Sunny, With a Chance of Snow

I can say that after a year and a half of living in New York, I am an official New Yorker. This happened after the day after Christmas. My travels had ended and I had just flown back to New York on Christmas day from Florida. I had to close my store and live an hour drive to work. A blizzard was supposedly hitting Long Island later that day so I brought the essentials just in case I got stuck at my store.

The snow was really coming down. While at work, I walked by one of the mall entrances and all I saw was white. This scared the shit out of me. Last year during winter I missed the 2 big snow storms, the first I was in Florida and the second I was in San Diego making fun of all my friends that were snowed in. It did snow a few other times last year but at that time I lived a mile away from work and had a roommate that had 4-wheel drive that I rode with when it snowed.

We ended up closing the store early even though shoppers were still in the mall. These yanks are crazy up here. After we closed down the store, we walked out to our cars. After scraping the snow off my windshield, I was ready to start my journey back to Long Beach. For some crazy reason I thought I could make the hour drive home. I thought my car was invincible. It's a muscle car! It's a Mustang so it can do anything! Maybe in Florida...

After stopping at the first red light, my car wouldn't move. Oh the back tires were moving, but nothing else. Thank God another manager was right behind me and a nice guy was behind her. They pushed me out so I could go back to the mall parking lot to park my car. I rode with that manager to another manager's house to stay the night.

The next day, we didn't open until 2pm. After work, I walked out to my snow covered car. I could barely see the yellow. With no shovel, I started digging my car out with my hands and feet. A security guard stopped and pulled out two shovels. After digging for a few minutes, I tried backing it out. No go. The security guard tried pushing while I hit the gas. No go. A guy stopped and helped push. I only smelt burnt rubber. Finally after them pushing and me hitting the gas for 10 minutes, I got out. My car was free. I started my long journey back to LB.

The drive wasn't that bad, until I got to Long Beach. It seemed they hadn't plowed any snow. There's a million and one stop lights on the way to my house and I thought about running every single one because I was so scared of stopping and getting stuck again. I finally got to the last stop light and turned down my road. I was finally home! Until I saw my road. It was covered with snow. I had only two more houses to go until I was at my house. My back tires were spinning and I was a not moving. There I was, stuck in the middle of my road, my house just a few feet away. A bulldozer started coming down the road. Yes! He's come to save me! "You shouldn't be out on the roads. Especially with that thing. That's not a winter car," he said to me as he reversed and left the street. Thanks for your wise words of wisdom jackass but words aren't gonna get my damn car out! Another guy came down the road and tried to push me. No go. My roommate and other friend came and tried. NO GO! Then I remembered I had AAA. They came an hour and a half later with a tow truck. Finally my car was out of the slush and in front of my house.

The next day, it was back to work I had to go. When I woke up I thought, how the hell am I gonna make it? A kid could drop a snow cone on the ground and my car would get stuck in it. My roommate and his girlfriend tried to help me get my car out of my parking spot. After about 2 hours, no go. Even if we had gotten it out, my car would only get stuck in the slush on the road ahead. I ended up taking my roommate's SUV to work that day. Three days passed and my car was still in the same spot. On New Year's Eve, I knew I wouldn't be in the best condition to get my car out the next day for work in the morning, so I was determined to get ole Sunny out. With the help of a couple neighborhood girls that were having a snowball fight, I got Sunny out! I parked it in a spot I knew I couldn't get stuck in for the next day.

The following week, snow was predicted again. I knew Sunny wasn't gonna make it this winter. She was done. With her rear tires with no more tread, squeaky timing belt, and check engine light on, I knew she was mad at me. She was ready to go back to where the sun shined down on her yellow exterior, where she could drive 90 on the road and no one would stop her, where her Mustang emblem would not get stolen(it was stolen the 1st month I moved up here).

I have the best family ever. My dad found me an all wheel drive SUV and my brother agreed to meet me half way to exchange cars. All I had to do was get insurance, register my car for New York, get my New York state drivers license and drive Sunny to North Carolina to meet my brother. Easier said than done.

After 3 trips to the Department of Motor Idiots, finding out I had a suspension on my license because they couldn't put my Florida street address with the right city(they sent a citation that I had too many points on my license to 22 McCarthy Ave. AVENTURA, FL instead of FROSTPROOF, FL) and paying a whole paycheck worth of points on license, car insurance, and New York state taxes on my new car, I was ready for the trip down to NC.

518 miles, a short pit stop to get new back tires, and 5 states later, I made it to NC. After 5 years of being with Sunny, it was time to say goodbye. Sunny was the best gift I'd ever gotten. She was a graduation gift from my parents when I graduated college. My parents surprised me with her by driving it up in the yard after they had said it was already sold by the time they got to the dealership. She was my 4th Mustang, my first being the Great Pumpkin when I was 15 after my dad thought I was turning 16. He's never really been good with keeping up with ages or dates. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm still 24 and that my birthday is October 17.

