The Secret

My birthday sucked, as usual. Actually, it did and it didn't but I had a nice day all the same. It rained all night and Taylor and I met my father and stepmother for dinner at a Bennhanna type retaurant where we stuffed our faces. After dinner, I asked my dad to examine my tires and we found that the inside had been worn to the threads. Apparently the alignment is really bad and I guess Dawn had no real interest in maintaining it.

I was nervous driving it at that point since I drive the highways primarily at 70 mph. A blow-out would be very bad.

I decided the smart thing to do was put the spare on in place of the thread-bare tire ( a full-sized tire) and then this weekend I will buy a new tire, get an alignment and an oil change done. See, I do maintain vehicles.

I tried to call my brother-in-law first but he was asleep. So, I bit the bullet and called Brad.

I tried to be cute. "How do I change a tire on this huge SUV?"
Then I asked 400 stupid questions. How do I put the jack together? Where is the jack? How do I get the tire from under the truck? Only 1/4 of them were phony - the rest I genuinely did not know.

Brad was on his way to a sports bar to watch the All-Star game. He tried to be helpful, but to no avail. We hung up. About 2 minutes later, he called back.

"Meet me at the Sports Bar and I'll change it"

Whew! Success!!!

It took 40 minutes, during which he got covered in grease - a shame because he was looking pretty good! When he was done, I went to start the truck and the battery had gone dead. He went to open the hood to jumpstart it and sliced his finger open. I felt awful.

I gave him beer money as thanks and told him he was our hero. As usual, he came through.

I'm feeling positive, upbeat and happy today. You know why? Because I told myself to. You see, someone shared The Secret with me yesterday. They swore it would change my life and I was dubious, but I am beginning to think it's got some merit. I'll keep you posted. If you don't know The Secret yourself, you can seek it yourself because I'm not quite ready to share it. I will say this - it's been around for more than 2000 years and was shared by great minds like Shakespeare, Lincoln and Einstein. Simple in theory, difficult in application but worthwhile. Oprah's going to blab The Secret on January 31st if you're too lazy to google.

I'm excited because I see progress every day. My house is closer every day. January is almost behind us and I only have February and March to get through. I may start packing some of my things from Jeff's place. It's about time the deadbeat got his own dishes, towels, glasses and silverware because I'm leaving him nothing. What I don't want or need, I will discard on my own but he gets nothing because he so callously left me with nothing not so long ago.

I've been mentally decorating my new townhouse. I can see it all so clearly. I think I will set up my home office downstairs and leave my bedroom as my sanctuary. I think I will go for a feminie look in the kitchen with lots of pale rose and sage green. I think my bedroom will be safari themed because I have a yen for a leopard print bed set. I may go bordello for the bathroom and do a red/Moulin Rouge look just for fun. Who knows? I can't wait to start.

I don't care that they won't hold it until April. I know it is my house. It will be there. I can feel it. I can smell it. I know what the tiles on the first floor will feel like on my bare feet. I know I'll hate the tiny driveway with my HUGE truck. I know I'll use the garage for storage because I can't pull into it with centimeters to spare on either side.

It's mine. It will wait for me.