Yep, this Friday I’m hopping on a plane with 2 suitcases and a carry on – what’s left of my belongings – and I no longer live in America. Surprisingly, the biggest kink of the move has been Cookie Puss, my VW Jetta. I had my quote from CarMax in hand and was ready to sell – I just needed to get a re-print of my registration and title from the DMV. Easy enough, thought a naïve me, I’ll just go in on my last day in San Diego and pick it up on my way to dropping off the car. But an oh-so-pleasant DMV worker dampened my day when she told me that not only was I not going to sell my car that day, but I was not going to be able to sell it in the next weeks or months. Why? Well obviously! My bank hadn’t released the lien on my title, which was of course still in Virginia where I had purchased the car in 2005. And, how dare I think I was smart enough at 21 years old not to put my boyfriend at the time on the title with me. So, once Pentagon Federal Credit Union certifies a release on my lien, I have to submit that to the Virginia DMV, who will then release my title, which I then need to send to my ex-boyfriend that now lives in Alaska to give me power of attorney to sell the car, then submit it to the California DMV to process before selling. Is your head spinning yet? Because VW also had a mandatory recall on my car and the DMV also wasn’t going to release my car for sale until I submitted a certification that the repair had been made. Which it obviously handn’t. And remember I had to catch my flight to NY in a few hours and was never coming back to California again!
Luckily I have the best fiancée in the world, who I called hysterically crying from the DMV parking lot and who quickly took over to find a solution for me. He said we would just ship it to the East Coast so it had a safe place to stay and we could deal with it at a later time. He submitted for quotes online, did research on customer reviews to find the best company, and within an hour had stopped my crying and had turned me into a grateful admirer. In fact, it even worked out well because my brother and sister-in-law lives in Boston and don’t own a car, so they can use it while I’m gone and working out all the paperwork. So out of all of this, some good came from it!
But here I am in NY at my parents’ house and I’m already practicing my wifely duties. I’ve been cooking for my dad, who is possibly the pickiest eater in the world. I find it to be good practice for when I have children because he REFUSES vegetables or “anything green and leafy”. When I ask him what he does want to eat, he responds (half jokingly) that he wants pizza and Chinese food, which I’m obviously not willing to give him 6 weeks after his sextuple bypass heart surgery. Or ever again, really. Truthfully, he does still request that I give him Chocolaty Delight Special K cereal for breakfast and insists that because it’s Special K, it must be healthy (I will say, I have a better respect and appreciation for the Special K marketing department now because they were able to convince intelligent consumers that Special K is a healthy cereal!!).
I could write more, but I doubt ¾ of you even made it this far in the blog entry. If you did, you’re a true friend and I like you a little more now! PS Happy birthday to my wifey Marina!! She’s “21” J