Women Who Behave

So, my solstice celebration on Saturday evening was technically a day late, but I figure that since the actual solstice was at 11:59pm on the 20th some leeway is given. We started out by gathering at Max's house, then Phatty, Derek, Max and I hopped in Max's car and headed over to Megan's. There we enjoyed burgers outside in the rain (it only rained while we were eating), and chatted a bit before having to head over to Phatty's family friend's house up near where Sophie lives. Here we snacked a little more on one of those wonderful veggie platters, before heading out to their fire pit. Donna then led us in a ritual welcoming the summer. We honored nine elements by throwing 9 representational herbs onto the fire. I had lavender. Then, I did a simple banishing spell, asking for a bit of help on that bad habit/personality trait I was writing about earlier. We talked a little about the solstice and mysticism in general, and when I piped up with some fact Donna and Kim (Phatty's mom) asked how long I'd been into Paganism and we all went off on various tangents from there. I'm trying to remember some of the books Donna recommended. Then, as Max had plans with a friend, I had to leave just before they went out to leave offerings for the faeries.

From there we left Max at his house, realized that sadly it would make the most sense for the three of us to each take our own cars, and went to Jeff's to pick him up. From there we stopped at Tina's work, where she'd just gotten off. She works at a retirement home in Woodinville, and they had free coffee and tea in the foyer so that was yummy. Then we went to Phatty's house to hang out for a little bit, and Katrina joined us once she got off work. Ended up leaving around 2:30.
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The most interesting part about that whole day was my truck's detrioration that occurred. The first bit was my fault, as I'd accidentally left the headlights on the night before. So, my brother and I jumped it before I headed out, and in a moment of foresight I threw the jumper cables into the bed. Then, just before I got to Max's house, I stalled. Luckily there was a rush just then so a couple people helped me push it off to the side. Luckily it's a super light truck. Then Max and them came down and we jumped it and just moved it into the church parking lot that happened to be right there because Max's driveway up the hill was full of other cars. Then it was off to Megan's. We knew we'd have to jump it again later as I didn't have time to let it run for about 15 minutes to charge up the battery. We got back, pushed it out of the corner it was in, jumped it again, and headed out. At Jeff's I left it idling as we debated briefly on what we wanted to do after getting Tina. At Tina's work, I turned it off, started it, and sighed with relief. When we left, it was fine and we headed to Phatty's. I made sure I'd turned off everything that was taking power from the battery before I turned it off once we arrived. However, when we all came out to leave, I turned the key and nothing happened. I mean, the dash lights lit up, but the engine didn't even turn over once. We tried jumping it with both Derek and Jeff's cars, but no luck. So between fifteen and thirty minutes later we finally gave up and I left my car at Phatty's and got a ride home with Jeff. The next morning my dad and I headed out, and he compression started it. This is a handy trick for any manual car driver to know. Basically, you hope it's on a hill, or have someone push you. You push the clutch in, put it in first, turn the key to "On", have the pushing start, and then once you get a bit of speed, you pop the clutch out, forcing the engine to turn over. It's pretty easy and I've now done it a bunch.

So anyway, we got it home, and parked it so it was facing downhill. Then today my brother and I took it down to Shucks so they could do some free tests on it to see what was wrong. Turns out I had a dead starter. My battery was actually mostly charged, and we took it out and charged it all the way up for free. Then we called AAA to have them tow it to a mechanic four blocks away. It was a pretty cheap fix ($176 or so), and only took about an hour. However, when he went to move it out it took a few times to start, so he said that something else might be wrong and if I keep having problems to call him and he'll take another look. I need it to go pick Alan up at the airport tomorrow though, and when he opened the hood and had me try to start it a bunch to figure out what else might be wrong it started every time. So it should be fine for the most part. I'm so glad it was pretty simple. Now I get my truck back. :) I actually really really like this car. It's small, light, manual, and kinda unexpected from someone just meeting me and trying to figure out what I drive.
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The rest of today has had me in one of those stupid, whining-in-my-head "nobody called me", pouty sort of moods. (There has also been a lot of yelling between me and my parents today. Hmm. Yay PMS? Probably.) I texted Carolyn (who got back from Hawaii yesterday), but according to her brother she'd delegated today as a her and Brian sort of night. I still don't know if they're actually together again or just spending a lot of time "talking" and around nobody else. I mean, it doesn't really matter, I'm just curious. I also called Abby and Alex, but neither picked up their phone or called me back. I scrolled through the rest of my numbers, but didn't see anyone else I felt particularly comfortable calling out of the blue around 8pm and saying "I'm bored, let's hang out," to. I'm weird like that. I don't like calling anyone other than my super close friends anyway because I'm afraid I'll be interrupting something. I know, they should just not answer their phone if it would be an interruption, but I'm just weird.
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Tomorrow is the day to pick up Alan at the airport a little after noon, and then go to my orientation at Ruby's Diner in Redmond. Exciting.

Also, slfcllednowhere is moving up here this week if I remember correctly. YAY!

RIP George Carlin. I only knew a little of your comedy, but I really liked what I knew. You were also great in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.

I'm excited for going to Whistler this weekend.

Oh! Jobs! I told Jet City I wouldn't be able to work for them on Sunday right after I heard back from the Apple Store. So, now I am a part-time specialist at the Apple Store and a part-time hostess at Ruby's Diner. (Am I the only one in the world who thinks eliminating the waiter/waitress, host/hostess, actor/actress thing in favor of servers, hosts, and actors is not a feminism gain? It just never seemed all that important to me. Being a waitress instead of a server didn't seem demeaning, it seemed like the title of the position for someone who was a woman. Sure, maybe we would have had to come up with some other word for the gender-neutral people, but claiming that eliminating the -ess job titles was for feminism was over the top for me.)