So, if you read my last two blogs you will see that California was pretty fun since I got to spend time with family and friends, but the part I didn’t share was the horrible stress I encountered when I got back. I did encounter some car stress there, but for the most part I was able to try to relax on the other days. (The days I wasn’t trying to get to California and then back home to Prescott)

My car was supposed to be completely fixed and good to go, which I thought it was since I was able to finally make it back home. But when I tried starting my car the next morning, it was completely dead. It wouldn’t even try to start up. Bad news is that I had a mid-term exam to get to for my Marketing class, which I only ended up getting a few hours to study for due to “vacation” and getting home a day later (pushing my study schedule a day later). The other bad news is that Marketing is the only class I have on Wednesdays, so I was leaving at a good time so I can be a few minutes early. But since my car didn’t want to work I had to call a lot of my friends. Thank goodness I caught my good friend, Dan before he left to Washington! He not only came all the way from ERAU to give me a ride to class, he also jump started my car, so my roommate could take it to Wal-Mart and get it looked at.

I also called my teacher to let her know I will be late and she was very understanding about it. I arrived about 30 minutes late and took the exam. Luckily, I still had enough time to finish, although I was the last one done. After my exam I went to the admissions office to work a little since I had to wait for my roommate to get back from Wal-mart. Apparently, at first they thought it was the battery but they had to charge it so they can test it. Well, it wasn’t and they didn’t know what else it could be. So we went home with our battery charged from them for free. (Since the battery is brand new and we bought it from Wal-mart in California) We were hoping it would be okay, but just in case I took it for a late night drive to my friend’s house. Afterwards I drove back home and it was completely fine.

Next day- Thursday, I had a Macroeconomics Exam and an Accounting quiz. I was very nervous since I didn’t have much time to study for them either. But I got up and AGAIN the car didn’t start! I had to call my other friend and wake him up at a time that was WAY too early for him and he fortunately took me to class. I felt really bad because my roommate had to miss class since she didn’t have a ride and because she stayed and got my car looked at by a lot of different people. It had to be towed to Sears, which they said it was the battery. Then she sent it to Wal-mart and they said it was the alternator. After that, she got it charged so she could take it to Auto Zone. They also said the alternator, which I JUST bought in California as well. So I called my cousin and had him call Goodyear out here and they said if it is the alternator I have a warranty, so it won’t cost me. Thank goodness!!!

She got the car charged as much as possible by Auto Zone and then came to pick me up. I was very stressed that day and I took a lot of it out on her, but I was so grateful for her to help me out with the car. I wish I had more time to be there with her…classes seem to take over your life! Ha Ha. Thank goodness we both didn’t have classes on Friday, so in the morning we went to Goodyear and they tested the car, every way that they could. It cost me almost $40 for them to tell me that NOTHING is wrong with my car?! I felt like they thought my roommate and I were crazy. We just had two mornings in a row where the car wouldn’t start at all. And trust me, the first time it didn’t work I triple-checked ALL the lights to make sure they were off!  I couldn’t believe what they told me. I am grateful, but it is just very peculiar. I felt like I just entered the TWILIGHT ZONE! ha ha. The mechanic did say that it could be the starter messing up on me, but I’m pretty sure that is not it, because the battery was COMPLETELY drained, no lights would turn on or anything. Let’s just hope my car will okay from now on!

So, that was my stressful week after my so-called “vacation” in California. I guess it was not the best time to leave town. I should have waited til the next weekend. But it was still fun and worth it. And I hope the scores on my tests won’t be too bad due to limited study time. I’ll let you guys know.

The morals of this blog is that you should choose your vacation weekends as wisely as possible, always expect the unexpected, have a back-up plan to get back to school in case your car decides to stop, and try hard to keep an emergency fund so you can fix anything that may end up breaking. It may sound hard to do all these, but trust me- they are worth it! 😉