Things That I Hate

- Wedding planning. It sucks and I don't like it. Vendors don't respond in the timeline that I think is appropriate (I'm talking 3-5 business days for a major, well-established catering company/hotel chain). I'm talking about giving these people thousands and thousands of dollars and they can't be bothered to email me back to tell me what they charge and if they can accommodate me?! UGH!

- Norm Coleman. What an ass. Regardless of one's political persuasion, I think that we can all agree that Minnesota deserves a Senator that respects the rule of law. Not one that says, with a fluid 400-ish vote lead, that he won unequivocally and that his opponent should resign himself to that fact and call off the recount of the popular vote that is mandated by state law. Fuck off, Norm. Your record is shameful. You were the Democratic mayor of St Paul until you realized that it was easier to get elected as a Republican. So you switched. You then lost a race for governor to Jesse Ventura, almost lost to Paul Wellstone (RIP, to the most passionate representative the State of Minnesota has ever had in Washington) and may well lose to Al Franken. Hardly a popular mandate, sir, and THREE TIMES now, you have failed to carry your former city in an election! Comments like those he made on Wednesday disgust me. I hope the manual recount of votes prove Al Franken to be the winner in a blow-out.

- Working, but not having any work to do. Say what you will, but when I'm at work I like to be busy. I hate just sitting around, watching the clock tick. Nothing makes the time go faster than wading in thigh-high to a complicated report and making sense out of it. That makes me sound like a huge loser, but it's true. I hate just sitting around at work.

- Getting up every morning for work. I am not a morning person and I DO NOT LIKE being at work before 8am.

- Overly-sweetend things. It's true. I love things that are mostly unsweetened. When I drink juice, it's usually a 25% juice to 75% water ratio--also good for keeping the blood sugar level ... level. I don't really like chocolate, unless it's quite dark or in a flourless-type cake, or with mint. I prefer fruit desserts. Today one of the girls from the Cookie and Cracker desk at work came around with a giant cart full of samples, and I grabbed a box of "Stella D'Oro" 100-calorie packs. They are the most delicious, barely-sweetened cookies ever and I love them. They are, however, billed as "breakfast cookies", which I find odd.

- Baseball being over. For serious! I miss baseball.

- My car. Anyone want to buy a '96 Probe? At this point, I should just get rid of the damn thing. I'm not driving it at all, and by the time I might need a separate car from Ryan, I could save the money I would have spent on gas/insurance/maintenance on a down payment for a newer car. Seriously, if anyone is interested, let me know--I'll consider all offers. It's a cute little car and it's been quite the workhorse for me. I actually sort of love the thing, if it weren't for how teeny-tiny it is, and how not-teeny-tiny my dear Ryan is. Ah well.

This is something of a weekend of milestones for me, as one year ago today I was in Toronto for my lovely friend Paula's wedding! I miss her--and all my Torontonians--dearly. I can't believe it has been a year already! Also (and I thought of this a bit ago and told Ryan, which he was a bit put off by) today marks what would have been the sixth anniversary with university boyfriend Tim. Yowzahs. Sunday, of course, marks both the one year anniversary of Paula's wedding, and the two year anniversary of Tim's and my breakup. I have to say, on the whole, I'm pretty okay with how things have turned out ;)

Contemplating going car-less

As most people who are acquainted with me are aware, I'm in the market for a newer car. My dear workhorse, 1996 Ford Probe, is rapidly nearing its demise and I am very determined to trade it in or sell it before it completely dies.

Our recent-ish move to a block off of Nicollet (bus route heaven) and skyrocketing gasoline costs revives the ghost of an idea that I daydream about frequently: going car-less.

Financially, it's almost a no-brainer. At this point, filling up my gas tank runs just over $60. The Probe gets fairly poor gas mileage for its size (just over 20mpg). The bare-bones insurance costs about $100 per month. And then there's maintenance...

The cars I'm shopping are your average Civics and Camrys. They'll get better gas mileage than the Probe, but insurance will cost a lot more and I'll be making payments of around $200 per month for an indeterminate number of years. Getting a newer car will likely cost me just under $500 per month.

So assuming a bus pass would cost me about $100 per month, why don't I just go car-less?

FEAR.

I've never really not had a car in Minnesota. There were plenty of times that I shared a car, and I didn't have my own car for the first five months after I moved back from Canada. But at that point, I wasn't really working full time.

It should be so easy! If I didn't have my own car, I would surely walk, bike, and rollerblade more, leading to a healthier and more svelte Lauren. I would save a pile of money. I would, to use that vomit-inducing phrase, "reduce my carbon footprint". Running errands would be more challenging, though, and I'd spend more money on taxis and would probably irritate my car-having friends with ride requests.

Maybe this isn't the time to go car-less. I'd like to, though--isn't it funny? Whenever I don't have a car I wish I did. When I do, I wish I could get rid of it. I probably could do it, if I was committed, but Ryan would have to be on board with sharing his car some of the time, and I'm not sure I'm yet comfortable asking him to make that sacrifice.

My dream really is that a few years down the line, we'll have our cute little house near a light rail station, at least one of us will work downtown and we'll have one car that sits in the garage most of the time.