Simone has been sold. Ma managed to get $300 for her so that makes up the $300 I spent just to get her operational enough to miraculously get me back to Hampton from Petersburg.

The insurance has been canceled for her and my old license plates, TDE[seal of Virginia in middle]VON are no longer active but I’m not turning them in to go back into the system, just like the first plates that were on Erin.

I did get a chance to say goodbye when I was home last time; odds are that she won’t be there when I come home next week. Samantha’s on her way out too but I don’t know what’s up with that yet. It’ll probably still be my loaner car when I’m in the area although the muffler fell off. Ma stopped caring about her not too long ago, especially when I got Julian and she got the Intrepid (that I have yet to drive) and she didn’t really need to keep a 15-year-old car on hand anymore.

It’s been an awesome trip.

Goodbye, Simone.

Seriously. I miss my 1989 midnight blue Toyota Camry that I technically totaled, probably needs to be rewired, has torn leather seats and needs a completely new cooling system.

But I’ll probably never drive her ever again.

There was just something about Simone. No matter what broke due to old age or me driving inappropriately, I just couldn’t bring myself to hate her. Erin, on the other hand, most of you know how much of a love-hate relationship with that piece of garbage. I guess what makes me miss Simone so much is how little I got to drive her. And how awesome the trips I got to make with her were.

I got her my junior year in 2003, right before the semester started. I didn’t want to take her long distances at first because my brother-in-law said she had a few problems (actually, all he needed to do was read her manual) and my mom is under the impression that a car more than 10 years old can’t get beyond city limits, no matter what type of car it is.

The first problem I had was that winter. After 3 p.m., CNU has open parking on both sides of campus. I lived in Barclay (R.I.P., Barclay 25 … I need to reprint those pictures and post them) and most of my classes were in Ratcliffe, which is almost as ridiculous as the half mile from Ferguson to the Business & Technology Center. It had snowed so I didn’t feel like walking. I was also late. I rushed to the other side of campus and parked partially on a pile of plowed snow. The ice punctured one of my tires.

The second problem was the accident. (I got at least three tickets from April 2004 to April 2005. I’m surprised that it didn’t adversely affect my driving record or insurance costs, like how I’m surprised that I got a new car when I’m just starting to pay off the $4000 I racked up from working for only $3000 a year for four years.) Anyway, most of you know that story, it had just rained and a car stalled out. A truck in front of me actually stopped because of the stalled car (I thought it just slowed down). It was a simple repair until we found out that I broke the hood latch and it flew up whilst my mom was driving and shattered the windshield. I couldn’t drive Simone for about two months.

After that was fixed, I had my first big trip with Simone in July: I drove Simone to Charlotte, N.C., without a single problem.

Then, in October 2004, I drove to where Imperial City would be if it existed and I got stranded in Independence, Va., with no cell signal and no friends within 75 miles.

I didn’t get Simone back till April last year. We had one last blissful year together, including a trip to New Jersey, where she got broken into, before she died on me again almost as soon as I got to Petersburg. It was Friday, March 24. I knew she had a problem. My paychecks weren’t direct depositing yet so I had a goal of hoping she’d make it to Norge, 120 miles round trip, to the nearest branch of my bank and then I was going to take her to a mechanic. I didn’t know that Norge was 120 miles round trip but it didn’t matter. I only got as far as the intersection of Happy Hill Road and Jefferson Davis Highway in Chesterfield County. I was just shy of Interstate 95.

It was a harrowing final trip after I got her patched enough to go to Hampton. I almost can’t believe I got 80 miles in the dark on Interstates 295 and 64 on a Friday night. It wasn’t as amazing as the 325 mile ride across the state back from Galax when she broke last time but it was special, that last ride down Exit 265C with her was.

Funny, my mom called me about Simone as I started writing this. It looks like we’re going to let her go. It is wrong of me to have left an inoperable car right smack in the middle of the driveway for four months. I can’t even consider paying to get her fixed myself for at least another month because going to Florida, paying to get Simone partially fixed, buying Julian and spending a little too much in Canada killed my savings.

