Ohhh 9 :-(

New years day, I wake up bright and early (8am....but I slept from 630 the night before...damn jet lag) and decide to go pick up my pup a doodle from The Boy's parent's. They have been our designated dog sitter since the whole Jamaica debacle. Pup loves it there and they enjoy having him so it all works out. Only down side is that it's a 2 hour ride to get to them. TB managed to muster up the stamina to go out for New Year's Eve and crashed at his friends, so this was a solo venture.

Here I am on my way, about an hour and a half into the ride. I'm getting close to my exit when I see the car in front of me swerve like a loony. I look and see what I think is just a snow ball-eqsue thing and think to myself...how silly, a car weighs so much why would they swerve? So I drive right along and hit said snowbally thing and hear a loud bang as my car jerks to the right. Then some light shows up on my dashboard that is basically a circle with an exclamation point in it. That has to be bad right? I'm so close to my exit that I decide not to pull over on the side of the road. I carry on to my exit, now slowly decreasing my speed. I pull over into a little dirt lot at the end of the exit ramp and see a state trooper...phew. I now see that my tire is completely flat. Apparently I was completely wrong, Ice-1 Car-0. The trooper lady got out to chat with me and told me that she is not legally aloud to change my tire. I told her that was a stupid law and if she had nothing better to say perhaps she should climb back in her car and go bother someone else. Okay, so maybe those weren't my exact words. Maybe they were more like..."oh of course officer thanks so much anyway."

Fortunately, my car comes with free 24 hour roadside assistance. Unfortunately, they come whenever they feel like it. In this case, I was quoted at least 60 minutes of wait time. So I sat there and sat there and sat there until finally my knight in shining pick up rolled into my little dirt kingdom....uh, I mean parking lot. About 6 minutes after that TB's parents roll up to surprise me. They came for moral support and to relieve me in case I needed to go pee. His mom knows me so well. Then, my Knight tells me, much to my dismay, that I have a donut and not a full sized spare. In no time at all, my tire was changed and I was off to the maybe/someday in laws. Any idea how ridiculous a SUV looks with a donut!?

I'm driving along with TB's parents following me, in case my donut fails me haha. I am about 100 yards down the road when I see a trooper whizzing up the road, sirens blaring. I see the rents pull to the side to let him pass and decide to do the same. I peek to see if he's close only to see that motherf-er pulling in behind me!!!! Seriously, it was all I could do not to laugh. He walks up to my car and asks for my license and regi. I guess he noticed I was quite a bit out of my neighborhood and asked what I was doing up there. I told him about my pup a loo and my maybe someday in laws that were now pulled over behind him. And then I realized I had no idea why I was even being pulled over so I asked. Ready for this one......expired inspection!!!! It expired at midnight the night before! It was like 11 am. DOUCHE! I think I managed to say Shit! He laughed at me and I ended up blurting out the whole story of my day up to that point while cursing the year 2009. I guess troopers talk because he asked about lady trooper and realized I was someone he had heard about and let me go! Whoop! Saved by the flat tire :-)

By 4 pm that afternoon I had driven 2 hours to get my dog, had a flat, had it fixed, gotten pulled over and had to drive 45 minutes further north to have my tired replaced. A tire that cost me $270, I might add. Who does Mazda think they are putting tires that cost that much on my car!? Needless to say, I'm hoping 09 turns out a little better then what I've seen this far.

Everyone have a good holiday? Did everyone receive their Secret Santa's??