Friday Is For Driving You Stressed

Holy shit, was today terrible. But I'll get to that later.

The weekend, however wasn't that terrible, even though I managed through it.

On Friday, I went to the Chatsworth Superior Courthouse which is right between the Winettka Theater and the Northridge Fashion Center inside a little plaza-like area filled with a shit load of Washington Mutual...I mean Chase bank buildings. I had to do a meetup last year at one of the buildings cause I was selling my $15 iTunes giftcard to some dude there who wants to buy it for 7 or 8 dollars, which I didn't care cause I needed to get rid of it.

But anyway, I was originally supposed to meet with the judge the day before about the traffic violation I got back in March 2009 for 2 things: expired tags and no headlights on, because they pulled me over at night. In defense, I was coming back from Pierce College after my Sociology class (which was the only thing I liked that semester) ended late, and my car which is a base '95 Nissan Sentra, had to manually turn on the headlights unlike most cars that automatically turn on at night. I forgot I was driving without the lights cause I was on Victory Boulevard coming east from Winnetka and that's when I got busted as soon as I approached Reseda Boulevard. Also, that night was the third time I got pulled over for expired tags (yes, I'm that lazy back then, but I was unemployed). I was lucky that this was the LAPD that got me (the other two were the Sheriff's Department and the CHP) otherwise my car would've been impounded, which it did a week later when I went to my friend's house in Simi Valley. I wasn't working that time and I wasn't making that much money, or any money for that matter, and also, my registration was due back in August 2008, which made it much worse. The judge decided to dismiss the whole ordeal since it was ancient history to him and he lowered my fine of $1,047 (which increased from the original fine of $150 the past 16 months cause again, I wasn't working and I was lazy to go to court) to $75 plus court fees which came up to $105. The $30 difference didn't bother me that much, but what did was the way this courthouse has been operated by its employees on that day.

Now usually, the bailiff gives you a form that states the amount of the fine, inside the courtroom, after you stated your case to the Judge. However, we had to go to a small-ass room next to the courtroom to get that same sheet from one of the two clerks with a LOT of people. Think of like going to the DMV and waiting at an In-N-out on a Saturday in the Antelope Valley. The line was THAT long, in the same order the Judge called us to the podium. Its not like that in the Van Nuys or the San Fernando courthouses, but seriously, the Chatsworth courthouse can do better. I had to wait 4 hours to get my form. I was being cool about it, not being in a rush unlike everybody else in the room, waiting so impatiently to the point that they wanna explode. Seriously, there was actually a dude that was about to go psycho towards a pregnant lady there who was also waiting for her fine statement. I made time go by fast by talking to some people there who were unhappy with the way the courthouse is processing the statements and not realizing that everyone has other responsibilities and jobs they have to do later that day.

As soon as I got that shit taken care of, my Moms somehow left a note in my car to give her a call. I don't even know or want to know on how she knew I was in the Chatsworth courthouse. Weird coincidence. She wanted me to get her Mailbox keys she left at a post office and take it to her house. I did that and when I drove to North Hollywood to give it to her, my brakes on my car started to sound fucked up. I had to be at my uncle's house in Lancaster later that day and I can't drive my car all the way up there with that annoying-ass sound. So I told my sister to tell my mom if I can borrow her Ford Explorer to drive up to the A.V. just for that day, and that I'll bring it back the following Saturday. She told me that I should try to catch up to my Moms at the North Hollywood Red Line station since my sister just dropped her off there. I drove fast with my car to the Red Line Station, which is one minute away from my mom's crib, to try to catch up with her to get her permission to use her SUV. Unfortunately, she already took the last Subway after I get there. That scenario looks like a scene from some Ben Affleck/Matt Damon/Will Smith style action/adventure movie. I drove back to my moms place, told my sister that wasn't able to reach her and that I needed the car keys for the Explorer since my brakes were no good, which she reluctantly did. I threw in $10 for gasoline at Arco, which I shouldn't recommend for fuel cause the gas is cheap, performance wise, and it gave my 3.1 gallons which I though was enough to get me there.

I was actually semi-right. The fuel in the SUV lasted from North Hollywood all the way to motherfucking Palmdale instead of Lancaster, which is 8 miles more, thanks to the excessive traffic on the freeways and the streets heading towards the 5/14 freeway border, which is always shit on the Friday rush hour. Keep in mind that this was at 2:00 in the afternoon before work was out and shit. All that waiting on the road for the vehicles to move has managed to consume down the fuel economy courtesy of the 4.0 liter V6 engine in the '03 Explorer. I used to drive that car many times before and during my parents' split three years ago. I really love driving it but the thing that bothered me was the inaccessibility of the front air vents not permitting the AC to the driver and the passenger. Only the rear vents can blow out air. The blockage of the air caused by the people who installed the aftermarket car stereo that my moms ordered back in '07, cause the original factory stereo ate up three CD's that wouldn't come out from the changer. So what I usually do I open the windows or put the AC in full blast to let the air circulate the entire SUV from the rear vents.

I was stuck in Palmdale for about an hour, since I didn't wanna risk driving a few miles north to Lancaster on Rancho Vista road with the tank near empty. Let me tell you, driving with the CHECK GAGE light on the dashboard already illuminated, will start to freak the shit out of you, especially when you're low on cash or driving on the highway. I drove from my church in Sylmar to Northridge in that situation back in December 2007 and after I drove past Plummer while on Balboa Boulevard, the SUV COMPLETELY STALLED ON ME. That shit wouldn't accelerate, startup or anything. Thank goodness that I put the car neutral and let it rolled slowly into the Chevron station on Balboa and Nordhoff. I was supposed to pick up my sister at the Target across the intersection, but again, thank goodness, she came and threw in some fuel in there. This was a few months before gasoline prices broke $4 a gallon later the following year. Anyway, I managed to find some change in the Explorer, and lots of change did I find, which was enough to take me to Lancaster.

I wanted to write about Saturday and Sunday, but I'll write that in a separate post since this one was like writing about the length of the whole entire weekend. As I said earlier, today really sucks major ass. I wanted to spend the day at home to take a breather break from my photography work but unfortunately, I had to go through the excessive usual shit talking from my parents all day. Don't think that I'm gonna live with them for a while, despite the economy problems towards certain unfortunate people my age. I'm doing my best to get out of the Valley and that shit takes a lot of time. Rushing people to do what they need to do puts more stress on them. Later that night, I cleaned my room, did laundry and listened to my old-ass cassettes that I recorded from the old STAR 98.7 FM music broadcasts to get rid of the stress that I endured today. The only thing I'm looking forward to is meeting this wonderful female who's about the same age as me that I've talked ever since I first got into Facebook back in 2007, before 80% of the world didn't have one when it was only for college students. I just can't wait to see her next week. That's all.