I couldn't sleep last night. I kept waking up at 4 a.m., 4:30 a.m., 5:00 a.m. I eventually got out of bed at 6:30 a.m., then drove over to the Toyota dealership.

I go into the dealership, and chat with the service advisor. I tell him I called yesterday about an appointment, and that I wanted to get the car's brakes checked out. He seems awfully friendly (far friendlier than any other car repair-related person I've ever spoken with). He asks for the key to the car, then runs outside to look at the car, and writes down some stuff on a sheet. Then he goes back inside, and tells me that I can borrow a car while they work on mine, as long as I refill the tank to make up for any gas I use. I'm like golly gee whiz this is convenient. He asks me if I've ever had any service work done on the car. I draw a blank; I don't even remember the last time I got an OIL change for the car (I think it was back in December). He then tells me I ought to get a timing belt change; it's apparently past due to the 2nd timing belt at 160,000 miles. Not really thinking any better of it, I go "sure why not". Then he asks if there's anything else wrong with the car. I casually mention the fact that the dash lights/radio/cigarette lighter aren't working. He then goes "anything else?" and I say no. Then he gives me a estimate for 1000 dollars. 500 something for the timing belt and "other critical service upgrades", 300 dollars for the brakes, and 120 to fix the electrical system. I'm like sheesh that's a lot of money, but seeing as I haven't done ANY service work on the car for the last four years, I figure that's fine. I then take the loaner car and drive to work.

I get a call around 11 a.m. from the service advisor. The service advisor said they did a check of the car, and he had some bad news. As the service advisor put, the brakes were "metal on metal". He quoted 270 dollars EACH to replace the front and back brakes. Then he says the radiator has a leak, and that's gonna be costly as well. He also states that "an air intake valve" was faulty and that it was costing me performance. With the timing belt replacement, he put the total cost of parts + labor to 2200 dollars. My jaw drops to the ground and I'm like uggggh. I mean I can pay for these repairs, but I just dropped a major chunk of change on a new computer a month ago. Plus the repairs cost 50% more than the blue book value of my car! Here's the kicker: he tells me there's an oil leak and that the tires need to be replaced as well, because they're down to 2 minutes 30 seconds. I'm floored at this point by how much this crappy car is gonna cost me. He sympathizes with the massive expense of all this, and tells me he'll just work on the "driving critical" stuff for now, and we can deal with the oil leak/new tires at another time. I'm like gee thanks. I tell him to go ahead with making the "driving critical" repairs and he says the car will be done tomorrow, but I can keep the loaner car for now.

I forgot to bring lunch, so I had to skip lunch again, but it didn't really matter since I lost my appetite after hearing about the ginormous automotive repair bill, plus I had to work on a shitload of client-related software problems. Both my manager and the engineering manager were having fits over how these software problems were gonna potentially delay the client go-live (and thus delay the company getting $$$), so they were breathing down my neck to get these problems solved YESTERDAY. Like I needed more stress.

To add to my stress, my apartment lease ends at the end of March, and my landlord still hasn't offered to renew my lease. I would expect he would have mentioned the lease when he came over to fix the bathtub back in January, but noooo. I'm not THRILLED about my apartment, but it's the cheapest place I can find in my area, that's not a total dump, and plus this way I don't have to try and move all my stuff. I know I wouldn't be able to lift my computer, or my TV I never watch, or my never-assembled exercise bike (long story) by myself.

I can't believe how much crap I've managed to accumulate in my apartment over the last 12 months. I probably have every handy doodad/essential gadget/distraction that a single male could possibly ever need/want, and then some. Of course, considering how many hours I spend playing WoW every day, I don't really ever make use of these items.