I've changed

2004: Back when I knew everything. 

So I'm turning 30 this year. The big three-oh.

This post is probably the first in a series of "oh hey I'm going to be 30, let's reflect" posts. You've been warned. My birthday is August 22, so we have a few months of this to look forward to. 

Anyway, I realized that I've changed over the years.

(Shocking, I know. No one EVER does that.)

How have I changed?

I regularly wake up before my parents. During the week doesn't count - I wake up early because I have to for work. (And with the exception of Wednesdays when my mom teaches a 12-hour nursing clinical at the local junior college, I am the first one awake.) What surprises me is that on the weekends I'm often the first one up. It took me a long time before I became one of those runners who wakes up early on the weekends to run. "Waking up early to run" used to be 8am. Now? I usually leave on my weekday alarm (which starts ringing at 5:20am) to make it to an early group run or race. My parents? Might still be asleep when I get home. In their defense, my dad currently works evenings and doesn't go to bed until 2am. My mom is partially "retired" and I think tries to keep a similar sleep schedule (although not staying up quite as late).

I'm married. When I was a wise 21-year-old, nearing college graduation, wrapping up a 1 1/2 year relationship (which I liked to think of as a part-time relationship), and obviously knew everything, I thought to myself "I just want to have fun in my 20s. Maybe when I'm 30 I'll start thinking about marriage." I will celebrate 5 years of marriage in a week.

Related: When I was 18 and my parents moved me into my freshman dorm, I told them "who knows when I'll be home again ... I mean, maybe I'll come home for Christmas ... we'll see." OH how my parents love to bring up that declaration of mine. Now? I just don't say I'll do anything. [Who am I kidding? That doesn't happen.]

I'm not as certain about kids. I used to be 110 percent certain that I wanted kids. The question wasn't did I want kids, the question was how many. At one point in my life, I thought five kids sounded fun. Now? After spending more time with small children, and the parents of small children (best friends, siblings, siblings-in-law), the thought of kids in my future isn't quite the certainty it once was. We still talk in terms of "when we have kids" and not "if we have kids," but my thoughts on when and how we're going to have them is changing. I won't put anything in writing though (see above).

I'm more outgoing. I spent most of high school following around BFF Ultra Vera, becoming friends with whoever she became friends with first. I purposely picked a college that no one from my high school was going to, because I wanted to be able to make my own friends, not continue the habit of following someone else around and making friends by default. However, I was really shy. And I didn't really know how to make friends. Luckily I did manage to make some really awesome friends in college, but they were all women I met in my freshman and sophomore dorms (which is the easiest place to meet people in college). But somehow, since college, I've become more outgoing. More often, when I met new people, I find myself thinking the other person is the awkward one, not me. I'm usually the one keeping the conversation going. (Tip: keep asking the other person questions about themselves. People love to talk about themselves. HELLO BLOGGING.) Anyway, I blame credit my years of working in public relations for forcing me to come out of my shell. When you're "the PR gal" you kind of have to play the role of outgoing, even if it feels so forced. Fake it until you make it. And now I regularly find myself talking like a PR person when not at work (it's good for dealing with my in-laws).

Communication Changes (Possibly Part 1 in a Series of Infinite Posts)

Can't I just work from home? I already have an assistant. 

I mentioned in a previous post that there are some changes looming in my life. I'm still not really going to go into much detail, but they are (good) changes at work. But of course, whenever things are changing, you have the chance to pause and reflect on ... well, everything. So my posts for the next few days (or however long) might be along these lines ...

For example, why do we hold onto stuff? (I've actually written about this before.) I can tell you this about the changes: my job is narrowing to a focus on the online world. Where everything is electronic. This job will also require moving offices, meaning I'm in the process of cleaning out my current office. I've been here five years. When I started, I printed and filed almost everything. Over the years, I stopped doing that, realizing we have electronic files of everything and someone else is filing the important stuff (invoices, etc). So luckily the cleaning-out process hasn't been too bad.

But, as a professional online communicator (and I don't just mean this blog), it makes me think about how we communicate, with each other and ... I guess with future generations. When was the last time you got photo prints? Other than your holiday card? One of my running friends recently posted pictures to Facebook of her 2011 Running Scrapbook (which was fabulous by the way). I thought to myself "wow, that's really cool!"

But then I realized I already have a running scrapbook - my blog. And Flickr. My world is online. I send a video holiday card. I don't buy CDs (I don't even know where my CD collection is), I download songs to my smartphone or listen to Pandora. We don't buy DVDs - it's all Netflix now. Heck, I hardly read books anymore. The only time I "read" is when I'm listening to audio books (via smartphone app) in the car during my commute.

