with anyone but Ellen even if it means waiting.

This July we're getting ready to drive back to Iowa and Minnesota so I need to get a few things repaired on my car before we go. Most of them are small little things but I just want everything done before we drive all those miles. I finally called Saturn today to make an appointment and found out that Ellen LEFT!!!! What am I going to do? The receptionist offered to put me through to the other guy and I said "no thanks, I may just have to find somewhere else to take my car." Eventually I decided to talk to Ivan. He's the person hired to replace Ellen. He seemed pretty good after my brief conversation with him so hopefully he'll end up being my new Ellen and I can continue to avoid the other idiot. If not I'm definitely looking for a new mechanic.