Arughghghghgh! So it snowed again today...I think this is the fourth heavy snowfall since the season started and so far we've accumulated a grand total of thirty inches. Seriously, if I never see snow again, I wouldn't be at all sad. I AM SO SICK OF ALL THIS SNOW! Yes, I know I live in Nebraska and it's fucking January, but still it's causing me all this stress...

I was getting ready to drive to work and I left half an hour early just because I drive like a little old lady in this kind of weather. I turned my car on and got the defroster and heater on full blast working, but there was still some snow on my front shield I needed to brush off (I had brushed off most of it earlier). So I get out of the car and brush off the snow. When I go to open my door, it's locked. ARUGH! And usually I'm really careful NOT to lock my door when my car is running, but I must have just locked it out of habit; I wasn't even thinking, I guess. And of course my purse is in the car which contains my cell and my apartment keys are on the keychain. I head to my apartment complex's office to get a spare set of keys for my apartment because I think I have an extra set of car keys in my junk drawer, but I'm not sure if I was thinking of my old car which I knew for certain I did have a spare set for that one. (Which wouldn't work for this car!) If not, I'm going to have to use the office's phone and call a tow trunk and tell my boss I'm gonna be late...and ugh, it would have been a nightmare.

Well, thank God it happened on my apartment (instead of at work) and thank God I did find the right set of keys I was looking for. So that was a major disaster avoided. Coming home, my stupid car got stuck in the stupid parking lot so this nice guy helped push my car. I HATE ALL THIS FREAKING SNOW!!!!

Well, I got a new car with my insurance money from my crash. Actually, my parents picked it out since I don't know the first thing about buying cars. It's a blue 2000 Mercury Cougar. I like that it has cruise control and tells you how many miles you have before you have gas (things my last car didn't have), but I don't like that the seats' headrests are in the way and it's hard to look over my shoulder for oncoming taffic. Hopefully I'll get used to that.

My favorite resident from the HP died the other day. Betty! I was so sad when I heard that. (Not really shocked because she WAS 95...) Betty moved to another facility that could take better care of her in October, so I hadn't seen her in awhile, but she was so funny! She'd always say "YUCK!" when you brought her your food and if you sat with her, she'd raise her glass and say, "I drink to your good health!" Awww, I'm gonna miss my Betty. :-( Here are a couple of my favorite Betty memories.

I'll never forget when she showed Kat and me this old black and white photo that was taken of her when she was around 23. My God, it was STUNNING! It remineded me of those photos of Rose at the end of Titanic. Very old Hollywood glamour.

You know how they say people die in threes? I think it's true. The same day Betty died, another resident also died (Eva, Ernie's wife, I feel so awful for him!) and Dorothy C., this sweet old lady who always called my "honey" and "sweetheart" had a terrible fall and never recuperated and she passed away the last week of January. I remember telling her my grandmother's name was Dorothy and she told me that her grandmother's name was Sara(h)!

My subject line is being very sarcastic, FYI.

I hate driving in snow and today reaffirmed that when I totaled my car on my way to work. It was more slushy than anything and I didn't think the roads were that bad, but obviously I was wrong when I turned onto a ramp that merges with the expressway and hit a patch of ice and suddenly my car is swerving back and forth, not quite completely making complete circles, but more like full arcs. I'm trying to control the steering wheel, not stepping on the gas or breaks, but I can't control the car and before I know it I'm headed towards the ditch. All I'm thinking is that I'm going to hit something and my car is going to explode or my car is going to flip over and explode and I'm going to die, or at the very least I'm going to get seriously injured. (I watch too many movies). But I knew something bad was going to happen and it was out of my control. The whole thing very surreal, like is this really happening. My car hit a light post and my air bags went off. I was fine, just very shaken, but my car on the other hand, oh lord. If they can save it, that would be a miracle. The whole front bender fell off along with the headlights and the front glass cracked. Luckily there were no other cars involved in the accident and this really nice couple who was behind me stopped and called the police and let me sit in their car to call my parents and work (I ended up calling in). So of course I'm crying and the police man comes and I sit in his car and give him my information. (Have you ever sat in the back of a police car? Those are the most uncomfortable cars). Then my dad came and mom followed him because he's going to leave me with his car until we figure out what we're going to do. I feel really bad because my dad just spent $200 on my car to fix a few things. So...I'll probably be getting a new car.

So Monday after work, I'm walking to my car, chatting with Kat while rummaging through my purse to look for my car keys. The only problem is I can't seem to find them. I put my purse on the hood of my car and look inside the purse, but still no keys. I start to panic, but think surely they must have fallen out of my purse and they're inside the cabinet where I keep my purse. So I go back inside and look inside the cabinet, moving around boxes. Nothing. I dump everything out of my purse to see if maybe I missed them. Still no keys. I check my pockets, the bathroom, the clock-in room, lost and found...no keys. By this time I'm starting to panic. I get a flashlight from the tornado shelter and peer inside my car (which, or course, is locked) and I don't see my keys in my ignition or in my seat. By this time I'm in full panic mode and I'm starting to cry and freak out. I call my mom because I don't know what else to do. She thinks I just left them in the car (even though I tell her I don't see them at all in the car) and I should call a gas station. Well, luckily, Sarah, one of the med-aids was getting off at the same time I was and she helps me look for the keys. Being the awesome and sweet person she is, she offers to drive me back to my apartment because I know I have a set of spare keys packed away in one of my boxes and luckily I left my apartment unlocked. (Why? Because my key won't fit into my lock anymore and I never got around to telling the management about it). So we go outside and I check around my car with the flashlight once to make sure I didn't drop my keys around my car (though I would have heard them drop if they had). Sarah thought it was my flashlight and complimented me on being well-prepared, but I told her I had gotten it from the tornado shelter. Since we drive the same car, just different years, she tried to open my door with her key, but to no avail. So she drives me back to my apartment, which is about ten minutes away from work, I find the keys, she drives me back. I open my car door, still don't see any keys. I open the little compartment between the driver's and passenger's seat, and lo and behold, my keys are in there. I don't know how the hell they got in there, but boy was I ever relieved. It's just too bad I didn't leave my car unlocked.

Today was such a nightmare! I couldn't get my car started before heading to work, so I had to call work and tell them I'd be a few hours late, then I had to call a tow truck and get it towed and I had to wait, like, two and a half hours in the waiting room. I brought my book along, but of course, I had ten pages left before I finished it and I couldn't fit two books in my purse. Good thing they had a couple issues of PEOPLE and TIME lying around. And they were dated February 2007. Don't you hate it when you're in some waiting room and all their magazines are a year or more older? I was reading this article in TIME that was discussing the potential canidates for the '08 presidential elections and below each one they had a percentage of people who had never heard of them. Okay, so Hilary Clinton had a 2% and Al Gore had a 3%. Obviously, those were the lowest of all the potential candiates, but seriously, wtf? Shouldn't EVERYONE know who they are? I mean, they used to be the First Lady and VP not that long ago. Damn, that's sad! Unless, they asked a bunch of eight years old, 'cause, okay, maybe then I can see why they wouldn't know who they were since they were in the White House before those eight year olds would be born...

It cost me nearly $150 to get my car fixed. :::grumble::: At least I didn't have to go to work until five, ha!