LA Chronicles 19.5

For those of you that keep up with the chronicles, you’ll remember my infamous “Welcome to LA” accident. (If you don’t, you should go back to read the first few posts and stop being lazy. It isn’t cute.) Well it has been a journey trying to get my car repaired. 67% of it is due to me and the other 33% is related to various life speed bumps. Of course I reported the accident to my insurance when it happened in order to get the claim set up but I didn’t run out to get the repairs quickly for a number of reasons:

1) My deductible is $500 which isn’t really attractive when you just moved and have to pay to restart your life across the country. Really I would not move back across the country again which means I’m pretty much stuck on this side of the east vs. west coast rap beef.
2) I didn’t want to be without transportation. Now I pay a premium to have rental car coverage but it’s the hassle of having to be carted from the auto shop to the rental car place or anywhere else for that matter. Ever since I turned 16, I’ve hated asking people for a ride anywhere. I think it has to do with being carted around for the majority of my life that I know rebel against it.
3) Fixing the fender would require me to get car washes every 5 days like every other Californian. I’m not ready for that commitment and a big dent is an easy out.
4) I thought it was kind of interesting for my car to have one dimple like me.

After I moved past these great reasons, I attempted to get the car fixed during the holiday break. I figured going into the New Year with a wrecked car was a bad omen. So I selected the closest body shop on the State Farm approved list. It just so happened to be the day that shop’s computers decided to take a holiday break with the rest of us. Not to mention the guy who does the estimates was on an never-ending lunch break. It was never-ending because no one knew when he would be back. Really? It is 11am and you don’t know when he might wander back to his JOB? The rational person would have gone to the second closest shop on the State Farm approved list. Well what is the one thing you may have learned from the previous chronicles? Yep, I’m not that rational. I liked the way this shop worked. No computers, no estimator. Sold! So I went home and continued my holiday break.

So now I’m considering (read as: will be) getting a new car. One that is a little easier on the gas card if you know what I mean. Also – I’m looking for a few more gadgets. It seems like every commercial has a car doing something crazy from parking itself to making you a Latte. Why should I miss out? Don’t worry I’m not buying into the hype and trying to keep up with the Joneses out here. Oh and I’m also required to stay more than 500 feet from the Bentley dealership. How was I supposed to know you can’t use a test drive for a first date?

If I plan on getting the new car then I have to get rid of the old car since I haven’t quite hit the cribs status where I need multiple whips. Matter of fact, I can say with 100% confidence that I wouldn’t even fill a 3 minute episode of cribs. I’d actually fit in a 60 sec commercial slot including the commercial.

And this is where the perfect storm begins:

1) I want a new car
2) I need to get rid of my old car to get the new car
3) My car registration expires on my birthday in March
4) I don’t want to pay registration twice this year
5) I need to get the old car fixed before receiving optimal trade in value

The above has encouraged me to follow through on getting the repairs done. Last week, I headed back to my favorite shop to only realize they need the insurance company to send the claim details before they can give you an official estimate. Why didn’t they tell me this when I was in there back in December? So I ask if there is anything else they can do since I’m already up there? They do an “unofficial” estimate which is the same as a real estimate except it doesn’t have the claim details. Don’t ask.

I then give State Farm a call. They give me the run around since my insurance is still in Ohio but the accident happened in Cali. (This is my attempt to hold out with Ohio rates as long as possible before switching over to one of the 10 highest insurance zip codes in the country) They pass me through to two other groups before I actually talk to someone that can help me out. (The unnecessary dialogue with the groups has been removed in the interest of the reader’s time.) They then set up everything and looks like I’ll have the repairs done next week. But with my luck I’m sure there will be a few more life speed bumps.

Now for the highly desired shout outs, I’m giving out dented fenders:
RC – For coming back, I missed you.
WC – For the call, glad to hear I’m not missing out on anything in the Nati.
AH – For jinxing the Lakers by claiming a victory before it was over.
SK, DG, EH, MC – Vegas is not ready for the arrival of the real All Stars.
KB – For telling me to call you but then having a new number you didn’t share.

