Today was quite the adventurous day.

I woke up this morning with the intention of fixing my car.

First, I tried to figure out how to take the TWO broken headlights out of my car to get replacements. It looked to me as if they were bolted in under a large bracket of some kind with big scary bolts on it. Crazy German carmakers. So I decided I needed help. What does a girl with a catholic school education do when she needs work done on a car? She calls the nearest public school guy. That's what guys learn in public school right? So I left a message for Zach.

Then I headed over to Best Buy to get my new stereo installed! New Stereo? How does an unempoyed actress have money for a stereo? Well I was saving money to move to Chicago, and since my dreams were crushed and I couldn't get a hold of anyone on the phone to talk me out of it this past weekend, I blew my savings on an Mp3/CD/XM stereo console, with a blue digital display. I had to do something to take the pain away. So I spent! and spent!
Hey, they offered me free installation.

Unfortunately the Best Buy guys don't do headlamp replacement. So while my ride was getting pimped I had lunch with Maggie. At that point Zach had called me back and said yes he had tools and he'd love take a look under my hood. Indeed. So I said I'd call him when I was done at Best Buy.

Mags and I dined on Sesame Jack Chicken Strips at TGIFridays down the street from BB. It was nice to spend time with her. Just as we were paying the check the BB guys called my cell and told me to come pick up my car.

The new radio is SO SHINY. I just kept pollishing it with my sleeve as I listened to side one of my They Might Be Giants Dial-a-Song CD. Changing the graphic equalizer with every accordion squeeze. Heavenly. I hardly ever get nice things. so nice.

Zach didn't answer his phone so I drove through downtown Springfield looking for an auto parts store to buy the new headlamps. There are tons of car dealerships but no parts stores that I could see. Then on the horizon I saw a gigantic "VW" logo calling me home. Yes! The Springfield Volkswagen dealership. THEY know how to fix things.

So I had an amusing exchange with the Volkswagen guys. To sum up: Yes it's really windy outside, No I can't get an estimate on my torn roof without an appointment, and replacing my headlights will cost about $35 each. Also it is indeed strange that both lights broke at the same time and while it might be fun for me to drive with my highbeams on all the time the other drivers are not big fans of it. So $70 eh? I'll have to think about that. SO I did what any intelligent girl with a Catholic school education would do when she has money questions. I called my Daddy.

The Daddy wasn't answering his phone either. So I called directory assistance and had them connect me with the auto parts store near my house. They said the headlamps they had in stock were going cost me $6-$25 each depending on quality. Hmmm... now I'm no expert at math... but I think thats a lot less.

So to Hybla Valley I went. I bought the top o the line lights because I'm half blind and like a lot of light and hey, it's still cheaper than the VW guys were going to charge me. I got back in the car and since I still hadn't heard back from the Z or The Daddy I called my brother (who incidentally didn't go to public school, but he is a techie, so knows his way around a socket wrench) I asked him if he could fix my mess if I drove to Fairfax. He said alright, but in HIS Volkswagen he didn't need any tools and he described to me how he changed his headlamps a few months ago on his Jetta. I argued that there are big bolts and pieces of metal on mine and it's different. So he said fine, bring it out. As I headed for the Beltway, I thought, even with my new CD player, I don't feel like driving to Fairfax. Let's take another look under the hood.

I pulled over at the next gas station and sure enough, I turned the thingy and pulled on the other thingy just like Lil Mikey said and the old light just popped right out! How exciting!

So I went home and rolled up my sleeves and started fixing my own car.

BUT

The auto parts guy had sold me the wrong kind of lamp. It didn't fit. So I put it back in the box and set back out on my adventure. It turned out the lamps that fit were actually in a 2fer package on sale! So they gave me money back! So cool!

Home again. It took 10 mintues and only $27 and NO MEN to replace both lamps with Superstar Halogen! YEAH! Peemp my riiiiide! Now all I need are woooofers and reeems!

I even killed a spider by myself when I got back inside the house.

Hey Ladies! Independent women unite!

I was so exhausted from all this independence that I had an early dinner and took a nap. Now that I'm up and there's no Midnight Marauders meeting tonight I'm going to get to work on putting the house back together before my mom comes back from vacation tomorrow. I tend to make a mess when left alone for extended periods of time.

Oi!