Back in Town

There is no place like home! I love spending the holidays with my parents and eating my Mama's food. I wish I could do it more often.

There is NO place like home! We got back to Seattle in the early afternoon yesterday, after a meal-less flight on Alaska. I had reserved an aisle seat for myself, and the seat next to me for my sister, but when we got to our row there was an enormous man in the middle seat. Enormous. We said that we had the middle and the aisle, and he said, "ok, I'll get up" implying that he was giving us the window. I am a big person myself, but I realized there was no way he would fit in his assigned window seat. So I sat in the window seat, my sister took the middle, and let Mr. Huge have the aisle. I was surprised by how comfortable I was... I think it's psychological: I realized I wasn't the fattest man on the plane, so I felt as skinny as a high school distance runner. My sister told me later that he smelled faintly of urine.

H's friend L picked us up from the airport. Tenks Gad! We dropped of some stuff at my place, I went through my post flight routine (which H has observed with precision to the point of prediction) and then I took her in my car, now named "Death Trap," to her place across town. We stopped at Musashi to have sushi. Then we continued on to her place, and I fell asleep on her bed.

I was thinking about how Princess the dog learned not to beg me for food, because I was firm with her. I called my mama to tell her, and she said, "Whaaaaaaaat? YOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU thougtht about Princess? Hee hee hee hee!"

I like my parents' dog. She's mellow and well behaved. I don't like that she is a pee-on-the-carpet risk, but she was smart enough to learn to not beg me for food, and I'm glad now that my parents have a common focus/distraction. I tried to keep in mind, "What would the C�sar do?" I used a firm, low tone with her when I wanted her to do something (like stop begging). I looked her in the eye, and she deferred. I used her name as praise. I was consistent and precise with my language. I only pet her when we were outside in the yard. I tried to be the leader of the pack, not a person needing emotional validation. It's not much different from being a high school teacher.

I think my dad tries to win the dog's affection by feeding her. Nothing I can do.

Anyway, I got up from my nap, stopped at the grocery store, and then came home.

I've started researching in earnest now, trying to buy a car. I've decided to use my credit union's car buying service, in an effort to avoid all the crappy hassle and dickering. It is much much MUCH better than getting the slick "no pressure" business in the glitzy lot, only to be hot boxed later by the lady in the back with the 10 key and the screws to my blood pressure. Forget it!

So the first car I looked at today was a 2003 Mitsubishi Galant, which came in just under my price ceiling; the service had it driven up from Portland. It was a dream to test drive; comfortable, responsive, just awesome. I loved it. It even had a moon roof. There were two cons: 1) it has 60k on it already; and 2) the back is so high, I can't see very well to parallel park The spoiler doesn't help. Still, everything else was great.

I came home and looked up reliablity and safety ratings, and they aren't stellar. Just ok. So I'll probably pass. Good bye moon roof. Tomorrow I will test drive a 2004 or 2005 Corolla. We'll see.

The only think I do know is that I want to donate the Death Trap to charity. I know some of those agencies take your car and only give the charity a percentage, so I want to be careful about who I donate to. I googled for a charity, and found my own workplace listed as accepting donations. Ha! So I'm leaning towards Catholic Community Services, Jewish Family Services, or the YWCA. I'm not going to get maximum $$, so I want it to help poor people and sick people directly. DIRECTLY! I don't want it to go towards celebrity galas or for-profit car donation agencies.