Selling her will help build back up my savings so I can buy more important things, like a new laptop and a real stereo (that can pick up NPR) and an mp3 player for Julian. I really don’t need two cars anyway.

I’m gonna miss you, Simone.

When I have some free time, I’m going to make a Simone tag for all the entries I’ve made about here. For now, at least the ones dealing with me being stranded in the Appalachians are under the &#8220voyage i&#8221 tag (see the sidebar; I’m too lazy to do link code right now).

Simone, you were a great car. You tried your best. You performed well beyond expectations and, through it all, no matter what was wrong, you always got me home. I’ll never forget you.

At the first intersection of Happy Hill Road and Jefferson Davis Highway (going north from Colonial Heights, Va.), at about 12:42 p.m., Simone Tiffany Crystal (Camille, as she was named when owned by my sister) brought herself to a rapid boil (due to a hole in the radiator and a steep incline) and blew her head gasket on March 24, 2006. This head gasket replaced the one that blew on United States Route 58 between Damascus, Va., and Volney, Va., October 15, 2004 (and was repaired in April 2005).

After a free tow (with a taunt from the tow truck driver completely unrelated to my car) and a $340 dollar repair, I took a three-hour drive from Petersburg to Hampton because I had to either 1) Get Simone fully fixed (again) at home; 2) Get a new car; or 3) Not bother showing my face in Petersburg again because I cannot do my job without a car.

I slept on the floor in my old bedroom that night, wondering what to do next.

On March 25, which used to be New Year’s Day back in the 1700s or so, I got a new car. It’s a base model Nissan Sentra because I had to pay for the whole thing myself because my mom was all like, &#8220You have a job so you’re paying for it.&#8221

And I was all like, &#8220I didn’t drive 80 miles and have to stop every 20 so my car didn’t explode for you to tell me that.&#8221

Anyway, this car has a CD player, rolls and was built in 2006 (which is nice since it is 2006 right now) so I don’t actually care whether it has power mirrors or not. Now I need to make sure I keep my job or I won’t have an apartment or a car. And that will suck. I also have 10 days to write four huge articles and I’ve only done real work on one of them. The next 10 days will suck.

As some of you know, characters in my novel (which I need to finish editing because it’s done) are either named after cars I’ve had (Sam the Plymouth Acclaim became Samantha Plymouth, Erin the Dodge Neon became Erin the Chrysler 300M) or the other way around (William Williamston became William the loaner Pontiac Sunfire). Seeing that this is my third car, I have made the decision to name it after Simone’s little brother in my novel: Julian Horatio Tennyson Crystal III. In a departure from my book, I’m calling him by his first name.

Because it was raining when I bought Julian, he couldn’t get detailed before I drove him off the lot. I’ll get it done when I have a weekday off and take pictures.

As for Simone, Ma is sure she can be repaired and is keeping her. She is still ditching Samantha after she gets my sister’s Dodge Intrepid in like two weeks. I always had plans to simply replace everything under the hood, get some body work done, put in some new seats and keep Simone till the end of time anyway. This just means that Ma is paying for temporary repairs until I start the full restoration. Although I may be tackling the Grayson Highlands in Julian, there will be a day when Simone rides again. And believe me, before that week is through, I will be in the driver’s seat.

In the event that this is the end, Simone lived to the ripe old age (for a car) of 17 and enjoyed nearly 170,000 miles of ridiculous adventures, at least 50,000 of them involving me.

Nothing really spectacular happened this weekend. Jay’s birthday party was last night. It was cool but, with every passing party, I’ve realized that these big things just aren’t my thing anymore. Perhaps they never were.

I’m sorry, but, it got the point last night that I just left for a couple hours. I had no desire to drink with all those people so I stopped after one till I got back, making a total of two.

