Car

About 3 years ago I bought my 1997 Honda Civic. It didn't really give me any problems until about a year and a half ago. It looks pretty nice in this picture but now it's much more ghetto-licious ;) I only have 2 hubcaps (one on each side), my front bumper is broken and held together with a plastic pull tie, it was broken into a year and a half ago and so the black side panel on the outside of one of the widows is missing (thank goodness they didn't actually break my window, though! Nice thieves...). The little lever you pull inside to open the hood is partially missing so I have to use a wrench to pull the lever now...anyway, you get the point. Besides the cosmetic aspect, over the past 18 months or so I've had to take it in to get fixed at least 4 times. And of course, all of these times the bill comes out to $400 or more. Two days ago takes the cake, however. My check engine light came on a little bit ago so I went to Autozone for a free engine light check (yay Autozone!). They told me my catalytic converter wasn't working efficiently so on Monday I took it in to get checked out. I also knew that my brakes needed fixing or replacing so I was expecting a fairly pricey bill. With Christmas coming up I would have waited a little while if possible, but we're driving to California right after Christmas and I wanted my car in top working order. Yesterday after work I went to go pick it up (which is a bit tricky because Josh's car fits him and MAYBE one other person if it's clean and we have 3...) and the bill ended up being $1200. Yes, the decimal is in the right place. Now it seems easier to put that on a credit card and pay it off slowly, but with all the times we've had to get it fixed recently, it probably would've been better to get a newer car. Ahh the dilemas of life...can't really afford to fix my car, can't really afford a newer one, and definitely can't afford not to fix it. Anyway, it gets better. I give him my card (because, honestly, who really has $1200 to lay down at Christmastime??) and, lucky me, it's declined. Apparently my credit card company has lowered my limit without informing me. In the long run that's good but right now, not so fun. I didn't have another card with me that would work so I went home to get Josh. When I went back, the place was closed.

I don't want to sound like I'm whining or anything but all of this is just really frustrating and I needed to get it out. So hopefully in about 20 minutes the place will be opened and I can go get it. If anything else goes wrong with my car in the next few months, I am so done. Anyone want to buy a car??? It should be good now...