Along with my previous and only nickname of Murphy, I have gathered evidence and have begun to conclude that there is accuracy in the statement.
Take for example what happened this past week. On a Wednesday, I received notice that SFU had given me a larger than normal bursary (about $900 as opposed to the usual approx $100). This was pretty exciting, considering I was scraping the bottom of my money barrel, and had absolutely no spending money this close to Christmas.
Wow! $900! How am I going to spend it? Well, I bought a used scanner off of my parents for about $130, and I decided to not spend the rest of it. Rather, I was going to make the next semester more comfortable than usual (a bit of money here and there…). A couple of days after this, a young woman in one of my classes asked me to go out with her, an event which was completely unprecedented in any way, shape, or form. The week was going pretty well.
On top of buying the scanner, I also decided to take my printer in to be fixed, as it developed what I can only describe as a “grand mal seizure” every time you turn it on.
That’s when I got overconfident and decided to take my car through AirCare.
AirCare is the government bureaucracy that everyone in BC has to endure every time they want to renew their car insurance. The idea is to control emissions from vehicles (a good idea, in itself). The problems is is that even a lot of brand new cars don’t pass this test, and they charge you $24 every time you want to test your car. Add to this long waits in front of the testing station, and reports that there are good testing stations to go to and bad ones (you might fail at one, but pass at the next one!).
AirCare seemed like a good idea, but ended along the lines of saying : Hey! let’s build faster ferries! Anyone familiar with BC Ferries fiasco knows what I am talking about.
Well, the week was going so well, due to the aforementioned events, and I took my car through AirCare.
It promptly failed horribly, not even close to the “pass” levels (I think it didn’t study).
Great, I have to get it fixed until it passes or I cannot drive my car, which I have deemed rather necessary, since my University is built on top of a mountain and the transit where I live is “crappy”.
You probably know what is coming next, and no Fiona, it’s not a bank card story.
Turns out that my car needs a new catalytic converter, which is only $500 for parts, and $200 for labour. Normally, a catalytic would cost about $300 dollars installed, but you must remember that I own a Subaru, a brand of vehicle that has to be coddled and babysat though everything from routine servicing to changing of windshield wipers. Just like EVIAN is “N-A-I-V-E” spelled backwards, I think I know the Japanese word for “U-R-A-BUS”.
So all my money is gone, and I am back to being virtually penniless.
But wait!!!! The week was going to end ok after all! I still had a date right? I guess the only consolation that can be found in all of this is that I was in no position to spend money like that, though I would have. However, I never got the chance as the whole charade fell apart well before the event was due to occur.
If you hear of someone speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself, you should say: ‘He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.’ -Epictetus