January Can Just Bite It

Fed-up-ed-ness (nice, huh? I am in love with making up words lately) and hatred of winter seem to be a recurring theme on my blog roll the last few days. See here, here, here, here,and here. I am about to trampoline right onto this bandwagon.

Yesterday was just another sucky day. It was a long-ass day at work, another day when I didn't see Giuliana for more than 30 minutes, John and I had an argument (we made up) and I got a pounding headache. The topper happened at the end of my last appointment for the day. I was already not happy about going to this appointment. It was at 4:30pm waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out in Vestal Center. I am always there at least an hour. That means that the absolute earliest I could have picked Giuliana up from my parents' house out in Conklin was 6pm. Then trek back to Endicott=6:30pm by the time we get home. Earliest possible scenario. YUCK! But, it was not to work out that way. Oh no, it got way worse.

The family I was visiting, as I stated, lives far, far out there, almost to Pennsylvania (you measure the distance to PA in feet, not miles). I have been working with them for at least 2 years. That equals at least 24 visits to their house, ok. They have this driveway that goes down pretty steeply from the road, for about 200ft to their house. I have driven down, and then up, this driveway at least 24 times. Never before have I gotten stuck. Not until last night. Last night I got soooooooooo stuck. I could not get my car (my SUV! that does not have 4WD) anywhere close to up that driveway. In fact, not only would my car not go up, it kept sliding back down, when it was in DRIVE! I tried and I tried, coming at it from every possible angle, rocking back and forth (luckily it is a wide drive) but no go.

Finally, at 5:30 I called John, who was on his way to his own appointment. He canceled that and drove out to rescue me. Meanwhile, I went back into the house to let them know I was stuck. They had not heard me spinning my wheels for the last 10 minutes in their driveway. Now, this family has some issues that I won't get into for the sake of privacy. But, let me just tell you that this single mom has had me pretty freaked out in the past about how far out in the country she lives and how crazy her ex husband is, and how many guns he has, and stuff like that. Good times. So anyway, she tells me that she has gotten stuck many times in the driveway, but she can usually get out using cat litter for traction. But, she and her daughter have to leave soon to go to a swim practice. So she comes out and helps me spread cat litter under my wheels, and allllllllllllllllllll the way up this 200ft driveway. I try again, and again, and again.....still stuck.

Finally, my knight shows up to save me (I love him so). He tries to get the car unstuck. And, wait for it....the TRANSMISSION DECIDES TO BLOW! So, now, not only am I well and truly stuck in this driveway, but now my car is not going anywhere because the wheels don't turn. At all. And it is f*ing freezing. And this mom is leaving. And we are supposed to get a huge snow storm that will bury my car even further.

The good news of the evening came when I realized that, thank God, we have been paying for roadside assistance with our car insurance (I promised Liberty Mutual I would pimp them to my friends in a survey I took post-tow truck.) So, I called LM and they told me that I was covered and they would send a tow truck out ASAP. Which turned out to be an hour later. And I had to stay with my car because of some NYS law that says I have to be there when the tow comes because I have to prove that it is in fact my car and this is not all some grand scheme to steal this stuck, dead car.

Thankfully, thankfully, my loving, cute, funny husband was there, too. He really did make it all better. We sat in his car to stay warm. Then he went down the road to the gas station (the one in PA, yeah, I'm telling you, we were out there) to get some dinner. I (who can't drive John's car, because it is a f*ing standard) had to stand by the road in case the tow truck came. That part was not fun. At all. It was very dark. And, remember how I mentioned the crazy ex-husband, with guns, and we are out in the middle of nowhere, and now I am really freaking out!! But, nothing happened, and John came back, with delicious (so not delicious) gas station pizza, chips, and cotton candy in a bag :) We sat and ate and talked about silly shit and laughed for the next 1/2 hour.

Finally the tow truck came. And the guy got out of the truck at the top of the driveway, looked down at my car, and said, "There's no way I'm taking my truck down there, I'll never get it out." Oh, yeah. That's what he said. But, after he inspected the situation and John buttered him up with his nice guyness, the tow guy hooked up about 4 chains and pulled my car allllllllllllllllllllll the way up that driveway to his truck. That took about an hour. Then he loaded it on the back and drove it off to Saturn. Where it is now. Our warrenty should (please GOD) cover what ever happened to the transmission. We are still waiting to hear. We did have to pay $54 for the tow because the roadside assistance only covers a tow up to 6 miles. And we were at least 10 miles just to get back to RT434. But, all in all, it could have been a lot worse.

Then we got home. My parents' had brought G home for us and kept her up till we got there (at 8pm!) She was happy to see me. Not so happy with John. Which broke his heart, and consequently mine. She has been going through this "phase" lately where she is not quite a fan of Daddy. It is really killing John. She picked a particularly bad time for this phase, given all the shit January has thrown at John already.

I am so sick of this month. I'm cold, stressed, broke, heartbroken, frustrated, and not in a good mood. And, honestly, I just need a break. So, too all my friends out there, just to let you know, John and I could really use some help here. We are just drowning in it. Anyone who wants to come and make dinner, walk the dog, vacuum my house, watch my daughter, or just make us laugh is so welcome. We love you all. Thank you in advance.