I got bored, and wanted to read, so I went through my whole journal starting at the very beginning. I took all the car posts I liked and copied them into amber_kay. I realized I spend a lot of time whining and just generally posting about crap. (The dominant theme of my lj has been "Bettie is broken and I'm sad!") Nothing wrong with that I guess. It is my journal. I don't want to delete the stuff. As I was doing it I decided a cleaner happier journal would serve me well. So I'm moving. Here's the count:
Number of posts under coraleycoral: 427 Number of posts extracted and put under amber_kay: 46
This tells me approximately 89% of my posts were bitching, whining, boring, babbeling, or otherwise not things I'd like people to use as a determination of my lj character. (My lj character is not an accurate and inclusive representation of who I really am as a person, of course.) I haven't made up my mind yet but I believe I will start using coraleycoral to meet my needs of venting ranting complaining and what not, ie reality. And use amber_kay for the good stuff, which is primarily car related. Although I'll probably move to amber_kay entirely just because it's easier.
I've added all of you to the new new lj, with the exception of a few people who haven't posted in months. If I missed anybody I'm sorry, it was an honest mistake, just let me know and I'll fix it. I'd advise you add the new one. I know I haven't been posting much but for now on if you want something good it wont show up here. I will not be cross posting among the two. And I will in no way be offended if you add my new one and drop this one. I know some of you are just lingering, waiting for me to pump out another driving story.
Hey! If you're bored you can read the interesting parts of the last few years of my life in just 46 posts! It's like sweetened condensed Coral. Don't tell me you've never been that bored! And all those posts have no comments. The poor things.... I even appropriately back dated them. How nifty is that?
I wish there was a community for people who drive for a living so we could discuss traffic dynamics. I like when people say my name when they're talking to me. Or even when they are writing to me. But I like it best when I can hear how they say it. I bought the new SCC and got all excited about the Evo MR article, and then I left it on the greyhound, and that sucks. Virus is out again. Wheelbearings...... I'm back to the bus. There's a retarded guy on the bus that really likes me and doesnt stop talking... to me. Evertime I spot a GTX in the wild I'm in the company van. I'm sick, and it sucks. I like red.
I've been thinking of writing a new story. A short one. Short enough that it wouldn't even have to hide behind a cut. I wanna do it ala Penthouse reader style, but with cars. You know, saying cum instead of come, even when you mean come. Using silly terms like purple helmeted warrior and mayonaise pen. No special reason. I just think it would be fun. And I find the challenge intriguing. I think I could do it.
But then again I've already got this monster that I've virtually stagnated on. Mostly due to lack of time. I want to finish it. So I think I'll just store up ideas for the porno story and then I could probably pump it out with a 6 pack of pumpkin ale and a free night before a day off.
I got a black Xmods Skyline! Finally it's mine! It's beautiful and I love it!
Poor Virus. I got him back but he still needs back brakes, 3 wheel bearings, and has developed an insatiable thirst for oil. And he still overheats. So considering his poor health I've gone to commuting on the boring stop and go freeway instead of over Portlands famed twisty, Germantowne. There's a possibility that a wheel could fall of while I'm driving, or so they tell me. If it does happen I wanna be going in a straight line. Germantowne doesn't have any straight lines. It's so sad. The poor thing is screaming out in agony to me everytime i drive him. We can't do anything fun together. But at least I'm not on the bus anymore.
I love shifting!
It's been so long since I had any fun driving. And then yesterday I was in crappy stop and go freeway traffic and there was this spikey haired young lad in a black jetta behind me. He stuck with me thru every lane change but I thought little of it. The freeway finally cleared up and I passed the last car in my way. I floored it. Just for a moment. Just to hear the turbo. Just to feel it. It felt good.... I hit about 85 in a 55 and let off. I noticed that jetta boy had stuck with me thru all of it. Glued to my bumper. As I was slowing down in the right lane he came up next to, paced me, and looked over. We had that exchange. You know the one. Then he took off.
It all came rushing back to me. That sensation. I just became part of the game again. I've been a spectator for so long that I didn't even recognize it until it hit me. It's my drug of choice and I just got shot up. It's been a long time so a low dose produced a healthy rush. I felt like I just came back to life. I grabbed a cigarette, switched to my favorite song on the CD I was listening to, and took off.
