the wiggly jeep

Last night we had a little gas incident.  While on our way to Applebees, which had become a Friday night tradition of sorts, the jeep officially ran out of gas.  We were sitting at the light at State Street and University Parkway waiting to turn left and rocking out so some music when it first started to happen.  The jeep didn't have the get up and go that a normal car does when taking off.  It was a little shaky, but we thought that we would be able to make it to the next gas station.  As we were passing by Ken Garff Honda the shaking got considerably worse and progressed onto jolting.  We pulled of into the parking lot right as the engine shut off.  Oops...

Here is the jeep in all of its out of gas glory.  And its surprised driver in the front seat.

While we were waiting to be rescued, we decided to put our time to good use.  What better way to do that than by taking pictures?

Annali and Isaac came to our rescue.  Thank goodness.  We were starting to get some weird people stopping and asking questions.

We finally got some more gas and continued on our way to eat a fantastic appetizer combo and some desert shooters.  

retail therapy

Sometimes it just feels good to buy something for yourself.  Something that you have wanted but just can't convince yourself to spend money on.  This is the story of my life.  For those of you that know me, you know that me spending money on something that isn't really necessary for my existence doesn't happen very often.  But, I broke my long track record of not buying something new the other day.  I was looking through my closet and realized just how awful all of my clothes were.  I didn't have anything cute to wear and I was just sick of all of my clothes.  So, I decided to do something about this.  My mom, dad, and brother were in town and for some reason we always go to the mall whenever they are (my dad and brother love this by the way).  So I went shopping.  And the big news is that I bought something.  Not much, but just enough for me to feel good about the contents of my closet again.  Even though I just spent a lot of money by driving to California this last weekend, I bought myself a shirt.  And let me tell you, it felt really great.  No buyer's remorse here. 

ode to the beach

On thursday I got home from class at 8 o'clock at night. My roommate, Emily, mentioned that she really wanted to go to California for the weekend. While talking with Emily and my other temporary roommate, Val, we decided to go for it. So in the true spirit of being a college student, I took a roadtrip this weekend. It was high time that our presence was seen on the beautiful beaches of California.

The four of us left on Friday around 1 pm. We drove for twelve long hours. It was actually a rather enjoyable time. Time flies when you are having fun (even when you are cooped up in a car). It turns out that my car gets pretty amazing gas milage. We were all impressed and pleasantly surprised. While driving through the mountains to the east of Santa Maria, services are limited...including gas stations and cell phone service. We might have learned this the hard way. Fortunately we were able to make it to the gas station (and back into an area with cell phone service) after running for a good solid 40 miles with the low fuel light on.

On Saturday we played on the beach and in the ocean all day. It was really great. Due to our hidden, white, Utah skin we all left with some pretty good sunburns. And as it turns out seaweed has a texture that is amazingly similar to rubber.

Yay for road trips!

It was really great. Seriously. No really, seriously.

the saga continues

It is a good thing that the gas company is so on top of things.

Conversation #1: Monday morning, requesting that our gas be turned back on

• Info from costumer service rep: Because they were so busy, our gas wouldn't be able to be turned back on until Tuesday morning. But, they reassured us that it would be turned back on Tuesday morning.

Conversation #2: Tuesday afternoon, around 2 p.m.

• Info from costumer service rep: She isn't sure why our gas isn't back on yet. However, the call to turn it back on has been dispatched. Once it has been dispatched it generally doesn't take more than a couple hours to be turned on. But emergencies do take precedence over general needs such as ours so if there happens to be one then turning our gas back on will be postponed a little longer. She reassured me that it would definitely be turned on by the end of the day. No worries.

I woke up this morning, checked the water and sure enough it was still cold. Seriously? Between my roommates and I, we checked it at least twenty more times before 3 this afternoon. Funny, but it still hadn't been turned back on.

Conclusion: it seems to be the season for gas emergencies so be sure to make sure that your furnace is safe. Either that, or the gas company just hates us.

lack of heat

In the hustle and bustle of finals week, many people come and others go.  This particular semester, a couple of my roommates moved out and a new one moved in.  One of the above mentioned roommates that moved out had her name on the gas bill.  I am sure that one day she mentioned in passing that one of us remaining girls would need to put our names on the gas bill in order to continue being serviced because she had removed her name (which only makes sense).  Being the busy college girls that we are none of us thought anything more of this little encounter.  That is until yesterday anyway.  

When I woke up yesterday morning, I noticed that my house was a little colder than it normally is.  I looked at the thermometer and sure enough, it was a mere 62 degrees.  Because our thermometer occasionally gives out and decides to stop heating the house I figured that was the problem.  So, I hit it a couple times, made sure that it was set to 70 degrees and went on with my day thinking that this would remedy the problem as it has in the past.  Later on I went to the gym.  When I got home I was fully anticipating a nice warm shower.  Unfortunately, that is not what I got.  It was freezing right from the get go.  Not even 10 seconds of warm water.  This time I decided to blame it on my roommates thinking that they had probably both showered in the not so distant past and went on with my day.  Not much later, with my house still feeling not so warm, I decided to check the thermometer again.  It once again confirmed my suspicions by showing that it was now 64 degrees.  It had been at least a couple hours and normally it has corrected its folly in that amount of time.

At this point I started to get a teensy bit suspicious.  Freezing cold water and the heater not working?  Something had to be up.  That is when I put two and two together and realized that none of us had put our names on the gas bill.  It was the beginning of a new month and as far as the gas company was concerned nobody wanted nor needed gas in our apartment.  Then it gets even better.  In my quick research to figure out how to fix this little situation that we were in I looked up Questar Gas and tried to find a way to let them know that we would appreciate our gas being turned back on.  Turns out that Questar is only open Monday-Friday.  Luckily it has been decently warm outside this weekend, unlike the last few, so none of us has frozen to death yet.  Assuming that all goes well, we will be having warm showers tomorrow. Probably not until the afternoon though.  

Good thing that it is May is all that I can say.