I now have my very first real credit card. I’ve used a debit card as a credit card for years - it’s easier to track your transactions if you do it that way - but when I couldn’t rent a car recently, I decided to get a real credit card. I tried the Hello Kitty Visa, the Amtrak rewards card, a couple of generic reward program cards, etc. And because I have zero credit history (except for a previously delinquent debt that is now paid off), nobody wanted to give me a credit card. But when I got my car insurance through USAA, I poked around their website a bit. They offer a Mastercard, so I applied for it and then forgot about it. But in the mail from the weekend I found my very own credit card! My credit limit is only $500 and my APR is over 20%, but it’s “platinum” (whatever that means) and now I have a card to use in emergencies or if I need to rent a car. I’m not planning to actually use it, but it’s good to know that it’s there if I need it. Yay!

I wrecked my car today. Oops. I’m fine, though the car is not.

I was on my way to work and I rear-ended a pickup truck in front of me. We were in a long line of cars at a light, and as I went to apply the brake, I hit the accelerator. The front of my car was immediately smashed in and it started smoking as I pulled into the adjacent turn lane. The pickup’s bumper was dented a bit but otherwise fine. We exchanged information, and I was on the phone with A (it’s her car) while the other guy was calling State Farm - fortunately we both have the same insurance, at least.

The police came to take a report, and apparently the county requires them to issue a ticket to somebody. So the officer gave me a $30 ticket for “failure to maintain control of a vehicle” which comes with a $57 processing fee. The tow truck he called brought me to a nearby impound lot, and A arrived to get me a couple of hours later. We don’t know what the car’s fate will be - whether it’s truly totaled, or worth repairing - so I took everything off the car. That included the roof rack (though not the feet, which are vehicle-specific anyway), antenna ball, license plate frame, and the entire contents (including the buttons on the interior roof). A took me to my favorite vegan restaurant for lunch, and then we came home and took a nap. To say I had a rough morning is putting it mildly.

Like I said, I’m physically fine. The airbags didn’t deploy, I wasn’t hurt at all. Tomorrow I’m going to borrow A’s car to get to work, and she’s going to borrow her mom’s car because her mom doesn’t need to go anywhere tomorrow. For Wednesday through Friday I have already set up a reservation through Enterprise Rent-A-Car, which is the first time I’ve rented a car. That’s pretty much all there is to tell.

I was going to write about high tea at the Ritz-Carlton for A’s birthday, but I felt like telling the story in ASL instead. So you can view the video for that here (WMV file), and the translation follows. There’s a bit of Truffle in there too.
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More than four years ago, I tried out for Jeopardy. I didn’t pass the written test, so I was sent home. Then earlier this year, they held an online test and I did pass that, so I got called in for a second audition. It happened yesterday morning, and there was another written test - but they didn’t tell us if we passed! Instead we all got to play the mock game, at which I did okay. I think my “It’s Academic” experience taught me not to be afraid of the buzzer - any nervousness was just a matter of if I knew the answers at all, rather than if I could hit the buzzer in time. Anyway, I have no idea how I did at all. They say they will consider everyone based on their test score, their stage presence, their looks (I’m assuming that based on the Polaroid picture they took of everyone), etc. So for all I know, they just did away with the embarrassing “didn’t pass the test” part, and let everybody play the mock game, even if we don’t have a chance at getting on the show. But I am theoretically in their active contestant file for the next 18 months, so I suppose I could still get called at any time.

Today we are going to Charlottesville for some geocaching - it’s such a nice day, and we wanted somewhere interesting to go that would also have geocaches, so I picked there because there are several caches around UVA.

I got my tattoo for Wu today. I ended up going to Fatty’s Custom Tattooz in Dupont Circle, where I was quoted a price of $200 and told the wait was about an hour. That seemed like an awful lot of money, but I remembered the advice of those who told me “quality work costs more” and I handed over my card. The entire shop was really warm - it was at least 75° out, and the air conditioning obviously hadn’t been turned on yet from winter - so I went downstairs to Starbucks and got us cold drinks. I had been nervous as we neared the shop, I was nervous as I searched for parking, I was nervous walking back to the shop…I was definitely scared, and sitting around for an hour just got me more worked up! I talked with crayon on my Sidekick; she has a number of tattoos and told me that she’s been scared before every one.
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I’ve had a rush of thoughts in my head, of course. We have watched some TV, I took a nap for about an hour, and we cried together. I cried a lot, especially after reading a 9/11 edition of the rainbow bridge story. Every time I look out onto the landing from our bedroom, I want to see her there. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a cat sitting in the bedroom doorway just as she did, but it was Truffle. I have so many thoughts that have passed through my mind and I thought about writing them down but I just couldn’t collect them all.

