Dead battery in a Toyota, Bridget Jones' hair, and a Jeep Wrangler

So, I just learned from one of my landlords that loud-walking lady (who also sometimes plays her music too loud) has moved out. She was my upstairs neighbor since I moved in here, but she has apparently left Memphis.
Anyone need a 2-bedroom apartment in Midtown Memphis? Contact me if you do - my landlords asked me to put feelers out.

And, now, to the reason why I've been in such contact with my landlords - my wonderful car. Yesterday, at 5 am, I headed out to my car to go to work. And the damn thing wouldn't turn over. It wouldn't start. The air / radio / annoying beep / lights all functioned, but it wouldn't start, and just went "click-click-click" everytime I tried. I freaked out, called a co-worker, called my mom, and called a co-worker again, to come and get me. Said co-worker, MB the sports guy, did, but he drives a convertible known as "the pimp sled". It's a restored 70's impala. By the time we got to work, my hair looked like Bridget Jones' in the road-trip-in-a-convertible scene. We also started the show late, and I was (understandably) distracted for most of the show. I also didn't get my morning latte, as I was carless, and i'm the one who normally does the 7:30 Starbucks run.

I was really freaked out, called the dealership (because I did get some kind of extended warranty when I bought the certified pre-owned Toyota) and they said I would have to have it towed (at a cost of $75) and they would have to run diagnostics (at a cost of $79). Then, if they determined whatever was broken was covered by warranty, Toyota would pay for the rest. If not, it was parts and labor and all that, and could end up costing me probably close to $1000 when it was all said and done. Then, the guys I work with suggested I call their mechanic, and try to set something up with him. So, I did, and told him I'd call him once I got home.

In the meantime, co-worker MB offered me use of his spare car, a stick-shift Jeep Wrangler, so I could still get around and do all the things I have to do. And yesterday, Tuesday, I had promised to pick someone up at the airport at 1 PM, so I was especially anxious to have a vehicle at my disposal. I left work at 10 am, and borrowed said Jeep. I got home, parked the Jeep in front of the bike shop, and asked one of the bike shop owners / landlord brothers, Ron, if he could look at my car. He said it was probably just the battery, and put an electric charger on it. Due to flight delays, I didn't have to get to the airport until 2 pm, and decided not to hazard taking my car out with a risky battery, and headed out in the Jeep.

Did I mention the Jeep had it's soft cover off? Yeah. So, to mitigate the Bridget Jones windswept effect, I put a bandanna on my head like scarf, and drove to the airport - during which drive I realized the gas light was on. After I did the airport pickup, we headed to the Shell station at Ghetto & Airport to put gas in the borrowed car. My car only has an 11-gallon tank, and never costs more than $30. As the numbers kept cranking on the pump, I said, if it gets to 15 gallons, I'm stopping. At $40-something dollars and 15 gallons, it still wasn't full, and I stopped. Whoo, Nelly, that's a lot of gas. But I'm being done a favor, so I don't complain too much.

It's weird driving stick again. Driving a Jeep, I feel like a different person. My hair is blowing all around, I'm getting sun on me, and I'm much higher up than I normally am in my car, or most cars I'm a passenger in. I feel taller, more powerful, more in control. It's harder to hear the radio, and the wind is blowing an whistling by, but it's really cool. And, it's not that hard to drive. I don't think I'd want one as a full-time car (not too practical, and I'm a practical kind of girl), but it's damn fun to drive for a little while.

I checked in with Ron, the landlord, and he says he should have a battery in for me today, and can install it tomorrow while I'm at work. If it's not the battery, then I'm screwed. But if it is, hallelujah, and I'm good to go. And I can give MB back his Jeep, and go back to my little Toyota Corolla 4-door automatic kind of life.

Picture Pages

a picture can (temporarily) replace actual writing.

these photos were sent to me by Tonya, while I was visiting the family, to show to them.



Tonya & I at Origins, Oak Court, after our pre-Mother's Day mini-spa and makeover, Saturday May 13th. We both got facial treatments and our beauty enhanced by careful cosmetic application. (translation - we let the ladies have fun with our makeup).



Me, looking foxy, after the mini-spa and makeover. Tonya convinced me to wear the dress (and new fancy makeup) for that night's plans, which included Gus' Fried Chicken, the best fried chicken in Memphis. Good times....

Gurnal (represented by cell phone), Me, and Tonya, at the Sunset Symphony, Tom Lee Park, Saturday, May 27th. Tonya took this picture herself (as if you couldn't tell.)



