Thursday, February 15, 2007
Since when was a car accident a good thing?
I got rear ended on Friday. Ridiculous. Fate is funny I would say.
5 days a week for the past couple of weeks, I have not been able to take a lunch break due to the hectic status of the business right now. I have been unable to get my car registered in Nevada (my CA registration expired in NOVEMBER), but even before I do that, I need to get a new Social Security Card.
So last Friday, I decide to take a break, and go. I get into the left turn lane and I get rear-ended. Damage was minimal, no one was hurt. (I was freakin WAITING at the red light...ridiculous).
I tried to handle the situation the way I would want it handled to me if it was my fault. I just calmly asked for all of the information, and stayed positive so we can get on with our day. I promptly called the insurance and took care the claim.
Now, in California, I was paying about 100/month for car insurance, which translate to a 600 semi-annual premium. It's a really great rate, and I should have enjoyed it while I could. When I got my insurance here, it had catapulted to a WHOPPING 1200 semi-annual premium. The reason? No longer a "good student" discount, no longer a "multi-car/family" discount, and the horrendous car-accident rate/car-stolen rate in Las Vegas. Since I pay my auto insurance for 5 months, and have 1 month off, I pay $240 a month for auto insurance now. I'll have to wait until I turn 25 (11 months from now) before it goes down.
I talked to the people at Ameriprise and they realized that my address doesn't match the address in their records. I get transferred to Customer Service and they change my address. They told my premium has gone from 1200 to 800! Take that Geico! I just saved 30% on my car insurance by MOVING.
Apparently, my old address was a mile from the Sahara and Durango cross-street, famous for its dangers (and an intersection I used to drive through daily). Now I'm in the developing Mountain's Edge area, where most streets are 1 or 2 lanes. Apparently, they price by zip code, and moving here just saved me 800 bucks a year.
I'm happy to stay positive, and I like to see the silver lining in life. If I have to get into a car accident, then I'm pretty damn happy it worked out like this.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Paid my first mortgage today...
I wrote this post about a week ago, and never posted it, so here it is. I’m not late on my mortgage; I sent it around the 2nd; so actually this is about 2 weeks old
I sent the check this morning, and I am officially spending lots of money on the living arrangement I am lucky enough to have nowadays. The money doesn’t seem so bad, and I intend to keep it that way.
I finally got my Wii; my first line-up at BB at 7am proved unsuccessful, but luckily I wasn’t forced to wait until their 10am open time to realize they only had 20-30 or so in stock, while I waited behind 40 or so hopeful parents.
I was able to get my Wii a couple weekends ago, lining up at yet again 7am at a Best Buy, but being 18th in line (and the ad saying all BB stores guaranteed to have at least 20), I felt fine. The large Chinese family in front (the ones whom I saw camping out the night before) had grown from 4 or 5 teenagers/young adults to a steaming group of festering families.
Regardless I still got the number 18 and was able to get in and successfully purchase the Wii. I enjoyed my wait since the guy in front of me brought his DS also, and we ended up rocking the new SMB multi-player modes which were great. Unfortunately for him, I’m awesome at video games, even the little puzzle games new SMB has for multi-player, and I dominated him big-time. This sort of power does come with responsibility – I feel the need to dominate at all times, and become a wimpering baby if I cannot.
Last two weeks have been crazy at work. Two Fridays ago, I was forced to press on at work until a horrible 9:30 pm. The weekend was fun, but long, and the following week we jumped right back on the horse, and I went to
On a good note, I have excellent rapport with the people I work with (my two bosses), and they both see potential in me in different ways, so I’m happy with my position in the company. With this product, we can blow up (in a good way) and that would put me in a very nice position.
I’ve been feeling fairly grounded lately though; coming home to Kate every day is an absolute blessing – for those of you that aren’t quite sure (Pat, Barbra, Rowena, etc…), Kate and I *do* live together now, along with our very cute and very funny beagle, Snatch. Coming home to my girls has been great, and I love the house and am very happy where I am now. I just need to get the backyard done, get that ceiling fan installed, and every thing from there is business-as-usual.
I’ve been loving Wii Sports and Wario Ware; the Wii multi-player potential is incredible. SD Crew came last weekend, and made their own Miis and we had a great time.
