"When I woke up this morning, I never thought that I wouldn't be in Ann Arbor, that I would know about blown gaskets, that I would have met a tow truck driver named Dwane, that I would have taken a vegetarian to Cabellas, and that I would be shopping with you for cars." -a comment I made to Tags as I was sitting in a Pontiac Sunfire.

Yeah, so those of you not there, I will tell you the story of my crazy day yesterday. Yesterday was a beautiful day to go to Ann Arbor- the members of Sigma Tau Delta decided to make this our first event as a group. We took two cars- mine being one of them. Between the sweet tunes playing out of my iPod and out of my big speaker, Tess and I would complain about the frigidness inside my car. For some bizarre reason, my car's heat was not working. Finally, I decided to call my Dad:

"Hey Dad. Do heaters in cars break, because I think mine might be broken."

"Well, sometimes a belt in the nobbs might break. Have your passenger check the resistance in the nobbs."

"Tess, turn the nobbs on the heater really slow. Do you get much resistance."

With an annoyed and confused look, Tess responds, "No, and it's still blowing out cold air."

"Well, Holly, what does your temperature gauge read?"

"Oh, it just reads... crap! it is almost in the red."

"Pull over NOW!"

"What?! Dad, can't I wait till I get to an exit?"

"Well, is it in the red yet?"

"No, not yet."

"Pull of at the next exit."

"Tess, call somebody and tell them we have to pull off on the next exit."

So we pull off at the exit past Dundee to let my car cool down. As I was on the phone with my Dad, Ben, Mike, and another Mike helped to fix the car. Ben just happened to have the green slimer kool-aid liquid that needed to go in my empty coolant tank. We filled 'er up and followed my Dad's orders to go back an exit to Cabellas where a tow truck would meet my car and me there.

After touring the "world's most outfitter" (what does that mean?), and the largest collection of stuffed animals (not the cute, fake kind) and the largest collection of hunters, all of STD left in Ben's car except me and Dan.

Dan and I got very expensive Tuna sandwhiches (the only kind of meat that Dan can eat- pretty much everything had meat in it- and wierd meat too- ostrich, bear, bison). We also got tons of calls from my parents. The tow truck was on the way.

We met Dwane in the front of Cabellas and he let us ride in his tow truck to my car (tow trucks are pretty sweet rides). He was about read to hook 'er up, but I told him to wait because nothing was leaking. He popped the hood to look at the insides of my car. When he checked the oil, he noticed that the dip-stick was covered in liquid about 6 inches up. He said that the coolant was probably leaking into the motor.

Just then my parents found us and my Dad told him to "hook 'er up." I forgot my car pass (at the time I thought I was going to use my Grandma's car for the week I didn't have a car), so I got to climb up on the tow truck to get it out- yes!

From there, we had Dwane follow us to Maumee- to Ed Schmidt's Chevrolet. Dan and I perused the Hummers while my Dad talked with the people. My Dad came out and told me to start looking at used cars on the lot because I might need a new one.

I was really confused- my car was just missing some slimer fluid.

Well, it turns out I blew a gasket (ha- so that's where that phrase came from) and all the slimer fluid had gotten into my motor and the motor would have caught on fire if we had drove much more. It is a weird thing that Tess and I got fed up with the cold right before my motor was about to ignite. Some people call these moments fortunate coincidences- I call them divine intervention.

Anyway, the repairs of my car will probably cost half of what the car is worth (which is all of my savings- grr). So my Dad says, "why don't you think about getting a new used car." So Dan and I checked out some new used (an oxymoron that makes complete sense) cars and then we left because they weren't going to give me anything for my old car.

Bummer.

So, I am looking for a ride to Maumee Tuesday or Thursday from 2:30-5:00?:)

Well, after all that. We came back to BG, we dropped Dan off, and my parents took me to El Zarrape (mmm... that was good and cheap. If anyone ever wants to get some Mexican food there, I am in)

Later, after I got over the shock of not having any money again, I went to a play with some IMPACTers about Paul Robeson. Look this dude up. He was a really influential guy for African American rights in America, but he has been erased (or so it seems) out of history books because of his association (or assumed association) with the Communist party.

Well, time for Church.

ttyl,

boo