wheels of gov't

shawn didn't choke last night. in fact he killed. halfway through the show, they wheeled in a disabled man, and that's when i thought, oh boy, will shawn see him when he does his handicapped sex offender joke, and he did of course, and that's when he started killing the audience. it went so well! thank god!! i'll post a link to the recording when it's up.

it was bound to be a success because earlier that afternoon, i locked my keys in the trunk of my car while out shopping at office depot. a hairy middle-eastern kid named gary from fast car towing saved me. but before he started working on the door, he wanted me to be sure i understood that fast car wasn't liable if the window gets broken or cracked. i said ok, then began asking him a series of questions:

• will you please try not to break my window? (yes)
• have you ever broken out a window? (no)
• cracked a window? (no)
• not ever? (no)
• how long have you been doing this? (4 yrs)
• how many times a day? several times a day? (10 times a day)
• sometimes more? (oh yeah)
• and you never once cracked a window? (no)
• so i'm in good hands right? (yes)
• and you'll try not to break my window? (yes)
• oh thank you!

then he used a unique air-pump, sort of looked like a blood pressure pump, and wedged it inside the door, pumped enough air to make a sliver of space which he used to get a bendy rod to unlock the door, and after several tries and a lot of (your lock is in a very bad place!), then eureka! took him 3 minutes. and i said bye bye to $60.

i picked up a cool purple & neon green filing cabinet for shawn because he keeps all his important docs in small piles or stuffed into plastic bags all over the apartment. the clutter is just insane! things should start to improve now that he's got a system.

he's at work at the hilton right now. i filed my tax returns this afternoon. it's just amazing to me that a single person in america could pay over $6,000 in state/federal taxes and get less than 2% of that back. i'll take the money sure! but christ in heaven, how is a girl supposed to live?? our government certainly rewards people for getting married and having kids, but where does that leave all the singles who have student loans to pay off?

we've been thinking about flying to europe this year, if only for just a few days. HOW WONDERFUL it would be to visit london or dublin with shawn! he's never flown abroad before, and i know he wants to visit all the beatles hotspots. when i went, the one thing i knew for sure would've made the trip better was if i had been there with someone who mattered to me. to share all of the fantastic old buildings, churches, museums, neighborhood pubs, parks, ALL of it! what a dream come true! we might not come back!