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Worth celebrating
Jul. 1st, 2014 12:56 amCelebration Agenda Item #1: Our Internet is back! We think. Fingers crossed. It's been two weeks of going around and around with RCN's customer service and techs, but the cryptozoological line crew finally showed up. Apparently we may or may not also have a bad wire in our house, but we now have the cell phone number of the line tech and he said to call him directly if we have any further problems. (One slightly gratifying moment: a friend-of-a-friend on Facebook tipped me off to their "executive support" customer service line, and when the crew didn't show up again despite being promised, we called the number figuring we had nothing to lose. Brian said he gave the woman our address, and heard back "Okay, I'm pulling up your account information and--oh my god." I suspect we had quite a string of notations by then.)
Celebration Agenda Item #2: We bought a car! After a harrowing winter that included a month-long daily commute to the suburbs in some of the worst weather Chicago's seen, Brian put his foot down and said we needed to get a car with four-wheel drive and better ground clearance than our little BMW sedan. I said fine, and he got to work with his exhaustive researching, and after a couple of test drives we finally settled on a Range Rover Evoque. (Which surprised the hell out of me - I'd always thought of Range Rovers as overpriced, unreliable suburban assault vehicles. But the Evoque is really well designed, has gotten great marks on reliability, and is super-nimble and crazy-fun to drive.) The question was how long it was going to be before we found one we could afford; the model line began in 2012 and were luxury crossovers to begin with, and even the early ones are still trading hands for forty-plus grand. But we found one in particular that looked too good to be true - 2013 model year, all the options we wanted (and some we didn't - hello, backseat entertainment system!), certified pre-owned with extended warranty, etc., almost in our price range, and it had been on the lot for a month and already marked down once.
We headed over to the dealership, and quickly discovered why it hadn't sold - it had "trust-fund-baby car" written all over it. White with black interior, custom black rims, black vinyl wrap on the roof, black-tinted windows with rain gutters, black-painted lettering and badges. (Given that the Evoque has a bit of a reputation as a pretty-pretty-princess car, Brian theorized that the previous owner had been going out of his way to prove that his Evoque wasn't a girl's car.) Thing is, it's actually not as awful as it sounds - the windows and wrap have obviously been done professionally, and while I think the rims are a little much, they're powder-coated rather than painted. So when the dealership offered us a price we could afford for exactly the car we wanted in great shape and not even a year old, we decided we could live with the slightly silly but good-quality detailing. Now to find a "Self-Rescuing Princess" sticker for the rear window...or maybe a license plate frame.
Celebration Agenda Item #3: I submitted my story! After revising, and copy-editing, and formatting, and all that professional stuff! True, you'd think writing it would be the hardest part, but I have a bad history of getting nearly all the way done with something and then choking on it at the last minute. (I can get why my brain would get frustrated at the prospect of revising something after working so hard to write it, but why it seems to decide "oh, man, I've got to put it in a professional format? No way, that's way too much work!", I will never understand.) Obviously I have no idea if they'll accept it - I think it's right in the arena of stuff they're looking for, but I also am not a member of the editing team and have no idea how it might or might not fit with other stories they've already got planned. Still, I really feel like I did my best on this one, and I'm proud to have submitted it, which I think is a first for me.
Tangentially related, the timing on this entertains me somewhat - if, next time I write/revise/submit a story, Brian offers to take me out to celebrate, I'm probably going to be all "Hey, last time I wrote a story you bought me a car."
So how am I going to celebrate all of these wonderful celebration worthy items? By...going to bed! And going to yoga tomorrow morning, since I missed it tonight. Goodnight, all. <3
Celebration Agenda Item #2: We bought a car! After a harrowing winter that included a month-long daily commute to the suburbs in some of the worst weather Chicago's seen, Brian put his foot down and said we needed to get a car with four-wheel drive and better ground clearance than our little BMW sedan. I said fine, and he got to work with his exhaustive researching, and after a couple of test drives we finally settled on a Range Rover Evoque. (Which surprised the hell out of me - I'd always thought of Range Rovers as overpriced, unreliable suburban assault vehicles. But the Evoque is really well designed, has gotten great marks on reliability, and is super-nimble and crazy-fun to drive.) The question was how long it was going to be before we found one we could afford; the model line began in 2012 and were luxury crossovers to begin with, and even the early ones are still trading hands for forty-plus grand. But we found one in particular that looked too good to be true - 2013 model year, all the options we wanted (and some we didn't - hello, backseat entertainment system!), certified pre-owned with extended warranty, etc., almost in our price range, and it had been on the lot for a month and already marked down once.
We headed over to the dealership, and quickly discovered why it hadn't sold - it had "trust-fund-baby car" written all over it. White with black interior, custom black rims, black vinyl wrap on the roof, black-tinted windows with rain gutters, black-painted lettering and badges. (Given that the Evoque has a bit of a reputation as a pretty-pretty-princess car, Brian theorized that the previous owner had been going out of his way to prove that his Evoque wasn't a girl's car.) Thing is, it's actually not as awful as it sounds - the windows and wrap have obviously been done professionally, and while I think the rims are a little much, they're powder-coated rather than painted. So when the dealership offered us a price we could afford for exactly the car we wanted in great shape and not even a year old, we decided we could live with the slightly silly but good-quality detailing. Now to find a "Self-Rescuing Princess" sticker for the rear window...or maybe a license plate frame.
Celebration Agenda Item #3: I submitted my story! After revising, and copy-editing, and formatting, and all that professional stuff! True, you'd think writing it would be the hardest part, but I have a bad history of getting nearly all the way done with something and then choking on it at the last minute. (I can get why my brain would get frustrated at the prospect of revising something after working so hard to write it, but why it seems to decide "oh, man, I've got to put it in a professional format? No way, that's way too much work!", I will never understand.) Obviously I have no idea if they'll accept it - I think it's right in the arena of stuff they're looking for, but I also am not a member of the editing team and have no idea how it might or might not fit with other stories they've already got planned. Still, I really feel like I did my best on this one, and I'm proud to have submitted it, which I think is a first for me.
Tangentially related, the timing on this entertains me somewhat - if, next time I write/revise/submit a story, Brian offers to take me out to celebrate, I'm probably going to be all "Hey, last time I wrote a story you bought me a car."
So how am I going to celebrate all of these wonderful celebration worthy items? By...going to bed! And going to yoga tomorrow morning, since I missed it tonight. Goodnight, all. <3
