Cars, Apartments, and my dear, sweet, Mommy

Let me preface this post by saying that I love my mother very, very much. On with the show.

So, my mother brings the car into town yesterday. Before we go to dinner, we decide to stop at the dry-cleaner so I can get my favorite suit ready for Jack Healey's arrival and the alternative commencement. Well, what should happen but the car should break down. Fortunately, we got it pushed out of the way and Drex came and gave my mother a ride back to the Hotel, and then we had Heroes. And dinner. It was good.

Well, I run back to where we left the car right after Heroes, and it's a miracle! It starts! So I drive down to my mother's Hotel and we talk for a few hours. It's the car and apartment conversation. With the classic, "do you ever plan on shaving?" In all fairness, I really should shave, but... Come on... Anyway, about half an hour into it, she decides that I need to "stop harassing [her]" and "stop asking [her] for things." I didn't realize that having a conversation to work out the details of something we'd agreed on ages ago was harassing. Anyway, we finished watching the Cosby show, and I drove over to Drex's to recollect myself before I went home. But I didn't end up going home. I slept over instead. And had Chocolate cake.

So, the next morning (It's now Tuesday), I get up and I drive back to my apartment and take a shower. When I get back to the car to go get my mother, it doesn't start. Oh joy of joys... Anyway, she manages to get up to my part of town and we call AAA and they come and tow us to SDS auto. Props to SDS auto for fixing our starter issue in less than an hour after they got our car into the shop. While it was waiting, my mother and I went to lunch, and we chatted, and it was fun. Except that she doesn't like keeping secrets from my father, who seems to think that my reason for staying at BYU is that I've fallen in love with some girl. The food was good though.

Well, the car got fixed and we went and drove and looked at apartments in a few places. My mother seems to think that I should move into the Bavarian. It's more expensive, but it's so nice... Roman Gardens is pretty much out, regrettably. It looks nice, but it only has 6 washers and dryers for a two ward complex, the kitchens are tiny, really really tiny, and the microwaves are significantly older than I am. For that matter, all of the appliances are. Other than that, they were really nice, and it's very well landscaped.

So, we're driving to the airport when she tells me that she really does not support me in getting a car because she thinks that it will distract me from my mission. You read that correctly, the reason that she doesn't want me to get a car is because she thinks it will distract me from my mission. I told her that was ridiculous, that if there were things that might distract me from a mission cars were not on that list. That answer didn't seem to satisfy her, but we were at the airport at that point, so the issue couldn't be canvassed any further. Leave it to my mother to tell me exactly how I should live my life (which complex to live in (she went way in depth on why the Bavarian was so much better than everywhere else), whether or not to get a car) and why, and then to jump out of the car to get on a plane before I can formulate an answer. I love her, but sometimes...

In other news, a company from Germany bought up some of the old Tektronix property in Oregon and they need people to translate everything from technical manuals to business letters to personal letters at a rate of 15USD/hour. It's not super likely, but it's possible I will be able to get on with them this summer between the time I get back and the time I go to work at Boyscout camp. Obviously, that would make my day like no other. Extremely good money for work I could do with my hands tied in my sleep. Well, the technical manuals might not be that easy, but the business letters would be a walk in the park. Anyway, I'll keep you posted on developments on that front.

In other, other news, I'm going to dinner with Jack Healey tomorrow! Feel the excitement emanating from me. Because it is emanating.

-Stephen