Clutch

Gilroy.
Aka Garlic Town, USA

I drove home this weekend for the three-day weekend + my birthday is on Sunday.  And I made it as far as Gilroy, CA before I ran into trouble (Gilroy is only like 50 minutes from my house in Palo Alto, and yes, this is another blog post about my drive to and from home).  When you get to Gilroy, you have to get off the 101 and onto this small highway (152), that takes you through a few street lights and past some fruit stands and also there's a section where you have to turn on your headlights even if it's day time.

In Gilroy, the clutch gave out on Lolita. I got off the highway and found that it was very difficult to get Lolita into any gear at all.  It was like trying to do it without having the clutch pushed in.  Freaked out, I pulled over and called my Dad.  I don't know why calling your Dad in a car crisis is so comforting.  He was over 5 hours away, but he was still my hero for the day.  Side note:  I thought I did a pretty good job of sounding not stressed out to him, but apparently he saw right through it.

As I waited for my Dad to figure out where I should get my car fixed, I did the most useful thing I could thing of at the moment:  I did my makeup.  Because, you know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.  And on road trips, I probably look a little more like vinegar usually.  One call to AAA and a tow ride later, I was standing in a fairly sketchy part of town being told that my car would be ready in 4 hours.  (not to mention $480).

But what else is Gilroy famous for?  Outlet malls.  Literally every brand I can think of has an outlet store in Gilroy.  So after looking it up on my phone, I began the 2.1 mile walk to the outlet malls.  And let's just say that within 5 minutes of walking, I'd been honked at, I'd been whistled at, and I'd walked past a white unmarked van with the word "meth" spray painted on it in gold.  But, after a couple of blocks, it wasn't so bad.  And then..... I made this video:

I should preface the details of my shopping by saying that I had a crappy week.  I was really trying to not be a downer and I made it about as far as Tuesday before I decided I was woefully unhappy and that everything in my life was terrrrible.  Which meant that my only option was to put my nose down, push through, and then be a blob of laziness and birthday bossery this weekend.  But since that was also not going to be easy for me, I decided retail therapy was the only answer.

I started telling everyone in my family about my plight in order to get sympathy and also shopping advice from my oldest sister who seemed to be similarly bored.  Since I hadn't told my Mom what I wanted for my birffday, she had yet to do any shopping, so I texted her to inform her that that would no longer be necessary.  I also was texting my sister basically the entire day.

Text me what you buy
I feel a blog post about today coming on...

To which I responded
Coral pants, striped flowy top, two sunglasses, tan belt, chunky necklace, lacy underwears
What else are you supposed to do with days like today?

To which she responded
Coral pants? Jealous

To which I responded
I am awesome

To which she responded
Yes
Why?

To which I responded

Because of my icee sunglass combo.

To which she responded
Are you on a bus?

So after taking the bus back to Rom's Auto Services,  I once again started a long drive.  Which was filled with traffic that I had planned to avoid and also with pretty scenery that I took bad pictures of while simultaneously driving (I was looking at the road, not the pictures, otherwise, they would be centered photos, and I would be dead)

And that's all I have to say about that.