I was also planning on seeing and talking to someone at the party but I wasn’t expecting it to be that huge and that person was probably there for like five minutes.

After that, there was a crazy night where at least four people woke me up over the course of an hour; I’m still not quite sure exactly what happened last night.

The trip to Richmond was pretty much uneventful &#8212 I mean, we go there to work and we had fun together. End of story … although Pete and apparently Jay, who lives about 20 minutes outside of Richmond, don’t know how to get from West Cary to 64. I’m going to assume that Jay didn’t bother to navigate and blame it on Pete. For all I know, they’re somewhere in Buckingham County by now, still searching for the interstate.

The original post is below.

Simone now has a new stereo and a new rear window. I got a JVC KD-G310. If I actually listened to the radio, I would be hyped about it being Sirius-ready. It all ended up taking the whole amount of the insurance money and I’m still thinking about getting a subwoofer once I get this pesky finding a job thing done.

Jay’s birthday was earlier this week and Russell and Amber were born on the same day 21 years ago … I think I’m going to be double-booked next Saturday.

When Mandy and I were eating lunch with Lindsay a few days ago, we mused on how a lot of people have birthdays this month, especially about this week. I sat and thought for a second then said, &#8220Valentine’s Day … nine months.&#8221

Screw you, Live Journal spell check. I’ll contract &#8220awesome&#8221 is to &#8220awesome’s&#8221 if I bloody well feel like it.

The money from my insurance company came yesterday and I got some price quotes to get the window replaced. The cheapest was $170 and the most expensive was $219.88. There was an offer of $155 plus tax but the person with whom I spoke wasn’t sure that was the right price. At the earliest, I’ll get the window fixed on Friday … but Friday’s a holiday so maybe not. In that case, the target date is to ditch work for a few hours in the morning and do it on Tuesday.

I can chip in about an extra $50 for the audio equipment, giving me $240 for a new mp3 player. That’s all I can spend until I’m certain that I’ll have a job of some sort directly after graduation. As I said before, I can get a mp3 player for $130, leaving me with $110. I can get a little crappy one with a built-in amp for $99 but I think I’ll pass. I’ll get the stereo and the sub will have to wait for another day. If I got some money back that’s owed to me by Tuesday, it would be a different story.

I’ve decided, by the way, to keep Simone for an indefinite amount of time. Once I get a job, I’m going to replace the engine, fix the sunroof motor, repaint her and redo the inside. I’m going to keep her midnight blue although I hate the color blue. This time around, let’s hope no one changes lanes into my car after I get everything fixed.

Contractors visited my house today and Ma is most likely going with them. There’s going be be a highly-rectangular master suite jutting out of our pseudo dining room. That whole section is going to be handicapped-accessible just in case. Additionally, Ma described a green Mustang on the lot of Freedom Ford, like down to the row and position in the row. I know this sounds crazy but I don’t want a Mustang and she doesn’t need one. Hopefully, when she finally makes up her mind to put Samantha out to pasture, I’m at the car lot with her.

I talked to the Planet Wings corporate office &#8212 the Richmond location(s) won’t be open till about January or February. ::Tears::

Newark police officer: I don’t know why youse wants this [police report]; your insurance company ain’t gonna cover this ‘cuz these things just happen. It’s one of those things youse just gotta eat.

Well, my insurance company covered it, biyatch.

They gave me roughly $360 for my radio and my window. Most estimates are giving my window replacement to be about $150. My old stereo cost about $130. If the window winds up being cheaper or if an mp3 radio is on sale, I might be able to pull off getting a bass tube for $170 if I can find a little extra cash to throw down.

Then, like my ring, watch, car keys, wallet and contact lenses, you best believe that my face plate will not be out of my sight/will be on my person until I go to bed.

Feel free to make donations to this worthy subwoofer endeavor. Or, if you know reputable places in Hampton Roads where I can get my window replaced and/or pull off getting a good mp3 player and decent sub/amp combo for less than I listed above, let me know.