Me and Tonya, at the Sunset Symphony, Tom Lee Park, Saturday, May 27th. (taken by our new friend who was sitting behind us)



ROCKY HORROR, Friday June 9, 2006, me with the guy playing Eddie & the one of the many guys playing Frank.


this is the last 2 months of my life, as I've shared it with Tonya. She's a smart mom, and carries her digital camera everywhere. One of these days, I'll get one of those digital cameras. I could use a printer at home first, though. :)

Media Whores

my friends and family in the media

Apparently, buying a condo in Downtown Memphis means you get to be in the newspaper.
To wit:
Inner-city Sanctum - Steve Versnick's River Row condo has it all: great location, terrific neighbors

Concord High School graduation (My "baby" sister Bethany's graduation, last Saturday, June 17)
an article highlighting the ceremony, including the killjoy administrators who took away all the beach balls. Oh, and the valedictorian, Jess Lanney, is one of Bethany's friends.
an article about a classmate whose murder made national news
photographs from the ceremony, both by the newspaper and submitted by families

that's it for now...
I have about 3 different things i've been meaning to post, but this will do for now.

Family Ties

I'm going to NH in 4 days. The baby (she's 17, I know, she's not a baby anymore) is graduating HS, and 4 of her 5 older siblings are heading on out to the East Coast / New England to be there for the momentous occasion.
I'm a little nervous. I've seen Mom and Dad and Bebe fairly recently (Christmas), but I haven't seen the other siblings since 2004, a year in which I saw them all (except for the one who doesn't come to things) twice. In February of 2004, my parents celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary (go ahead, do the math - yup, I'm a honeymoon baby, 9 1/2 months after they married I was born) and they threw a celebration for themselves, and we all flew out. Then, in June 2004, my dad's sister-in-law, my aunt, died after complications from a brain hemorrhage. And those of us that could went to Portland for the funeral - Dad and I met up in an airport (Detroit or Minneapolis, can't remember which NWA hub) and flew out, Leen and her Steve drove out from Idaho, and Marc and D drove up from Eugene. Mom and Bebe couln't make it... but who knew then they'd need to fly again later that summer when my mom's cousin's daughter (our second cousin) died after a car wreck?
So, this will be the first time I've seen my sister Neen or Polo since June 2004 - when Marc and I threatened her Steve with bodily harm if he broke our sister's heart or knocked her up. He laughed at me, all 5-feet and red hair and righteous indignant anger, but you do what you have to for your siblings. This is also the first time I will see Brother Marc since that trip - last summer, some of my family went to Northern California for an old family friend's wedding, but I was visiting B's family in Scranton, PA that week, instead.
Leenie will be bringing her Steve to NH; Marc will be bringing his Louise; and D will not be bringing her Robyn (no great loss). D is engaged to Robyn, but she dated him back when she was in HS (when we all lived in Eugene) and I didn't much like him then. And Polo still doesn't like him now, and avoids him (which means avoiding his sister, even though they live in the same town). I, as usual, will be flying solo, the spinster older sister.
I'm really proud of my youngest sister, otherwise known as 6 of 6 (in our family's Borg numbering system). She's the last of my parents' kids to fly the nest, and will be leaving them for college come August. And then mom and dad will join the ranks of those 50-ish adults who are, for the first time in their married lives, alone with just each other. I'm told, by mom and dad and other sibs, that they are divesting much of what they have in their house, in an attempt to simplify and downsize now that it will just be the two of them.
Oy, it's going to weird and wonderful and great and scary to all be together again. We hope to take pictures (either with or without mom and dad), and, if we do, I will post them. :)
I will, of course, update post-travels.

This blog today brought to you by the letter "C" and the number 10

My mom had this posted on her blog:

Write ten words beginning with that letter in your journal, including an explanation of what the word means to you and why. Pass out letters to those who want to play along.
Comment on this entry and I will give you a letter.

My mom assigned me the letter "C" (I think, because of my middle names and the fact that I had the "C is for cookie" by Cookie Monster album when I was a child)

Cookie - that's good enough for me, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!

Catholic - the religion of my upbringing (big C) and my current outlook on religion (little C).

Cats - the pets of my childhood, and the animal I'm most allergic to in adulthood. And, of course they know I'm allergic, and want to love up on me.

Committed - to my family, to my job, to those things which are most important to me. (and, in some ways, committed, as in mental)

Chatty - or "communicative" or "talky" or "gabby" or "talkative" or "jess could talk both ears off a deaf mute".

Caring - sometimes I care too much. I fall in love (like) fast, and hard. I worry about my friends and family. I used to really care what others think about and of me, but I'm much better at that now.

Cerebral - I overthink things, and live in my head. Which I guess is a little surprising in that I talk so much. Really, though, only about 1/3 of what I think actually travels from my brain to my lips... which means there is a terrifying amount of stuff going on in my head.

C-curve - something I've been working on since I started Pilates. It indicates my work on my body and soul by pursuing an athletic / fitness activity for the first time in years.

Coffee - or, more specifically, espresso. Specifically, Starbucks, a place in which I have found great comfort, good beverages, and, at one point, employment. Also in the beverage category, chai, now with soy.

cute - because I'm short and peppy.

clever - 'cause I'm smart and stuff... and can write and be funny... :)

C words I don't want to be: condescending, callous, coy, conniving, crackheaded, cheap, craven, cowardly, criminal, crass, crappy, cheesy, cross, clueless, classless, caustic.

(this took me 4 days. I had to let the hamsters run on it a little bit to come up with all the words.)