She messaged me "I have something to tell you when you get a chance" and I thought:
She came down to Mesa to take care of her dad. She brought her daughters and each had 3 bags, with a friend in Alaska sending the rest.
She told me that she needed to get a job, find a place to stay, and get a car.
I didn't know how to help with the first two, but I had two cars that ran at the time. They didn't look great, but she could drive one until she received her tax return and could buy what she wanted.
I didn't want to offer to let her drive my car without a headliner if I didn't need to and of course I reinstalled the passenger seat before driving down. I just wanted to put the headliner in the back seat and drive to see my friend, but it was too long, so I turned it, and it rested on the headrests, so I just wanted to reinstall it enough to secure it. I reinstalled the handles above the door and just grabbed everything else.
It was funny because I couldn't find the fourth handle and I asked my brother to help.
He often watches me work.
He immediately handed me the handle!
I got him some cookies to thank him.
He brought me something from my Civic. He is so sweet and helpful!
My sister insisted that I needed to write up a contract so this didn't fail horribly like with that ex.
I visited my friend and her daughters. She was staying with her sister-in-law and everything seemed Skittles and beer, so I went to get a hotel room, which Mom told me to do before seeing my friend.
Mom didn't mention Spring Training. Sports are meaningless, so I never think about them, but she seems to care.
I didn't realize that it might be more difficult to find rooms because it was a holiday weekend, either.
We usually stay at Best Western and I don't ever remember having difficulty getting a room, even for major holidays, and many times Mom called to get a room as I drove us down. I would ask "You didn't reserve earlier?!"
"I didn't have time!"
"Too busy watching Hallmark and napping?!"
She always got a room.
The 5 closest locations were sold out. The nearest was in Phoenix and had a room for $209 before taxes and fees.
I guess that was less than half an hour away, which wasn't bad, but I wanted to find something closer for less.
I wished that I had my laptop, so I could work like an adult. It was a royal pain on my phone. I searched Google for hotels near me, tapped on one that looked promising, kept tapping, suddenly had 8 tabs open, and then when I went to book a room it was sold out.
I would back out to my search, but it always took me too far, and I needed to reenter my information each and every time.
Sometimes Google Pay showed up. Sometimes it didn't and I was still on Travelocity or wherever I got from clicking on the Google link.
My friend said that I must have been looking for 2 hours when Priceline suddenly showed me a pricebreaker, they choose one of 3 nice hotels and I get a discount. Right now it is showing me hotels with swimming pools and an 8.0+ rating, which run $214-239 a night.
It says "Get 1 of these, pay $132."
So, suddenly it showed me a nicer hotel than I was trying to get, for less than I was hoping to pay, and I immediately booked.
PSA: Once it is late enough, Priceline [and presumably other sites] decide that you are sleeping in your car tonight, let's get you a room for tomorrow night.
Also, they billed me for 3 separate rooms. Hopefully 2 would have disappeared, but reminiscent of my Tucson tragedy, my bank declined the transactions.
Tucson made sense. Who would intentionally visit there?
Well, probably someone in desperate situations, which was how I ended up, but only because they froze my card!
My bank asked if I authorized those transactions.
Three?! No!
Quote:
|
Your new credit card is on its way
|
How am I supposed to get a hotel tonight?!
Right my debit card!
That expired the 31st! I never received a new one!
I just used it at Winco!
The sister-in-law and her husband had gone to bed a while before, so I told my friend that I was driving to a hotel that allegedly had a vacancy and hoping the machine would accept it.
That card worked at Winco again, Walmart, and a gas station, but the guy started putting my information in manually and said he couldn't use it.
I started driving to Best Western. They usually act helpful and say they remember us, but I saw a motel with a vacancy sign and the guy said they accepted cash.
That was the other part of the story. I hoped to buy an accident-free Camry with a working starter and heater, so I had more than enough money for a place that reminded me of somewhere I stayed in Afghanistan.
I mentioned that to Short Facebook Dating Ex and she said she stayed in worse.
Than Afghanistan?
She said they stayed in a hotel and she sprayed every surface with Lysol before touching anything.
I bought sheets and blankets to use in Afghan Inn--and shoved some giant cabinet from the fifties up against the door.
My room was super close to the street and it wasn't a great part of town!
Also, I recently watched "Reacher." I think that kicked my paranoia up a notch.
It was a lousy bed, but I slept. Then I visited Short Facebook Dating Ex, who recently mentioned finding my Honda key. It must have been for my Civic. I hadn't bought my Accord before we stopped talking.
Apparently I lost a key in her couch and asked if she had seen it.
That then almost led to an argument, but I was able to keep that under control--unlike with my Alaskan friend's sister-in-law, but I will just mention visiting a friend in the hospital and dropping off my laptop and my new travel bag containing car money at my sister's.
My friend's dad is in the hospital and they picked up his Vue and had it repaired. I had been looking at accident-free Camries when she told me.
"So, you have a car now?"
"Yes."
I stopped looking at cars. I will buy something newer and better when I am ready to sell one.
I kept trying to get a haircut, but stuff always came up. Great Clips had a sale. I was supposed to get a $9 haircut, but they charged me $12, saying that was $5 off. As soon as I made the reservation I drove to the sister-in-law's and messaged my friend, but she didn't wake up until Great Clips went from saying that I had a 27-minute wait to they were waiting on me.
I reinstalled the visors and visor clips while I waited on the VA. Someone was supposed to call me on Thursday, but I never heard back, and they said that I need to play phone tag with the civilian hospital to request the follow-up.
Ah curses. They told me to have the civilians fill out some form and fax it to a number. I put it in my phone and lost it.
As soon as I got to my car I called my friend and asked if they had breakfast yet. They hadn't, so I offered to take them, and my friend agreed.