Category: Grr

We were up so late the night before that Mario didn’t go in to work. And neither did Jorge LOL. He’d already hinted to me when we were over at their house last night that he wouldn’t be going in, but I didn’t tell Mario till the morning, after he’d already called in. Jorge was kind of upset, but there really wasn’t any work.

We had lunch and went to Home Depot to pick up some pipes and other material so Mario could finally—after 6 years—install the exhaust in the kitchen. The funniest thing was we ran into Jorge and Jorgie. Mario was ahead of me and I was pushing Alaethia in the cart. I see Jorge spot Mario and he starts quickly chasing him with his basket. I started laughing loudly so Mario turned around and saw Jorge. I asked him why Jorgie was with him and he said they were all taking a family day, aww.

We left Home Depot right on time to pick up the boys from school. Mario started working on the exhaust as soon as we got here. I finally have a working exhaust!

After dinner I turned on my computer to look for something and for some reason I scanned my computer. I left the scanner running before we went to Jorge and Maggie’s again.

We got home and I was up at 2am trying to remove the stupid Trojan (Trojan.Brisv.A!inf to be exact) from my laptop. Mario and Alaethia were already asleep. Boo. And what pisses me off is that I didn’t even get this on my own. It happened either when Sammy asked me to download and put songs on his MP3 player, or when Mario had borrowed my computer to download some stupid Scottish song. Grr. This is the last straw; no more doing favors for anyone on any of my computers, like uploading music to everyone’s iPods or MP3 players. Our desktop is in the boys’ room and all the kids go over there to borrow it. Well, not anymore. I’m setting a password up on it and no one–not even my own children—will use it. All I need is for them to become as screwed up as Mario’s laptop. But that’s a whole other story.

I woke up that morning after the phone rang several times. I finally got annoyed and got up to answer it. It was some guy from Bert Ogden Nissan calling, once again, to convince us to go in to the dealership. I told the guy I was speaking to how we had very specific wants and needs, which included trading in the Equinox and having our new car payment cut in half—and I knew this was impossible. He asked how much we owed and I told him, and he said, “Oh yes ma’am, we’ll definitely be able to do that.” So I went to the bedroom to tell Mario, who’d been listening and was already awake. We got ready and went to dealership after I called Mom to watch the kiddos.

I can always tell beforehand how something’s going to go for me, and as soon as we drove onto that parking lot I knew it wasn’t going to work out.

We spoke to someone and told him we didn’t want to string him along and told him exactly what we wanted: trade-in, payment cut in half, and we never give a down payment. We’ve only given a down payment for 3 of the 4 cars we’ve owned and bought at dealerships. He promised he’d be able to help us, so that gave me a little spark of hope, but I guess that’s what they’re trained for, right?

He showed us a Sentra, which was really nice and drove incredibly, but I kept thinking about a van. We’re going to have 4 kids…we need something bigger, not smaller. But Mario said we can always trade it in later when we actually need all the space, so I agreed. Long story short: they were totally trying to jip us. Even after giving them our requirements they still came and told us we’d need at least a $4,000 down payment to have a $400 a month payment and they were only giving us $4,000 for our truck. That was bull, because we’d gotten it appraised for much higher. I was about to just get up and leave and the guy said he’d run the numbers again. Sure, just keep lowering my damn points! But, whatever. I read Twilight and Mario read his book and we waited.

A manager comes to us a while later and sits down, makes small talk about reading. I close my book and stare at him and he begins to talk. This one tells us we’d need a $4,800 payment to get a payment of $545 a month and showed us two other tiers of down payments which would somewhat lower the monthly payment. Um, no. Every single one was still more than we already paid and this was for a car. I told him, “Look. We came here because the first guy I spoke to said he’d help us. I gave him the facts. I wouldn’t be here right now if he hadn’t said that. This is a waste of our time, yours and ours.” He didn’t even try to convince us. He just stood up and shook our hands and we left. Grr. Waste of a Saturday morning!

Since we didn’t have anything to eat in the morning we went to eat at Taco Bell. I hadn’t been there in a while and was surprised Mario brought up going, since he’s not a big fan. When we were eating I remembered that the darn dealership guy didn’t give me my driver’s license back. Grr. We went back to get it then went to Freddy’s (Mario’s cousin) dealership to check how much the car was worth. He gave us the facts quickly and straight up. And he told us the truck was worth at least $8,000, not $4,000.

We went to the mall after that to the Mimi Maternity store. I was on a hunt for an inexpensive, but nice dress for my baby shower the next day. I didn’t want to spent more than $25 since it was a dress I’d probably only be wearing once. JC Penny didn’t have anything and the Mimi Maternity store had one dress I really, really liked, but it was $40. I was moping around, complaining when Mario reminded me about “the store downtown we went to last time”. I put the dress back on the rack and strangled him with a hug. He does pay attention sometimes! He said, “You see, I’m not completely useless.”

