100k!

Considering I'm female and drive a relatively nondescript domestic sedan, I talk an awful lot about my car. I mean, there was the whole deer incident, with the subsequent repairs. Then there was the license and registration saga. And today I'm going to write about my car yet again. First of all, my personalized plate arrived and I must admit that since I put it on the car, every time I see it, I do a double-take, and I get a little rush of excitement.


You gotta love the sun glistening on the chrome. I swear I did not stage that!

And the even bigger news--my car has reached a rather significant milestone (ha ha, no pun intended): 100,000 miles!


If you know me, you know that I'm freakishly obsessed with my odometer reading. I've been looking forward to this momentous event for months now. Pathetic, I know. It is not a recent affliction. I've taken pictures of it at 10,000 miles (I remember it clearly: I had just driven up to my friend Marcy's house in Valencia, California, during some sort of break from college. I think it was Christmas. I took the photo with a disposable camera. This was back in 1999 and digital photography was still budding technology and very expensive.) I also have a picture from when it read 77,777, just because.


I mean, how cool is that? (You can even see the Check Engine light in the lower right-hand corner...that blasted thing mocked me for over a year. No one could figure out what problem was causing it to go on. I finally got it taken care of last June. Had to leave the car with the mechanic for a week...luckily, I timed it so it was the week I was here in NC visiting my new niece!) But I digress...

So clearly you can see I take my odometer reading way too seriously. In addition to the 100k shot, I actually took a pic at 99,999 as well. And a video of it turning over to 100,000. It happened just as I was pulling up to my apartment after having gone out shopping. I could not believe my luck, because I had seriously fretted that I would be speeding down the highway when it rolled over and I wouldn't be able to take a picture. Even worse, I was afraid I'd get lost in thought and miss it altogether (shudder at the horror!). I even contemplated--if it read 99,999 when I got home today--driving around the complex until it turned over. I am not kidding! Seeing the odometer at an even 100,000 makes me not want to drive the car and "mess it up." Yes, I am aware that all this makes me very weird. So be it. I'm letting my freak flag fly, as they say!

So what was I shopping for, you ask? Why, some sweet new speakers for my 'puter! I've been wanting a set with a subwoofer for quite some time, and it was one of those things I told myself I could buy when I got a job. Well, now's that time! They sound awesome!!

It kind of feels like my birthday or something, because I also treated myself yesterday to some new cookware. I was still using the same set I got when I moved into my first apartment in 1998. They were a'ight, as Randy from American Idol would say, but the lids were starting to look scuzzy and the teflon was scratching a little. So I got some new pots and pans from Sears. They're not chef quality or anything, but they're nice. My theory is, you either buy one top-of-the-line set and forget about it for 20 years, or you buy bargain sets every five or six years. I don't cook that much, so I've never been able to justify getting the expensive stuff.

So last night I ate with my parents at the Cheesecake Factory in Raleigh. I adore that restaurant. This was our first visit to one in NC, but I'd eaten at California CF's in Pasadena, Woodland Hills, Redondo Beach, and Marina del Rey. I've also been to the one at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. I would eat at CF all the time except that the wait is always ridiculously long. But the food is sooo delicious. At the risk of reavealing all my lunacy in this single post, I will confess that I'd actually had a dream about their Avocado Egg Rolls the night before. Nothing absurd, just that I was at CF and I ordered them. So when my parents called and suggested I meet them at the restaurant for dinner, I jumped at the chance. And you bet I ordered the eggrolls. Yummo, as Rachael Ray would say.

So tonight I'm looking forward to my ABC block: Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Grey's Anatomy. At some point I need to finish my postcards for the swap. I can't wait to see what everyone sends!

P.S. What is UP with the birds here? Lately they've been chirping and singing full-bore at like midnight! I'm not talking about a tweet-tweet here and a tweet-tweet there. It's a veritable birdsong master chorale, and it's wacky. They're supposed to shut up at sundown and not peep until sunrise! Or at least that's how it was in CA. I suppose and extra helping of chirps is not all that whine-worthy in the grand scheme of things, but it's just a little odd to hear it so loud so late. But really, who am I to be critical of weirdness? I just rambled for 350 words about my car's odometer!