Grad school. Living in the desert. Living with my girlfriend. Owning a cat. Thirteen months ago, if you would've told me that this would be my life, I would've thought you were bat shit crazy. To say that my life has undergone some change is the understatement of the year. But they say change is good, and I do believe it is, but it can also be hard, and indeed some of it has.
Moving across the country was pretty an event in itself. I drove the moving truck and Danielle drove her car. I bought us walkie-talkies so we could communicate the entirety of the way, including places where cell coverage was absent. But the drive was pretty brutal. We had originally planned to stop in the Grand Canyon, but we were so sick of driving that we just powered through - -we wanted to get to our destination and be done. Plus, Danielle had to start work the morning after we were to arrive!
We spent the night in Sunnyside, WA; Salt Lake City, UT and Flagstaff, AZ. Our stay in Flagstaff turned out to be the start of what I am calling the trials of Tucson. The trials of Tucson were a series of unfortunate events -- and by series, I mean series in every sense of the word. They literally happened one week after the next.
1. Danielle's car window get's smashed in the hotel parking lot. Thieves steal our flat screen TV.
This wasn't all that bad. They only took our TV. I was more pissed about the fact someone had smashed her car window, and that the Hotel did not have any security cameras. The TV was pretty nice, but I got a bargain on it... $150 off craigslist. For those of you who don't know, my friends often refer to me as craigslist Chris, because, well, I'm a craigslist pro.
2. I total the engine on Danielle's car.
I'm not too proud of this one. In fact, this is probably the stupidest mistake I have ever made, and definitely the most costly. You see, we hadn't checked the car's oil during our road trip from Seattle to Tucson. That's over 1,500 miles without checking oil. I figured it was low, and the oil light was on. I checked the levels at a gas station one day, and they looked a bit low. I put in 2 quarts of oil. I should have took a better reading and waited until the engine was cool.
The engine seemed to be running fine, and I drove the car for a bi that day. The next day after I dropped Danielle off for work, the engine felt funny. Something wasn't right. So I thought I would take it into Midas and have them look at it. I was now getting nervous I had put too much oil into the engine. On my way there the car started smoking like a smoke bomb on fourth of July. People were passing me because the smoke was so bad.
I made it into Midas and low and behold, I learned a new term: hydro lock. It turns out that I had hydro-locked the engine, meaning that I had put too much oil into the engine -- so much oil that it actually flooded into the compression chamber, causing a buildup of immense pressure. The pressure in the vapor chamber became so high that it bent a rd in the engine and caused some internal grinding, effectively totaling the engine.
So I spent the next 7 hours at Midas, on the phone with Danielle's dad, my dad, a mechanic from Bothell, WA and talking to the mechanics at Midas. It was a great way for our two fathers to be introduced to each other /sarcasm. I ended up having to get two Midas credit cards to finance the cost of replacing the engine, and now owe a couple thousand. Good news is that I've made a budget and will have the engine paid off by January. Also there is no interest for a full year, so that's nice.
3. I had an appendicitis and had to get surgery.
Well after that costly mistake, I started school. Well the first day I start teaching, my tummy feels weird. I thought maybe my sandwich I made as bad, as I had some cramping and had to use the restroom a few times. But the pain just wouldn't go away. I decided to tough it out. I went home around 5pm and took some Pepto, thinking it would ease my pain. It seemed to help a bit, but not that much. The lingering pain worried me a bit, but I thought I would be fine by morning. However, the pain got a bit worse during the night, and it was acute pain, located on my lower right abdomen. I started researching appendicitis, and realized that my symptoms were a pretty good match. So I booked an appointment for student health and went in the next morning. Doc said it looks like an appendicitis, and told me to go to the hospital. I asked him if I could wait until the end of the day to go. He said "Yeah, probably." So that's what I did. At 3:15pm I walked over a mile to the university hospital and booked myself into the trauma center. I ended up having surgery that night.
I had a lot of fun at the hospital. I joked with all the nurses and doctors. My favorite was the nurse who was joking that I was the guy getting the third boob implant. The surgery went well, and I say "well" because the last surgery I had, I ended up giving the doc a black eye. It had something to do with coming off the anesthesia too fast. I was happy I didn't wake up swinging this time around.
When I awoke, I was starving. Danielle went and got me a pizza, because, well, she is awesome. She stayed the night in the hospital with me too! Post-surgery was alright. I'm happy to say I am pretty much fully recovered now!
I like to think the three trials of Tucson were the Universe's way of testing me.
