The last 24 hours...

Okay. Suffice it to say that the last 24 hours of my life have SUCKED. Period.

So, I'm coming home from work yesterday when I think to myself, 'Crap! You need to move your other car... It's been parked in that spot for four days now. With your luck, it's gonna get towed...' (My car was towed about two months ago for being in a spot for 72 hours. Even though MANY other cars on my street stay in the same spot for days at a time... Someone in my hood clearly has it in for my Subaru wagon...)

Anyway - I get to my neighborhood and decide to drive by where it's parked just to make sure it doesn't have a ticket or whatever. When I get there, there's a cop in his car, sitting directly across the street from my car. I get a veeery bad feeling. I keep driving by and I go around the block. A few minutes later, I drove around to look down the street from another angle to see if he was still there and he was. Crap. My bad feeling got worse.

My bad feeling got even WORSE when I turned the corner to get back on my street and a tow truck passed me. However, the tow truck wasn't heading in the direction of my car, but I still had a bad, gut feeling. My gut feelings usually aren't wrong...

I park my car in front of my apartment and run upstairs to drop off my work stuff. I grab my wallet and keys and take off walking to the location of my other car so that I can move it. When I turn the corner where my car is, it's JUST being finished loading onto the freakin' tow truck! CRAP! It was also at this time that I noted that my rear license plate was missing. What the hell!?

I run up to the tow truck guy and explain that this is my car. He informs me that the cop just left and that he can't do anything about it - he has to tow it. AND - the cop took the license plate. 'WHY did he take the plate?' I ask. The guy tells me he doesn't know and again says he can't do anything about it. Great. So, I get the address of where the car is heading and I walk back to my apartment. At this point in time, I'm so angry I can't even think straight. I am SO sick of dealing with this car and I'm just about ready to push it off a bridge... I basically stomp all the way home.

When I get home, I called the impound lot and they told me that I could come get it whenever. There's no hold on the car. Great! Well, WHY SHOULD THERE BE?! They tell me that it'll be around $100, but that I have to get a temporary trip permit for the car as the rear plate is now missing. Fabulous! JUST what I want to deal with... And I couldn't deal with it at that time as all the licensing places were closed for the day. I'd have to take off some time the next day to go deal with everything. Juuuuust fabulous.

This morning, I get up and remember just what's going on... Yay!!! What a glorious morning. I head to work and try and figure out what to do from there. When I get to work, I think - HEY! I'll pay my storage space fee today. It's due - may as well pay it on time for once... So, I call them up to pay for it over the phone with my debit card.

First, however, I called to activate the new debit card I'd recently received in the mail. When I entered in all the required info, a voice prompt informed me they couldn't activate the card for some reason and that I needed to stay on the line and wait for assistance. As I REALLY didn't feel like dealing with my lame-ass bank this morning, I hung up and figured I'd deal with it later. I thought maybe their system was down or something... Besides, my other card wasn't expired until the end of the month, so no problem.

Anyway - So the guy at the storage place takes my card number. What?! The number won't work?! Great!!! Alright, guess there's something wrong with my card in general - juuuuust figures. I've had so many problems with my bank - I really wasn't surprised. I knew there was money in my account, so I knew it had to be something with the bank. SO - I hang up and call the bank...

After giving the bank operator all of the required information and basically promising to give them my first born, they give me the scoop about my card. APPARENTLY, their system was hacked into a couple of weeks ago and many people had their credit card numbers compromised. Well, that's just FABULOUS I say! WOO! And, why then is this the first time I'm hearing about it?! The woman then proceeds to tell me that, in addition to the original replacement card that was sent out, another one followed soon thereafter. This second card had a new number and was meant to take the place of the OTHER replacement card. ARGH! You know what?! I never received the new, NEW card. Nope! Didn't get it!

I proceed to tell the woman I didn't receive it. 'What's the gameplan?' I ask. 'Am I just out of luck?!' She then tells me they'll have to generate an entirely new card and that I am now without a card for basically the next two weeks. That is, unless I find the new NEW card and call her back. Sooooo - I quickly drove home and tried to find the card in some mail that maybe I hadn't opened. NOPE. Just as I thought. Wasn't there! Kick ass! Great. I need my card. I use it often. Yet ONE MORE reason to switch banks... As if I needed another... Ahhh, there's nothing like hearing '5-7 BUSINESS days'... It's a good thing...

Okay. So, I race back to work and try to continue with my very busy work day. FABULOUS! When it rains, it pours... I get my projects done, but as soooooon as I finish up, it's time to jump back in the car and race over to the licensing place to get my snappy 3-day trip permit. I get there in time and I get the stupid permit. I then race back to work and wrap up a few more items.

After work, Larry graciously met me at my apartment and took me over to the tow lot. After a bit of hemming and hawing, I go down to get my stupid car. Everything's fine, MINUS the big scrape that's now on the right/front of my bumper because of the tow truck... I pay for everything and go back down to get my car. It is at this time that I notice a police report on my seat.

APPARENTLY, the officer had been called in to check out a 'suspicious abandoned' vehicle. WHATEVER. Since WHEN is a totally vanilla, boring, 89 Subaru Wagon SUSPICIOUS looking?!??! Yeah - it's clearly a MENACING vehicle. Please. On TOP of this - My car had apparently been vandalized!!! YAY!!! Someone had actually stolen MY rear license plate off the car and put some OTHER plate on in it's place. I'm guessing from a stolen car or something... FABULOUS! On the police report, it said that the officer had come to my house and I wasn't there... Great - I hope all my neighbors saw!! COOL! So yeah - now I have to call the police department and see if they have MY plate at all because what they had actually pulled off wasn't my plate at all! Great! Whatever. At least I have my STUPID car back. I'm putting the thing up for sale NEXT WEEK. Hey - wanna buy a Subaru!?

Yeah. Okay. That was the bulk of the last 24 hours of my life. There were other nuggets that occurred along the way, but I'm choosing to ignore them for now. Have a FABULOUS night!!
WOO!!