There are several things I want to remember about Wu. How she liked to lick plastic - bags, cellophane, anything. How she wasn’t interested in a toy on the end of a string, but she was quite interested in the string itself. The sound of her wiping her paws on the plastic placemat before taking a drink of water from the bowl. She did that just the other night, and I can still hear it. She was declawed, so she wasn’t allowed outside, but she would sometimes hang around the cat door as if she were threatening to go out. She only got outside on a couple of occasions, and it scared her and she ran right back inside. How she used to demand love RIGHT NOW and would stand on our chests as we sat up in bed, making sure she was all we could see. How she would hide under the stereo table when she didn’t want to be found. How she would meow with great concern when we took a bath with the door closed, and if she was let in how she’d put her paws up on the edge of the tub to make sure we weren’t bathing in poison or something. And her voice - she was such a talker.

I’m so glad I have pictures and video, but I wish I had more pictures. I didn’t realize I had so few.

We brought her home with us from the hospital, and I think we were planning to bury her in the yard. I came to realize, though, that I would rather have her cremated and keep her with us. The hospital had given us the option of collective cremation for $60 or individual cremation for $239, but we ended up finding a place very close to A’s work that will cremate her alone for $140. We bought this urn on eBay for $40 including shipping; we had been torn between that one and this one because her name was Empress Wu, but we decided to go with the more neutral one that was also larger. We have five other cats, you see, and while the idea of collective cremation horrifies me, I can envision all of my cats playing together in there. I am also thinking of getting some jewelry to keep part of Wu with me.

I’m going to go to work tomorrow, because Fridays are my easy day anyway. I’m hoping I won’t have to use vacation pay for the six hours I took off today. We’re still planning to go to a play Saturday afternoon, and I’m still planning to interpret with fairerhiannon at MAL this weekend. But I still feel terrible right now. I don’t even know how to end this so I’ll just leave it at that.

We are not leaving for New Jersey tonight after all; there are a few reasons for this but the main one is Veterans Day. Government offices will all be closed, so we would have only tomorrow to get things done. Instead we plan to go up next week. A and I each get three days of bereavement leave from work, so I am thinking we will go up next Tuesday night and stay through Saturday morning (leaving earlier if we’re done earlier).

My father’s brother says the estate is worth $100,000 but I’m thinking it will be less than that. My father had $11,000 in a bank account, a heavily-modified (to hold ham equipment) Ford Escort that’s five or six years old, and his trailer. I did a little poking around and it seems trailers sell for between $8,000 and $30,000 - this one is apparently in bad condition so it will probably be at the lower end of that range. There is a bunch of electronics and ham equipment in the trailer too; no idea how much that’s all going to turn out to be worth. We don’t know who is the beneficiary on the life insurance, and we don’t know if my father had a safe deposit box, so I am thinking all of this will come to about $50,000 at most. (These numbers absolutely stupefy me, I’ve never had that much money.) $5,000 of that will be going to reimburse my father’s brother for the funeral (I’m still disappointed that I wasn’t found in time for that, and I think the delay might have been semi-intentional), and I also plan to give him a portion to thank him for doing the right thing and contacting me. The rest is going to be college money - I never finished, and I’m hoping there will be enough for me to cut work back to part-time and get a degree.

Did I eat a four-leaf clover sometime this year? Has somebody tucked a rabbit’s foot in my purse? Because I have bizarre luck with Blingo. In early June, I won a $250 Visa gift card (instead of a PSP) from them, thanks to my friend Fellow Eskimo. Since then, I’ve won four or five movie tickets, all through other people. And tonight, just now, I won a $100 Visa gift card (instead of an iPod Shuffle) through somebody I don’t even recognize. Shira, if you’re reading this, could you please get in touch with me so I can thank you?! I have yet to actually win anything directly myself - sorry Kymberlie! - everything has been through other people. Thank goodness they’re all logged in while they’re winning big!

Folks, Blingo is legitimate. I got computer games and a dress with my first card, and I have seen a movie or two with the tickets. I have won hundreds of dollars from Blingo. If you want to sign up, feel free to do so. Blingo rocks.

They say that olfactory memories are the strongest kind of memory - that a smell can trigger a memory better than anything else. That’s certainly true of the perfume A bought yesterday, because as soon as I smelled it I was reminded of the Girl Scout camp I attended for several years as a kid.

I was tickled to find that Camp Conowingo has a website now, with photos and tiny movie clips. There is even a picture of the chimney, which was the source of ghost stories when I was a camper. Reportedly a woman who lived in the house during the Civil War had fled when troops were approaching, and she stuffed her baby up into the chimney. The soldiers subsequently lit a fire in the fireplace and…well, it was a rather gruesome story! We insisted that we could still hear the baby wailing, because the chimney was all that remained of the home. The pictures of the dining hall show that it hasn’t changed a bit since I was there! The movie clips are pretty bad; they look like they were taken by a cell phone.

The images of the creek and lake were surprising, though - I could have sworn the lake was much bigger, and the creek was an uncrossable river! I haven’t thought about Camp Conowingo in a long time - that was a fun trip down memory lane.