PS: I want to give a special thanks to my Grandpa Bob who drove down from Palm Springs to help Danielle and I unload. He was a life saver.
Moving across the country was pretty an event in itself. I drove the moving truck and Danielle drove her car. I bought us walkie-talkies so we could communicate the entirety of the way, including places where cell coverage was absent. But the drive was pretty brutal. We had originally planned to stop in the Grand Canyon, but we were so sick of driving that we just powered through - -we wanted to get to our destination and be done. Plus, Danielle had to start work the morning after we were to arrive!
We spent the night in Sunnyside, WA; Salt Lake City, UT and Flagstaff, AZ. Our stay in Flagstaff turned out to be the start of what I am calling the trials of Tucson. The trials of Tucson were a series of unfortunate events -- and by series, I mean series in every sense of the word. They literally happened one week after the next.
1. Danielle's car window get's smashed in the hotel parking lot. Thieves steal our flat screen TV.
This wasn't all that bad. They only took our TV. I was more pissed about the fact someone had smashed her car window, and that the Hotel did not have any security cameras. The TV was pretty nice, but I got a bargain on it... $150 off craigslist. For those of you who don't know, my friends often refer to me as craigslist Chris, because, well, I'm a craigslist pro.
2. I total the engine on Danielle's car.
I'm not too proud of this one. In fact, this is probably the stupidest mistake I have ever made, and definitely the most costly. You see, we hadn't checked the car's oil during our road trip from Seattle to Tucson. That's over 1,500 miles without checking oil. I figured it was low, and the oil light was on. I checked the levels at a gas station one day, and they looked a bit low. I put in 2 quarts of oil. I should have took a better reading and waited until the engine was cool.
The engine seemed to be running fine, and I drove the car for a bi that day. The next day after I dropped Danielle off for work, the engine felt funny. Something wasn't right. So I thought I would take it into Midas and have them look at it. I was now getting nervous I had put too much oil into the engine. On my way there the car started smoking like a smoke bomb on fourth of July. People were passing me because the smoke was so bad.
I made it into Midas and low and behold, I learned a new term: hydro lock. It turns out that I had hydro-locked the engine, meaning that I had put too much oil into the engine -- so much oil that it actually flooded into the compression chamber, causing a buildup of immense pressure. The pressure in the vapor chamber became so high that it bent a rd in the engine and caused some internal grinding, effectively totaling the engine.
So I spent the next 7 hours at Midas, on the phone with Danielle's dad, my dad, a mechanic from Bothell, WA and talking to the mechanics at Midas. It was a great way for our two fathers to be introduced to each other /sarcasm. I ended up having to get two Midas credit cards to finance the cost of replacing the engine, and now owe a couple thousand. Good news is that I've made a budget and will have the engine paid off by January. Also there is no interest for a full year, so that's nice.
3. I had an appendicitis and had to get surgery.
Well after that costly mistake, I started school. Well the first day I start teaching, my tummy feels weird. I thought maybe my sandwich I made as bad, as I had some cramping and had to use the restroom a few times. But the pain just wouldn't go away. I decided to tough it out. I went home around 5pm and took some Pepto, thinking it would ease my pain. It seemed to help a bit, but not that much. The lingering pain worried me a bit, but I thought I would be fine by morning. However, the pain got a bit worse during the night, and it was acute pain, located on my lower right abdomen. I started researching appendicitis, and realized that my symptoms were a pretty good match. So I booked an appointment for student health and went in the next morning. Doc said it looks like an appendicitis, and told me to go to the hospital. I asked him if I could wait until the end of the day to go. He said "Yeah, probably." So that's what I did. At 3:15pm I walked over a mile to the university hospital and booked myself into the trauma center. I ended up having surgery that night.
I had a lot of fun at the hospital. I joked with all the nurses and doctors. My favorite was the nurse who was joking that I was the guy getting the third boob implant. The surgery went well, and I say "well" because the last surgery I had, I ended up giving the doc a black eye. It had something to do with coming off the anesthesia too fast. I was happy I didn't wake up swinging this time around.
When I awoke, I was starving. Danielle went and got me a pizza, because, well, she is awesome. She stayed the night in the hospital with me too! Post-surgery was alright. I'm happy to say I am pretty much fully recovered now!
I like to think the three trials of Tucson were the Universe's way of testing me.
PS: I want to give a special thanks to my Grandpa Bob who drove down from Palm Springs to help Danielle and I unload. He was a life saver.