I've had some pretty good and maybe not so good memories with that car. Driving to and from Tampa and Miami to FP. The long road trip to NY and getting the shit scared out of me when a bum tried to clean my windshield in NYC. Windows down and music up cruising through Miami. Thinking it was towed from the Wal-Mart parking lot after a long night of drunkeness only to find it in my driveway because my parents wanted to teach me a lesson. 7 tickets; 3 speeding, 1 running a red light, 2 parking tickets, and 1 for my tint being too dark. Flying back to NY to find 2 feet of snow behind my car and not having a shovel or even a brush. Hooking up my Ipod and singing to the top of my lungs while driving 85 down the interstate.

I'm going to miss Sunny, but it's a new year and time for a change. It's nice to have an SUV now, especially up here. No more worrying about how I'm going to get to work when it's snowing or sticking out like a sore thumb when driving on the parkways. I think Mitsy is going to enjoy NY!

Saying goodbye to Sunny.

My new ride Mitsy!

This is what happens when I get bored and find old school CD's. One of my many talents: turning any song into a country song! For your listening pleasure.

The Story of My Singleness

With the holidays comes friends, family, gifts, Santa Claus, Christmas trees, egg nog, lights, cookies, mistletoe, parties, and if you're a girl in your mid to late 20's in a serious relationship comes engagements. I don't know how many news feeds I read on my facebook that had engagement announcements or photos of diamond rings. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy for all of my friends that got a little square box for Christmas, but you gotta see it my way. These engagements puts a lot of pressure on a still single girl like me. My family thinks that I might grow up to be a cat lady, die an old maid, or even that I might like girls! First of all, I don't like cats, if anything I'm gonna be a dog lady. Secondly, have you seen my mess of a bedroom? I am far from being any kind of maid! And most importantly, I love guys. Since I was in pre-school, I've always been a little boy crazy. No matter how many assholes I may meet, none of them could ever turn me to lesbianism. What's even worse is that my grandmother is telling her nurse that I was supposed to be engaged over Christmas.

So Still Single Stella has something to say about herself not settling down. I'm not against getting married at all. One day I will get married and have kids with a house with a backyard and a white picket fence(okay so I might already have my fence, it might be at a rented house and need some paint, but by golly I got my picket fence!) To be honest, I wouldn't mind being in a relationship. It's been a LOOOONNNNGGG time since I've been in one and it would be nice to have someone to cuddle with on a cold New York night, someone to call to help get my car out of the snow, someone to kick it with out on the dance floor, someone I can add to my fb page as being "in a relationship with..."(haha sorry I had to add that). And the truth is, if I really needed to be in a relationship, I'm pretty sure I could be. I don't want to come across arrogant or stuck up, but I'm a picky person. I don't just settle down just because I want to be in a relationship and won't date the first guy that comes along. If I don't feel something for a person, I'm not going to waste my time. At the same time though, I tend to still waste my time. I waste my time being attracted to the wrong guys or having bad timing. Sure, I've been in a couple relationships where the guy wasn't wrong at all, just not a good time in my life for me to have settled down.

Another fact about this single girl: I am boy-illiterate. I don't know how to read them. When ever I'm in to a guy I seem to play it cool on the outside, but on the inside my brain is scrambling with thoughts of: Is he in to me? Is he in to someone else? Is he a good guy? Should I text him? Should I wait for him to call? And when I actually end up going out on a real date with a guy, these are the thoughts that cross my mind:
Is he going to pick me up or should I meet him there? Where are we going? What should I wear? Casual or dressy? What should I order? If I order that will it be too messy? Should I order a drink? Am I talking too much? Why did I just say that? Do I have food in my teeth? Am I drinking too much? Should I offer to pay my half of the bill? Do we kiss goodbye? Do I offer him a drink inside? Are we going to see each other again? Should I text him or wait for him to text me?
Stella+Dating=awkward.

I have also chosen a different route for my life. I've spent time traveling and moving, not really having a life to be able to settle down. I've chosen my career, my independence, my love for travel, excitement, and spontaneity.

So for those of you who wonder why a girl like me is still single, this is it. That's the story of my singleness. Mystery solved.

New Year, New Posts

For 2011, I have made a few resolutions for my year. I have decided like most people, I am going to be more healthy and go running more. I am going to get off my ass on my days off and actually do stuff. I'm going to try my damn hardest to get promoted at work (new motto: shit or get off the pot). And most importantly, I am going to write more.

To me, writing is my escape from the world. It lets me get my thoughts that I've bottled inside out of me so I can somehow make sense of all that's in my head. It makes me sane when I feel my world is filled with a bit of chaos. It lets me express who I am and who I want to become.

And now I would like to apologize for that last paragraph. Okay, so I'm a total cheeseball. I promise my blog won't be all Cheez Whiz and Corn Puffs anymore. I really want to write a funny, interesting, exciting blog about my adventures in life. Now that my travels are over and my life is back to normal, I hope I don't bore anyone. I do, however, have some interesting ideas for future posts. Hopefully I can get my ideas typed up on the computer like they sound in my head(more censored though, of course!)