I downshifted into third and it was plenty of power. Right there, in my hands. I watched the tach and the boost guage and shifted into 4th at the last reasonable moment. I sank back in my seat and wiggled against the bolsters. One hand on the wheel. One hand on the gear shift knob. I was gaining on him. My heart was racing. I became more focused than I had been in weeks. More attentive. More alert. More excited. The pressure of my foot against the pedal. The vibration of his stiff suspension rolling over the concrete. The faded indents of the gear shift knob pressed into the palm of my hand. The tiny progressive red bars lighting up in front of me. I was high, again.
It lasted for maybe a minute. Then I did the responsible thing. I let off and took my exit and went home. But I went home happy.
My day started out sucking, no special reason. A very stinky person sat next to me on the max. And then when a spot opened up for him to move to, so he wouldn't be sitting next to anybody, he didn't move. I hate when people do that. You're not gonna offend me, just move. please. They made me take a lunch at work, which is weird for a friday. I hate taking lunch. That's 30 minutes of my life, that I don't get paid for, just sucked away from me. But this time I was in the area of Torque Freaks when they gave me a lunch. My roomate boostmonkey recently went to one of their dyno day events and came back sportin a t shirt (and a 180+whp rating) that I envied greatly. And he said the shirts were only $8.50. So I went there and bought one. This shirt rocks! It's a simple black t shirt with a small orange and red rectangle on the front, and on the back it says TORQUE and HORSEPOWER, and some websight junk. After work I put it on and went to the mall to buy some crickets to feed my praying mantis. I hit the street corner and heard an engine rev and instinctively turned to look. It was some silly ricey Honda so i thought nothing of it. I walked a little bit further and someone else did it again. I looked and it was an Integra. I looked around and didn't see any car that would prompt them to do this. then I made eye contact with the driver and he was looking straight at me. He smiled at me, reved again, then drove off. I walked a little further and heard another one. This time it was a CRX with some goodies. Pretty much same response/same exchange. I looked and there was no hottie walking behind me. Just me out here. Direct eye contact again... It's the shirt! It's got to be. This all happened in just one block. I think this is my new favorite shirt. I made it downtowne and there was this really cool music comming from Pioneer Square that I started hearing 2 blocks before I got that far. So for two blocks I walked and listened and was digging it so much that I decided that when I got there I'd see if I could buy their CD or something. I seriously wanted to hear this music on demand. I can't really describe it. There's this one CD i have and it's got this song that's called "kick ass violin solo" or something like that. i don't know really.... But this music was a lot like that song, only better, and lots of it. I totally dug it. And then the bomb hit. the people making the music were freakin extremist tree huggers. Like the kind of people who spike trees so when loggers come and try to take the trees their extremely expensive equipment, which is their life blood, gets trashed. And in some cases they even get killed. Ecoterrorists. I wont get into it but these people value trees more than humans. And since you've probably never been here.... Oregon has more than enough trees to spare. This state used to thrive on logging. trees are a renewable resource ya know. But then these bored save-the-forest types came in and..... welll. i don't wanna go off on that. But let me just say this. They're hurting human families to allegedly protect creatures that don't need to be protected. So sure, if I bought just 1 CD how much of a contribution would that make? Not a whole lot. But one vote for president doesn't seem like a whole lot either. However it all became a big deal last time, and it looks like it's gonna be a big deal this time too. Little bits count. I can sacrifice what i want, even though i want it badly, as long as it's for the right reason. I can walk away feeling good about having the strength to make the right sacrifice. I didn't buy the CD. I went home and watched my roomies killer car videos. I don't know his perspective on this and I don't really care. He shows me Skylines. Anybody who shows me Skylines wins.
I'm a simple woman. Skylines win. (it's a good thing nobody uses Skylines as a campaign tool)
And then I made it home and found out my GTX can finally stop! I can drive him home! I sure hope I can get the camera. i know a lot of you want to know what my ugly ricey rally monster looks like. I'm not ashamed of it. I don't like it but I still think it's funny. As I've said so many times before - "There's beauty in function."
1. Think of a word you would use to describe me. 2. Go to Google Image Search and search for that word. 3. Select the picture you see as most fitting, and post it as a reply. 4. Post this meme in your journal
There's this Civic I see all the time with the plates LOW PRO. Is it just me or is that retarded? That's retarded even without the knowledge that it's got those retarded lights and body kit and fart can.
