Hotaru just went in for her 33,000 mile service last Thursday. I was happy to not have to pay anything for this maintainence because I am seriously broke. On Friday, I spent the day with Rebekah at Recollections and we exchanged gifts. We got each other things off of our A Cherry On Top wishlists. It was great getting together with her. She always brings out the creativity in me. She made this wonderful photo gift using wooden blocks that showed different people in her family. She was inspired by Donna Downey’s book Photo Decor.

When I got home that evening, we packed our things to go to NY for Christmas. I burned 3 new DDR mix CD’s for the trip and labeled them with the label maker. Once on the road, we put in all 3 mix CD’s and 2 new ones that I had recently purchased - Notorius BIG Duets and the Roll Bounce soundtrack - into the in dash 6 disc changer. I had wanted to put my Jamiroquai CD in there as well, but I decided against it. Good thing I did because once we crossed into NJ, the first mix CD started to skip. I knew that the PC burner had been acting funny lately, so we attempted to skip to the next CD and we heard weird sounds coming from the changer. We tried to eject the CD - PLAYER ERROR came up. We tried to switch to another disc - PLAYER ERROR. We finally got disc 4 to eject. We tried to insert it again - CHANGER FULL. We knew at that point we were in trouble. We tried to eject other discs minutes later thinking it would right itself - PLAYER ERROR. We called Marvin to investigate some possibilities for us, but nothing came up. What he did find was that CD’s with labels are not recommended to go in multi-disc in dash changers. We have been putting labeled discs in there for about as long as we had the car with no problems until now. So we had to listen to the radio for the remainder of the trip and all the way back home.

I brought Taru to Covington to get the changer fixed since it is under warranty. An hour later, I have a conversation that went like this:

Mr. Burris: Mrs. Kendall-Diaz, your car is ready
K-D: Cool! That was fast!
Mr. Burris: It will be a 3-4 days before we get the part back
K-D: Excuse me???
Mr. Burris: Oh - no one told you, huh…we had to remove the radio and ship it out to be fixed
K-D: Oh…okay…thanks for letting me know…have a good day!

I get to the car and it looks as if her radio had been stolen. There is a huge hole where here audio unit once was and you can see clear inside the dash. Its a good thing that her engine and exhaust sound great otherwise I would have been a little more pissed.

So I go from the dealership to VEIP to get her emissions test. I pull up and pay the attendant. I then watch as he gives the car the once over, touches her spoiler and proceeds with the test. When he is done, he comes back with a grin and leaves my door open. Before I take off, he says “man - your car is really cool!”. I thank him and pull off with a smile on my face.

Today, on our way to Ft. Meade, we get on to 295 and I look in the rearview mirror. At that moment I see rolling perfection - a Black Pontiac Solstice. I barely keep myself together as I alert Will to get the camera. Now you may be thinking ‘it’s just a Solstice’, but to us GM nuts, it is much more than that. It is one of those cars that you lust over and seeing this car on the road as opposed to on a turntable at a show or a magazine just made our hearts race. It was absolutely beautiful and had a better road presence than magazines would have you think. Given the limited availability of the car added to our excitement of actually being able to see one. I honked at the guy and gave him a thumbs up as he passed by. We were able to snap a couple of pictures before getting off of our exit.

Yeah…I’m simple…but you gotta love me!

I was removing the pictures from the camera and came across some pictures that we took while we were at home. There was a beautiful sunset as we crossed the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn. The sky looked as if it was on fire, yet it was calming. Will got some great shots while we were moving.

The other thing is that we have a new dog in the family. The mutt’s name is Cooper and boy is he a pain in the butt to walk. He does not like the leash, wants to sniff everywhere and always has to leave his mark. For his size, he is quite strong. I figured my mom would have learned fromthe last time we got a dog that Pooch should be the only one, but that is only my opinion. I am just glad that I don’t have to walk him everyday…

Before I forget, Rebekah and I made our annual pilgrimage to the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Chantilly, VA. Normally, I go on a ridiculous spending spree at these events because they showcase items that are not found in your local craft or scrapbook store. This year I was unbelievably reserved and Rebekah was the spender! I am learning as a scrapbooker that I don’t need every new accent, tool or paper in the market. I did kinda lose it at the booth that was selling Quickutz at 30% off. I met the moderator of 2 of the yahoogroups that I belong to (MD Scrapbooking Pals and MD Stamping Pals) and chatted with her in a small Stampin’ Up! booth for about 15 minutes. She is a wonderful person with a very cheerful attitude. I was very happy to finally meet her. This is the third time I attended this convention (second time with Rebekah) and I think I keep up with the industry very well because there wasn’t anything there that caught me off guard as a “have to buy” item. I am glad because I was on a serious budget this year!

Cooper the dog:

The Verazanno at night:

Everything Will stated is the same for me. The funny thing about all this is the shirt I was wearing - one of my many Transfomer tees with Optimus Prime and the words ‘ROAD RAGE’ on it.

Although it is true that the roles were reversed, my reasons for why I was so “reserved” rests on on thing - whether or not we got into an accident. Had I not stopped in time and lived to walk away, I would have beaten the crap out of that guy with all I had. And then K&A would have stomped the crap out of him and then we all probably would have had a hard time avoiding jail that day even though it really was all that dude’s fault. Had he backed off at some point, I would have moved over sooner. But from start to finish, he was on our backs even at stoplights!

Nothing pisses me off in a situation like that more than a bully. When asked why he did that, he stated that “I do that to teach people a lesson”. Just to let you all know, I did learn something - I learned I can be calm in situations like that. He is lucky that he rolled up on us because he could have easily rolled up on some real thugs and this situation could have ended much worse for him.

I do have to say there was a bit of comedy in this - other than thinking he got away, he really got scared to the point he was shaking when K&A showed up from around the corner and got out of their car. He went real pale and looked as if he was going to die. It was one thing having this huge, angry Puerto Rican in your face, but being outnumbered puts you in a whole new category of scared.

Would I do anything different if I was put in that situation again? No. People like him need to understand that wherever they are going is no more important than where I am going. All that matters is that we get there safely. Unless your vehicle is legally equipped with lights and sirens, there is no reason for me or anyone else on the road to get out of the way.

Edit: Nad’s tee-shirt.