2003-06-30 4:23 p.m.

My weekend was pretty cool. Actually the best one I've had in a while, as the sun decided to reappear last week & stayed all weekend. Friday night I watched "Sweet Home Alabama." I actually had to watch it twice because of conflicting emotions of homesickness and such the first time. But it was cute and it was fun. I wonder if non-southern people who watched it knew that Reese wasn't having trouble staying in the accent, but that we really do go in and out of it like that. You only hear it on Ya'll when we're at work, it comes out loud & clear when we're mad or talking to Mama & Daddy, and it has to be used when talking about Winn-Dixie and the Piggly Wiggley ;-)

Saturday was a mostly lazy day, spent on the balcony, doing some cleaning, then finding Roshi's "accident" on the carpet and doing some carpet shampooing. I also talked to Jody for bout and hour and 1/2. I love that man so much! He veto'd my Spartanburg idea right away, & is still pushing hard for Atlanta. I use to love Atlanta when I was in college. I road tripped there all the damn time. But now traffic there is so horrible - just ask Jennifer, Amy, Sue or Jen-lilclown how much fun Buckhead was post Pella show! But I don't know....

Sunday was wonderful. I decided to go out and be one of those "damn Sunday drivers" I use to always cuss at. I drove up the 15, picked a random exit and went east. Soon I was in the mountains & wow! I remembered why I love California. It's so beautiful. And cool because the NC mountains don't have cactus :-) But I was aware of my fellow drivers and would use the turnouts as often as possible. When I hit the first valley there were orange trees everywhere, another cool thing.

Eventually I ended up in Julian, the town everyones been telling me since I got here that I really needed to go see. If anyone ever tells you that you need to go to Julian, CA, just smile, nod, then don't go. It wasn't that great. The people were nice in the "small town" way & there were tons of arts & crafts, all very country, but not worth the drive if that's the only destination. If you want country crafts, go to Dollywood. There you can also get great food, hear some great singing & maybe ride some rides. But since it was part of the trip and not all of it, it wasn't a wasted hour.

One thing I did encounter that I hadn't in over 3 years was "dry heat." Heat I know, hell, anyone from the east coast does. From July to Sept it's in the 90's and the humidity will make you melt. But I hadn't been in dry heat since Vegas in June 2000 & I forgot the way that it's bad is that it doesn't feel that bad. Until you have a major headache because you're dehydrated beacause you hadn't been drinking tons of water because it didn't seem that hot. Throw in my a/c not working in my car & you have Tonya deciding she shan't be going back to the east county for a while.

I was happy to hit the coastal zone again & feel the temp drop about 10 degrees and the humidty rise about 30%. But then I got home and made an observation that I chose to file in my brain until Monday morning. And it hit me when I came out to get in my car this morning. Out of the file it came & I looked where my car was parked & saw the "wet looking" spot under my car. My car is now leaking oil. In the last month and 1/2 I've spent $1,000 on car repair and now it's leaking oil? Yep, pissed me off.

So now I'm back to the thought of getting a new car. I guess we'll see, since I'm broke all the damn time anyway, I don't see how I'd afford a new car. Even if I get payments in the same range it would be higher insurance and higher taxes. But I don't want to think about that today.

I've actually had the best day at work! Better than any I've had since maybe December. The reason makes me sound horrible, however. I'm alone. Ana had the day off & Danielle called in sick. Jacqui was here for a bit, but then she's been in meetings since 11. It's been really nice. I've gotten so much done & I've been able to listen to Pella all day at the volume that's just right. It's been just like when I was back in Charlotte & had my own office & I enjoyed my job.....