I should be happy; this means job security for me. However, it means the exact opposite for my dad, a veteran newspaper copy editor. Luckily he is close to retirement. (And yes, Dad, I agree, there still is a place for copy editors in this world, I would just argue that as budgets are slashed, most companies can't afford a dedicated copy editor.)

Sidenote: I think I'm finally ready to buy a domain and change the name of this blog. I figure enough is changing in my life, may as well change the name of my blog since I feel like "Run For Pi(e)" isn't a good fit for me anymore. When I first mentioned that on here, Amanda suggested "Mag Mile Runner," which references my name, Chicago, and of course running. I renamed the blog to that but have yet to change the URL. I want to sit on it for a little bit. So I'm a little indecisive. Forgive me.

What does it mean when your car sounds like a strangled cat?

So how was your day?

Did you have to pay $453 because of shoddy car repairs from earlier in the year?

At least I had a pretty awesome day at work (sorry, can't share any details) to balance it out.

For the past few months (yeah, I know), my car has been making this squealing sound. It would only last for a few seconds, and I thought to myself "Hmm, that could be expensive," so I ignored it.

Last night the squealing got louder, lasted longer, happened more frequently and was accompanied by grinding sounds.

Can't really ignore that.

We dropped it off at our new mechanic (whose name is my Mom's maiden name) this morning, and while I waited to hear back, I got some sympathy out of Facebook:

Turns out my alternator - which was only a few months old - was cracked and loose. Bolts were missing. Etc. The belts were actually fine, just needed to be tightened or something. The mechanic could tell the alternator was new, and gave it to me so I could take it back to the other place to see if they would at least refund the price of the part.

The part that cracked off is taped to the top. The hole in the front is where the part should be.

But, the good news is my car no longer sounds like a cat being strangled.

The bad news is I have spent too much damn money on that car this year. And this isn't the first time someone else discovered shoddy work from that mechanic, and shoddy work that ultimately cost me more money for someone else to fix.

You know what would make my day better? If you entered my Active Bands giveaway by donating $5 to the American Cancer Society :)

A First for Me: My Car Died. While Driving.

Jerk

So today was a fun day.

Leave for work.
Fill up my gas tank.
Get a few miles from home.
And ... my car died.

In the middle of a kind of busy road.

Yay! Luckily I was able to get to the median before it pretty much stopped.

Called my parents and left a message on the answering machine (knowing they were asleep - my Dad works evenings and my Mom was off today), then called for a tow. By the time I got off the phone, a cop showed up and offered to push me into the nearest parking lot. And I was able to reach my parents. They (both of them - like a field trip) showed up after the cop left, but before the tow truck arrived. I told them I was just going to get a tow to their mechanic, who has been the family mechanic forever. (OK, maybe just for 37 years ... since they got married and started this family.) My parents (and possibly my brother) have even bought used cars off of him. My Dad asked if I had called to let him know my car was coming, and I hadn't, so I did.

Well guess who finally retired? And closed his shop altogether, and sold the building it was in? This is all according to an automated message. Came as a surprise to my parents, they were just there a few weeks ago.

Of course then it's like ... well we have no idea where else to go ... we've been going to the same guy for 37 years. Ended up going to a mechanic that's been open forever. (Almost literally ... since 1914, so pretty much for as long as there have been cars.)

Anyway, all morning my parents kept guessing that it was my fuel pump, because both of them have had cars die while driving, and in both cases it was the fuel pump. (And their stories sound horrifying - this was pre-cellphones, and both had their cars die on the expressway.) Well, turns out it was the fuel pump. When I told my mom, she said "I was right - I love being right." (Shocking!!!)

So add this to the list of crap that has had to be repaired on my car within the past year. I assume it's because for the first 5 years I had my car, my commute was always pretty short (at first I was taking the train to work so I only had to drive a mile and a half to the train station, then I got a new job and my commute was 12 miles each way, then I moved and my commute was less than 3 miles each way).

But last year we moved and my commute became 29 miles each way. And my car hit 100K miles. And that's when stuff started falling apart on my car. New tires (expected), new fan belt, new alternator, the exhaust system still needs to be replaced, then one new tire (nail), I know I'm forgetting other stuff. And my brakes are still squeaking (last mechanic said they were OK though, I'd like another opinion when I can afford the possible consequences).

Now my commute is 12 miles each way (again ... because I moved back in with my parents) so hopefully this pace of car repairs slows down. Because we're still paying off The Sailor's car and I really don't want two car payments at the same time. My car needs to at least make it to next spring. Maybe I should start driving The Sailors car to work. He takes the train.

And I can only imagine how much fun it gets when you add home ownership to the mix.

How's your car? What do you drive, and do you like it? Can you make it past 100K miles with a long-ish commute and not have everything crap out? That seems to be the true test ...