I need my car back. Iv'e worked too hard, gone thru too much shit, and made too many sacrifices without reaping the benifits of any of it. I hate my life these days. I hate the fact that in spite of all I've done this is where I'm at and this is all I have. My job takes up about 14 hours a day and i don't really mind since all I have to come home to is a laptop sitting on the floor and an airmattress to sleep on. There isn't really anything I can do to fix this situation. But it sure would be a lot easier to deal with if I had my car. It's got brakes now, but I still haven't driven it in over a month. Hopes are high for this weekend.
Powerball broke 100 million again. That means it's time to buy a ticket for the sake of my ultimate motorsports resort dream. Thinking about how to spend my $100,000,000.00 keeps my brain working on happy thoughts. I've come up with a problem in the layout. I think I'm gonna have to do it on flat ground instead of buying a mountain. If that's the case I'm gonna have to truck in a whole lot of dirt so at least the rally course will have nicely banked corners and places to catch air. There's nothing quite like a hairpin with a sharp elevation change. The company Skyline wont have to be street legal. Well, the second one anyways. I can sell people rides in my Skyline. Kinda like the ring taxi. I don't think I'd let them drive it. Only special people would be allowed to drive my Skyline. I spend a lot of time thinking about my Skyline(s). I'd still keep my GTX. I'd make it the most incredible GTX ever to exist. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I'd do with my GTX.
My favorite new Prodigy song just opened an episode of CSI. I almost feel compelled to watch it even though I've completely lost interest in tv, and was never interested in tv. Prodigy just makes things better.
For those of you who don't know I'm a courier. And these days I'm working in a great big cargo van with the company logo slathered all over it.
So I was working, and stopped at a red light in downtowne Portland. Another van for a competing courier company rolled up and stopped next to me. Us delivery people are generally respectful of each other, regardless of our affiliations. We all do the same thing, we just get our paychecks from different sources. I looked over at him, he looked back at me. There was a grin and nod exchanged. But I was feeling a bit spunky and a lot dorky so I put the van in neutral and reved it. He looked at me and laughed and I returned the expression, and then agressively put my hands on the top of the steering wheel and reved again. The light turned green and we both made a retarded display of tire spinning on wet pavement as we struggled to gain traction. Sure, not mashing the throttle would have made more sense, but wouldn't have been nearly as fun. At equal speeds we rushed towards the next intersection. As couriers we both know that if you aren't going 18mph through here you'll catch the next light red. So we both locked up our brakes and slid to a stop just in front of the crosswalk as the light turned red. I looked over and this time he reved first, right before me. We had that whole look at you, look at the light, look at you again, exchange. This time I reved the van up to I dont know what (it's an auto with no tach) then threw it into drive when the cross light turned red. He must have done the same thing because we both spun our tires through the intersection at the same pace. Tires were spinning and squeeling like crazy. We went almost the entire block without traction before we had to stop again. We looked at each other and laughed. He gave me a thumbs up . Then I turned right and he turned left. The whole thing was just hillariously stupid. I loved it!
Here's a sneak peak into my latest writing project, and my favorite paragraph that I've written so far. It's that point when the roller coaster stops being scary and starts being fun. You know, the best part....
I've never seen the act of driving a car look so sensual. She's clearly getting something out of it that I've never experienced before. I've also never seen her look so sultry as she did when I watched her index finger gently glide across the 5 speed indents on the gear shift knob. Her unpainted fingernail penetrating the line that ran across the middle of all gears and ended at a 90 degree angle that pointed to the R. The consequences of these actions were so severe, and yet her techniques instilled in me a sense of faith. I've never felt so vulnerable with all my clothes on. Unlike my adrenaline, my fear was subsiding with every crank of the wheel and every scream of the tires. I had submitted my existence to her. I let her hold my life in her hands, and I cant remember the last time I felt this alive. Just being her passenger felt adulterous.
Benz is gone for good. Geo Metro in the works. I'm thinking next weekend. Virus the GTX sits awaiting my paychecks for a kick ass brake job. I wear inadequate pants. My roomates Civic is sexy. (yes, I said Civic) My other roomate is sexy but it has nothing to do with her car. I have no furniture. The hot tub turns me to goo. I want a fish....