M. aka “Speeding over life’s speed bumps”

LA Chronicles 18.5

Its been a long time…I shouldn’t have left you without a chronicle to read…I’ve spent the past three weeks or so thinking about all the things I could be writing about but I have yet to sit down and write them. I could come up with a lot of excuses but believe it or not the chronicles have slowed down because I was tired over the holidays and always on the go. A lot of things have happened since my last entry but nothing so crazy that I had to get it down on paper…So I’m going to just randomly talk about different things and see where it takes me…oh and some of these things will be completely made up…

- I’ve spent as many weekends in Vegas as I have in LA over the past month. I’ve actually come to the conclusion that you can’t have a gambling problem if you are winning. Anyone want to co-sign that? The crazy thing is I have two more trips planned to Vegas in the next two months. I’ve actually poured my 401Ks into a VegasRA (not to be confused with IRA)….I actually developed a “healthy” addiction to craps. It is by far the best and worst game ever. I made and lost more money on those dice than I’d like to divulge over the internet…for tax purposes…

- I spent New Year’s with the guy from the Allstate commercials…not in the 1 on 1 sense but we shared the same champagne (Why isn’t champagne pronounced the way it is spelled? It would make it a lot more fun to order.)…He was actually really nice until I asked him if he was in good hands…

- I started taking acting classes. My teacher says that I’ve got a gift but it just won’t help me in acting. It is funny how the rest of the class takes it so serious were I’m really just there for the free ice tea and cookies. They don’t like it when I express myself as an artist by free-styling from the script to make myself the main character.

- I took a boot-leg celebrity houses tour. Every thing about it was boot-leg except for the price. I could have used that money to play the field in Vegas…yes I have a craps problem. But the best part was that the tour guide didn’t really know everything about the houses. Once we realized this, we took upon ourselves to ask really hard questions that would further prove the point that she was completely lost. AND the bus was from 1960s. I saw why Rosa Parks didn’t want to sit in the back…And they didn’t finish the entire tour because of traffic like they didn’t know it was going to be traffic in LA….

- I finally joined a gym…and by join I mean I have a key fob that would give me access if I actually remembered where it is located. It seemed like a good idea while I was on Christmas vacation but I have yet to go back and again I could have spent that money in Vegas.

- I went to the Lakers vs. Heat game last night. It was my first time in Staples Center and for those of you that know me you understand how important an occasion it was for me. It was a great game but I must admit that the court looks so much bigger on TV than it does from the seats. It may have had something to due with the height at which I was watching the game. Actually half way through God asked me to move my head so he could see…but being able to witness my team take down the defending champions even without Shaq was well worth the impending neck problems.

- Lastly but probably most importantly, it is official - I am in a relationship. Some of you already know this and others have pointed out that I didn’t make an official announcement so here it is. I got a girlfriend, I got a girlfriend, I got a girlfriend. I’m still working on the her having a girlfriend part but check back…just jokes…well not really…but I’m kidding…unless…nevermind…And while I’m on the subject, why do people tell you your girlfriend is so pretty? It is almost like they are surprised or they think I’m way out of my league…Now don’t get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree with them but I just wonder what causes you to tell someone that their significant other is attractive. Hopefully most people believe their SI is attractive. Or are you telling them, “Wow I would date your girlfriend had you not met her first or if you mess it up.” I digress…

In closing, I’d like to give out my normal shoutouts by passing out what I’ve received too many of in the New Year…bills…

QD/KD – Good seeing you guys over the break. You should come to Cali more often.
KW – congrats on the engagement.
CG – putting Miami in the travel rotation.
RC – thanks for the weekend.
EW – Happy birthday!
ANP – Congrats on move to Tokyo.

M. aka “Delinquent Chronicler”