November 22, 2004 - 11:33 AM

Halo 2, Car Hijinks, and Birthday Boys

It's been nearly a week since my last entry, and I'm sorry for the delay. I've had lots to do and some drama that ate up my time. And this past weekend, my cousin Carol was in town, as was my cousin Jimmy, so we all met up with Tony, Matt, Sharon, Eddie, and Margaret for food and games. Carol even brought two copies of Halo 2, which we popped into two X-Box Systems in two different rooms, and hooked up via a network link for multiplayer matches. We spent HOURS killing each other. So much fun.

Earlier in the week, I caught a couple shows at the Room 5 Lounge, including Sylvie Lewis' last show in L.A. before she heads home to England. Some of the other performers I caught were my friend Adrianne; the Elvis Costello-with-a-groove-like Gabriel Mann; and an Irish girl named Naimee Coleman.

I also had to deal with lots of little things at work as we busy ourselves trying to wrap up the last few episodes of this season AND preparing ourselves to move into our own office space for season two. I talked with the line producer for the show, and he's happy to have me on board for the next season, and we both hope that I can find a slightly bigger, more involved roll to expand upon my normal production assistant duties. And I've been assured that I'll get a pay raise, so that's nice.

Meanwhile, I've been worrying about getting a new car insurance policy. Ever since I started leasing my Honda 3 years ago, I've been under my mom's policy, since her name is on the lease with me. It's so much cheaper than here in L.A., what with it being a multi-car policy that she shares with my dad, and them being elderly, and her being a woman, and it being based out of Maryland. But now that they've moved to Phoenix, State Farm has kinda wised up (the agent was cool about the deal that we worked out, but I think he kept it on the down-low), and now I have to fly solo with my own policy.

The first online quote I got was from Geico, and for some reason, my plan came out to over $4,000 for the first 6 month period. Four Freakin' Thousand Dollars! That caused me to drop a load. I was afraid to look at other quotes, but mustered up the courage and found much more reasonable prices at 21st Century Insurance and Progressive Auto Insurance. When I went back to Geico the next day and redid the quote, it too dropped into the non-heart-attack-inducing range of $1400. Eventually, I settled on a Progressive (which is cool enough to offer competitive online comparisons to other leading Auto Insurance Companies) that was slightly more than $1150 for 6 months. The price, while almost double my current rate, seemed right to me when comparing it to Nick's payments, because he hasn't had any accidents or moving violations in the past 4 years, and I've had 3 accidents (2 of which weren't my fault) in the past 2.

Even more car tribulations troubled me, as I got a parking ticket in a parking garage on Wednesday. The parking garage for which I have a parking pass that was issued to me by the show. There are signs posted in the garage that say "Do Not Back Into Spaces", signs that I thought were suggestions and not hard and fast laws. I had just come back from dropping off some tapes and pulled past a spot to quickly before I noticed it was open. Instead of backing up, turning in head first, and maneuvering back and forth to straighten out, I realized it would be quicker and easier to just pull ahead a little and then back in, with the head facing out. Easy peasy.

An hour and a half passes and it's time to go home. I arrive at my car to find the ticket and am dumbfounded. "Since when can cops give parking tickets in parking garages?" I wonder. Unfortunately for me, I have an hour's worth of commute home in which to stew over this injustice. I call Nick and complain to him. I call Y to ask her legal advice. I call Matt to see if he can help me through this trauma. When I get in to work the next day, after running through various options, including not paying because the officer, in his or her haste, wrote down my license plate number wrong, I discover that the parking garage is not privately owned (which would make my case stronger if I contested the ticket), but city-owned. I have no other option than to pay the fine. Bastards.

And finally, in a week that was packed full of stuff, I had to celebrate the birthdays of both Nick and Mark. November 17th, a date that will live in infamy. For on that date, one year apart, they were both born. Mark in '77, Nick in '78. Isn't that freaky? My two best friends, born on the same day? Happy birthday, boys.

Now Listening To: A mix that Ros gave me. A very sassy mix.

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