All the way over there, we had some interesting conversations about some people we know. Dirty people LOL.

We had an easy time finding a parking space, amazingly, but had no luck finding the store. Mario was remembering Melrose, which is where I got my dress for Mrs. V.’s daughter’s quinceñera, but they didn’t have anything but pants. We reached the end of the strip and crossed the street and went back the other way. The store I was thinking about was one I could have sworn was on a corner, but we went to every corner store and nothing. I was about to give up when I remembered the entryway to the store I was talking about and lo and behold, we found it! They didn’t have any dresses whatsoever, but I did find a nice blouse. I figured I’d pair it with jeans and my brown sandals. I was glad just to have found something.

I helped Mary and Elda with the distinctivos (or, favors) for the baby shower. After a few hot glue burns and making a mess of some, I finished with my part and came back home to start working on the grapefruit pies I was making for the baby shower the next day.

I don’t remember where Mario went, but he said he’d help me and then wasn’t around so I spent 2 hours peeling the darn grapefruits on my own. It felt like an eternity, but it was so nice to be done with it. Now I just had to wait till the next day to eat it!

I woke up around 9am, which is unheard of for a Sunday, and started worrying about bills and trying to calculate things in my head. Now that I’m not working I need to re-do my whole bill schedule to make room for my Equinox and school loan, which I’d pay with my paycheck.

I willed myself to go back to sleep and had a dream about dad. I woke up when the phone was ringing and it was him. He told me he hadn’t called because he was sick. I said I know, from the cold and Laryngitis, right? And he said no, of something more severe. His leg got infected–the one that was amputated about 4 inches under the knee–and he finds out Monday what’s going to happen. I told him to take care and keep me updated.

I stayed awake and started cleaning up the kitchen. There was stuff left over everywhere from Alaethia’s party. I wasn’t sure if I should or not, but got tired of seeing everything on the floor and started opening up her gifts and putting stuff away. She has a whole new 24-months wardrobe, heh. I had some cereal, Cookie Crisp, of course.

I took my time checking my e-mail and then Mario and Aly woke up. The boys were already in church and Jaylen in CFF by that time. Mario dropped Eenan off. I got ready and we went on a date to Kumori once Mom came over and Mario picked Eenan up.

We talked all the way over. Well, I did anyway, Mario just patiently listened. When Mario remembered he had something to tell me, I found out some scandalous stuff about some friends. I felt disgusted, shocked and a bit intrigued at the same time. I couldn’t enjoy my food after this, let me tell you.

We left and went to Target to buy Alaethia’s diapers. I was going to get Pull-ups but they’re a bit costly and I didn’t even use any with the boys except for a few that Yadira had given me of Angela’s for Eenan. I just got regular ones and will work with her like that. We went to the baby section and I was going to get the monitors but they seemed a bit expensive so I got a playpen and swing instead. They’re not the ones I originally wanted but I think those were discontinued already. Still, the ones we got are cute. I just hope the playpen we bought Emily isn’t as uncomfortable as the one we’d bought Alaethia. The cushion on that one was awful.

We came home and each went to the bathroom. Alaethia followed me so I got her to try and use the potty. I even turned the faucet on for extra motivation. She got tired of sitting and got up and started peeing a little. She stopped herself and I sat her on the potty again but nothing happened. Grr. I was so sure she’d take to it like a fish to water, because she was showing so many signs of readiness, but nope. I guess I’ll try again next week. I don’t want to overwhelm her.

It was the day of Jorge and Mona’s Housewarming bar-b-q. Mario left to his Nino’s while I finished getting Alaethia ready. I seriously don’t know how I’m going to manage getting two girls ready when they start school! It takes 15-20 minutes just to calm Alaethia down enough to get her hair half-decent looking!

We went to his Nino’s and just chilled out with the family. The food was great. There were, of course, a few tiffs between relatives, like there usually is, but other than that everything was fine. The guys ragging on each other as always and by guys I mean Mario, Jorge, Jose and Adan LOL.

Mona gave us all little dishtowel gifts which was really nice, even though we’re supposed to be taking them gifts for their housewarming, not the other way around! I got some ideas for her though. I think a really nice gift would be a nice jar for her flour. She just had it in a bag.

Alaethia was getting bored and kept jumping on the couch so she had a few close calls. She’s so accident prone, that girl. Mom was being embarrassing again and said some stuff that would have been better kept quiet. She always does that and I end up having to defend/talk for her. We left a while after that even though Jorge wanted us to stay. I was silent the whole ride home until we parked here. Then I let her know how embarrassed I was that she’d said what she did. I told her next time she invited herself, I wasn’t going to allow her to tag along.

But anyway, I’m now chilling with Alaethia on the sofa, watching Noggin as usual. Emily’s moving like crazy tonight. I really wish I could see what she was doing in there, or why she stretches right across my belly and then starts thrashing about like she’s trying to find a comfortable position. This is probably what I’ll miss the most: feeling a baby move inside the safety of my body.