Talk About Culture Shock...

I am currently stranded with my father in Holbrook, Arizona. This is so not okay.

Here's the story: On July 4th my grandfather passed away at his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, with his wife and three daughters by his side. I wish I could have gone to the memorial but unfortunately that just wasn't feasible. Shortly after his passing my grandmother decided to give me his car, a dark blue 2001 Saab 9-5. 'Great!' I thought. 'I finally have a reason to really learn to drive and since neither my grandfather nor my grandmother drove all that much the car should be in pretty good shape.' My mom subsequently shipped the vehicle from Honolulu to Long Beach, CA.

After my internship (sadly) ended on the 13th I flew out of JFK and met my dad at LAX. We spent about two days in LA and, naturally, went to Long Beach to pick up the car. Everything was going swimmingly. After a delightful 21st birthday with my dad (during the day) and Ali and her boyfriend Amer (at night) we left LA and headed for Vegas. I'll post pictures once this whole trip is resolved (somehow) but for now I'm just trying to fill you in on why on god's green earth I'm in Holbrook, Arizona, so please forgive my brevity. Vegas was crazy, kind of like adult Disneyland, and while I had a good time I don't how long I'd be able to deal with a place where money is openly regarded as a form of religion. Seeing people with glazed eyes cranking away at slot machines at 8 AM was a bit much for me.

ANYWAY

We only spent one night in Vegas and then left for the Grand Canyon the next morning. Did lots of tourist-y things, stayed at this cute little 'rustic' hotel, did a sunset tour of the canyon, waka waka. Now here's where it starts to fall apart (literally and figuratively): Just as we were about to leave the hotel we discover we have a flat tire. The AAA people come, we squeak along behind them, a few hours later it's patched and we're on our way. That whole thing took up a fair amount of time so we're going to have to skip the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert which sucks but I can live with that. La la la, driving along, BOOM. 260 miles outside Albuquerque (27 miles from Holbrook, but who's counting) the SAME TIRE blows. We sat there waiting for AAA for . . . 5 or 6 hours on the side of the road. Finally this guy comes to tow us, this takes another hour or so, and then we discover we have an oil leak too. We don't know where this leak is coming from or if we'll be able to fix it, we don't know if we can even get the car to the dealership in Albuquerque, we don't even know if we can find the right size tire in Holbrook. Even if we can get the car to the dealership the likelihood they'll be able to do anything about the leak by the weekend is extremely slim.

I feel awful because this whole project has been a big fat money pit and this car is having problems left and right, not to mention the fact that I was a big proponent of this idea in the first place because who was I to pass up an opportunity for a car like this, right? Dad HAS to be back home in a week because classes at Marquette are starting. I also was planning to drive with Joe to Minnesota to visit Jess, Betsey and Dan, which I would still like to do but I don't know if it'll be possible if the car is a total bust. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see : /

Kisses and contraception,
Naomi