Trapped.

Monday, Feb. 02, 2004 - 4:41 a.m.

2 p.m.

Whoooeee!!! 11 degrees and no windchill!!! Shall we see�deep breath�if the car starts??? Do I dare? Of course, there is a new bank of snow plowed across my driveway, and by the time I dig out it might not be nearly as nice, but I want out of here!!!

3:30 p.m.

It didn�t start. At 11 degrees even a mediocre battery should start. (Trust me, I�m a native, I know!) What burns me is, this battery is new. I got it last year, and it was the best they had. Of all the problems my car could have had over winter, the battery was the one thing I didn�t worry about!

Memo to self: Wal-Mart is good for lots of things, but never, ever buy a battery there again!!! Go with the Sears Diehard, even if it costs twice as much and you�re flat broke.

I took out my frustrations by shoveling two feet of snow off the other half of my driveway. No, we didn�t get two feet; I would guess we got maybe eight inches the blizzard a week ago Saturday, but this is North Dakota, where you end up shoveling the same snow many times. I�ve had to shovel my driveway almost everyday (in hopes I could get out if my car would start), but I only bothered to do the half where I park, so, of course, the snow got thrown on the other half, so that half of the driveway had all the snow. I figured since I will obviously need a jumpstart, I need to have room for another car to drive up beside mine. Besides, it was nice out, I like to shovel, and I had major frustrations to vent!

Of course, what I�m going to tell Dad is I shoveled it out good just so his Ford could get out of my yard next time he comes. Hey, if he can insist that my car has trouble starting because it�s a Chevy and not because it has a bad battery, I can say his Explorer gets stuck in my yard because it�s a Ford, not because it has poor tires!

So what happens now? I sit. If we ever get up to see my sisters, I�ve already said I wanted Dad to bring Mom up on Friday so I could just shoot down Interstate and not make a 40-mile detour since I can�t leave till late afternoon anyway. I guess if I can�t get the car started by then, he�ll have to jump it. If I actually get a job interview (or I get desperate) I guess I�ll see if my local mechanic will drive up here and jump it. I don�t know my neighbors�I�m not brave enough to start knocking on doors and asking, �Hey, is there anybody in your house who can jump a car?�

3:30 a.m.

Yes, I�m still up. Again. *sigh* Maybe if I skip enough sleep someday I�ll get sleepy enough to crawl off to bed in decent season one of these nights. After the car disaster, I buried myself in my Barbie hobby. Will probably do some more head and body switching. My favorite Jewel Secrets Whitney/P.J./Steffie (sorry, only another Barbie collector could translate that) has the dreaded white spots so common in the �80s Barbies and the only cure is a donor body. (Sure wish I could fix my ailments with a donor body!!!) Think I finally found one, but I�ll have to check skin tones in daylight. (But no playing till after the job hunting!)

I need some backdrops for my displays. If Candy lived nearby, I�d put her to work. She painted all the backdrops for her model horse shows.

Yes, she did model horse shows. We used to laugh when people would be looking through her photo album and ask, �Which horse is that?� �Um� It�s not one of my horses�it�s a customized Breyer.� So, you see, I am not the only strange one! She sold her collection to finance a big chunk of her wedding, and never got back into it. It stinks to grow up.

For the record, I normally only get �play line� Barbies that don�t really appreciate in value. I have only a couple that are quite valuable. I haven�t had the heart to sell them, because they are also my favorites. If I don�t get a job soon, I may end up selling them. Mom and Dad would be thrilled, and would certainly shut up fast about my money-wasting hobby when I sold a $50 Barbie for around $200! (Yes, I occasionally watch the auctions on eBay.) Then there�s my idea of redressing the over-produced �80s Barbies and selling them cheap. I�d like to keep them to practice customizing on, but who knows when I�d have time to get into that. I mean, it took me over two hours to do a Kelly haircut last week!

I�m rambling� Coughing again. Time to try to park myself somewhere (hopefully in bed for a change) and stay still to hopefully give my throat a rest. (Activity increases the drainage, causing more coughing, causing more irritation, causing more coughing�)

Oh, my sympathy goes out to the readers who were burned by a diarist they thought was a friend. I was not a regular reader of hers, so I never got to know her�or thought I knew her. The saddest thing is, it has her readers second-guessing other diarists. That�s a shame, because she is very much in the minority. I suppose I am fortunate in that early on in my diary reading�before I even got an account, I think�I ran across a diarist who had been keeping a diary as somebody she was not, just to see if she could carry it off. I just happened to read her last entry where she �explained� what she had done and apologized. So I was aware of the possibility right from the start, but I have chosen to take people at face value. I figure even if the words are false, there is a real person behind it doing the writing, and that is what I look for, no matter what their words say. You can learn a lot about a person from what they say and don�t say�even if their words aren�t actually true. You think you didn�t know them, but you did know a part of them� It�s hard to explain, never mind. I�m just digging myself in deeper!

It�s OK to be upset that you got played for a fool. (You didn�t, actually�how could you know? I just worded it that way because that�s how some people say they are feeling.) It�s one of the blessings/curses of the Internet that you can be anybody you want to be. However, that was just one person, doing something very thoughtless and mean. Please don�t be suspicious of all your DiaryLand friends because of it! I would say, if anything, the diarists I know are more honest online than in IRL, because it�s �safe.�

OK, lecture over. I wasn�t involved, it�s really none of my business, but so many people are sounding so hurt, I couldn�t keep my big mouth shut. Now I really am going to bed!

But not without promoting the 100 Books Club! Check it out! (I promise to nag you only sporadically after this week. I�m giving myself one week to promote it. After that, well, I have the links up, and there is no time limit to join!)