My Benz lasted a good 5 days before it died. Now it sits on the side of the road about a mile from my work. At least I think it's still there. It will be there until it gets towed into oblivion. Good bye dreams of automotive stability, hello mass transit. It sucks ass, but i'm managing to keep my head up. I don't think I've ever vented about mass transit because I hate it so much I avoid it to the best of my abilities. The mass transit experience is like squeezing a welfare office, and a handfull of eco terrorists, into a closet. And then willingly cramming yourself into it. Humanity at its lowest. A teenager will take up three seats with their bag and skateboard while a 95 year old man and a woman holding an infant struggle to hold a rail and keep from falling down. And then there's the fact that I can see 50 people and they're all silent. I wonder what their stories are. People on elevators will exchange words but people on mass transit will focus on anything they can find that isn't the people around them. I dont blame them. I do it too. But I still think it's kind of sad. Anyways, I don't want to dwell on it.
I have no life these days. I work, I sleep, I cope with my weekend plans getting crushed, and then i do it all over again. My computer sucks so bad i can post but I cant even read my lj. It's not as bad as it sounds though. I only miss so much because I have so much to miss. And that's a lot more than most people have.
I finally made it down the coast to visit my family. I had a wonderful time! It was like Christmas for two days straight. They towed Virus down there since the brakes had gotten so bad he's no longer drivable. I was stressed about how my only car just went out of use. I am not a fan of public transportation. So Shawn and I were walking down the streets of Reedsport when opporturnity strikes he pulls this cute little grad theft auto trick, with me as an accomplice. We take off down the street, park a few blocks away, and there is no longer any doubt in my mind that this Mercedes Benz now belongs to me. Me? In a Mercedes? Does that seem like a weird match or what? I'm just not that kind of girl. Well, I would go well with a C230 Kompressor hatch..... but wouldn't we all (and doesn't it drive you crazy that all the people you see driving them probably picked it because "it's cute")? But anyway, I made it a whole week with a car count of one. Virus has officially moved to full blown project car status, which is where I always wanted him to be. Yay! So here's what I know about my new car:
It's either an E190 or 190E. I can't remember the order. Late 80's...., I think it's 87 or 89. 2.3L SOHC automatic trans (generally not a bonus but works well with the lack of cupholders) about 190,000 miles or so REAR WHEEL DRIVE!!!
I haven't played around with it yet, a little gravel sliding but nothing exciting. I'm still getting used to it. It's neutral colored, has four doors, and blends with traffic so well it's almost invisible. Honestly I think if me and a minivan were speeding side by side the minivan would get pulled over before me. It loves cruising on the freeway, it gets mileage in the mid 20's, it has no noticable flaws, and unlike most cars I have no interest whatsoever in sinking money into mods. It's perfect for keeping me out of trouble while I make my 35 mile daily commute and 500 miles weekend runs. It's the ideal driving car to accompany my GTX improvment obsession.
And yet there's that lurking thought in the back of my head,.... If I could just sell the Benz and buy a secondary project car I could spend a little fixing it up to make it decent, then spend the rest on Virus, then when Virus is good and healthy I could spend money on the othert car until I was satisfied, and go back to making Virus actually look good, and so on,.... I think all of you on my friends list know how this bug works. It's a bolt on downward spiral. But, sadly, the only way to have a real project car on a limited budget is to only have one of them at a time. So I'll do the smart thing. I'll keep the Benz and not do anything with it. Automotivbe polygamy never makes for good 4 wheeled relationships. Someone always gets neglected.
Ok, so maybe Shawn doesn't do the dishes, but he bought me a Mercedes. What a great guy!
I've got 2 roomates. One of them is almost never here, and the other one hides in his room most of them time. They're cool people though. We have no living room furniture so it makes sense that nobody would ever be in the living room. I've been plagued with more car problems and haven't been able to see my family in almost 3 weeks. Last weekend my Celica died on me and it took me about 11 hours to get back home. The next day it got towed so now it's gone. this brings my car count down to just one. My GTX's name has been changed from Toby to Virus. It has no brakes and has tried to make me run into people several times in the last couple weeks. I commute over the most popular twisty in the city, which means it's a good one, but it also has lots of traffic. I still haven't got to have any fun driving since stopping is such an important part of driving fast and I can't do that. But things will improve. Work is still work. The laptop still sucks. Family Guy has returned to Fox and that just rox my sox. I haven't made as much writing progress as I thought I would. I've still got a long ways to go. Yesterday I saw a 300ZX with plates that said DIZEEZ. And that's about it for my update. I got up early so I could post but the laptop sucks so much I'm already out of time.
