Posting from Dad's in Wadsworth, Ohio, this time around. An around-the-world blogger, me.
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The car: apparently, it's a total loss. Our mechanic, Jose, heard something in the engine (my brother-in-law Greg advised me that what he heard is likely a "knock", as a opposed to a "click" or, I suppose, a "chink" or "blip" or "fart"... the difference between a "click" and a "knock" is, well, one signifies nothing and the other heralds explosive doom and disaster for the engine. So, FYI from Greg.) and, since the cost of repairing/replacing the engine is greater than the cost of the car... well, you know the deal.

Totalled.

So, I can already forsee trouble with getting an appropriate settlement out of Mercury because I waited too long like a doofus. Either way, a new car (or, likely, a used car) is in my near future. I have no idea what to get. Something for poor people, I suppose.
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Sent all the appropriate faxes from the Moyers' computer to our loan processing and Escrow folks. So, it's out of our hands. Again, we have to be out by the 17th and we still haven't closed.

Can't anything big also be easy?
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The first half of yesterday was filled with driving to Akron from PA. The second half consisted of Lauren's rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.

What to say about the rehearsal... well, Lauren had complained for weeks that The Chapel (the church) had assigned her a moron to coordinate the wedding. "She's airheaded! Incompetent! She doesn't know anything about weddings! We spend most of our time reminding her of things she's either forgotten or doesn't understand!" We all smiled and nodded: the bride was needlessly rattled. It's to be expected, after all. Everything would be fine.

Except...

During the rehearsal process, it turns out that Lauren's fears were all too realized. Pat, the coordinator in question, was indeed all of the above: Airheaded. Incompetent. Knows nothing about weddings. Lauren and Steve spent terrific amounts of desperately-needed time reminding her of things she'd either forgotten or didn't understand. By the end, I wanted to choke her myself. But, to me, the corker came when she announced to everyone:

"No one's allowed to be nervous tomorrow! Smiles! I'll be nervous enough for all of us!"

Listen, you old scag, this is the biggest, most important day in my sister's life. She's tremendously stressed. If there's one person she needs to count on to have her shit together, it's you. So, even if you're as ignorant as you look, at least do us the courtesy of pretending to know what's going on. If that was supposed to be some sort of warped joke, it wasn't funny. If you were serious, and your scattered lizard-mind leads to a bad wedding experience for hundreds of people... I'll gather up a posse and we'll beat you down ourselves.

Smiles!
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The rehearsal dinner was really nice, though, and Steve and Lauren got some really great gifts for the wedding party. We ate at the Akron City Club, thanks to the generosity of Steve's parents. Sat near some interesting people (an Indian couple that had just been married a week before) and, generally, had a lovely time.

And then home, and then to bed.

And I post this the morning of the wedding. I'm sure it'll all turn out, but I think everybody's a bit nervous. At least the pastor, Jim College, seems to know what he's doing.

posted by Jeremy Bear 8:26 AM

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Thursday, August 07, 2003

Posting from York, Pennsylvania. The in-laws were kind enough to let me blog.

So, much much much to talk about, but I don't have the energy, to be perfectly frank. I'll try to highlight, though...

- My car situation is dire. I finally brought it in and an insurance adjuster came out and said I may have engine damage and demanded to know what's wrong with me for waiting so long to bring in my car. My only reply was "I don't know, I suck. I didn't think it was a problem beyond a rattling exhaust and a slightly leaky oil pan." Apparently my negligence may have made the problem worse than it already was and the car could be a total loss. And my insurance company could view that as not entirely their responsibility because I didn't report it right away, which would be big, big trouble for me. I'm kind of broke and I can't really afford to just not have a car anymore. Prayers, please, prayers.

- Our Escrow situation is ridiculous. We made it very clear to them that we wouldn't be available to sign or take care of anything this week, so, "are you sure you've got everything you need from us? Completely, truly sure?" Well, yesterday they called to inform us that I need to prove that I really did have mutual funds and I really did get a refund for all my shares and I really did deposit that check in order to write a cashier's check for our down payment. Apparently, bank statements and transaction histories and account info from my mutual fund company isn't enough... they need photocopies of the actual check (which I made, believe it or not, I just didn't take those copies with me to Ohio/PA... why would I?). So, our Escrow close is in danger. Hosers.

- Plane rides out here were fine. Since neither of us had slept the night before, we were dog-tired when we flew into Cleveland. Big, sleepy naps all around, which doesn't make us very good guests of my family, but I don't think they minded.

- Helped an old man stuck in a ditch after being driven home from the airport. Kind of a long story, but it culminates in a soaking wet Jer yelling at an eighty-year-old man in the rain, "DUDE! COME ON! I SAID I'LL HELP YOU! WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU! DO YOU NEED A PUSH OR NOT?!"

- Drove to PA yesterday morning. The Moyers (Carey's folks) threw a little welcome bash for us, which was nice, but I had to spend half of it on the phone with car insurance and loan companies.

And that takes me to this morning. More to come.

posted by Jeremy Bear 6:15 AM

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Sunday, August 03, 2003

Big shake-up last night: our church is kaput.

Carey and I joined Ekklesia as soon as we arrived a year ago and it's been... well, a bumpy road, I guess. Distance was always an issue and, let's face it, a church plant is always very difficult. I don't think we ever managed to connect with everyone as well as we'd have liked, but those are the brakes. Anyhow, I went to the service last night (Carey was working, alas, so I went alone) and our pastor, Michael Bischof, dropped the big bomb: he'd taken a full-time job at a church in Fullerton and, well, that's it for Ekklesia.

So, in the end, I'm not altogether sure what we're going to do. We've been attending Seaside Community Church in Huntington Beach sporadically, so we may well stick with that. It's all sort of strange and I feel a little nervous. Seriously, where are we supposed to go?

In my wondering on the way home last night, I absent-mindedly banged into the median making a left turn, throwing my already out-of-whack car farther out of whack. So, all those repairs I've been putting off since the McDonalds's incident can no longer wait.

And, of course, we need to be moved out in two weeks and we still haven't signed our loan papers.

And, we've barely begun to pack.

And we'll be gone for a week starting Tuesday.

And I'm terribly behind on just about every deadline imaginable.

And Carey's schedule is a mess.

And things really couldn't get any more stressful, as every single major thing in my life is happening at the same time and there simply aren't enough hours in the day.

So, that's it. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled to be seeing all the old friends and family back in Ohio/Pennsylvania for a week, but, to be honest, it couldn't have come at a worse time.

At least I've got my health, right?

*Cough*
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It's been awhile, so I decided to fire out another script (it's not like I've got anything important going on, right?). Introducing a dapper young title by a Mssr. Jerry Liu, it's ASP Rules. Nothing too special, just some streamlined, efficient laffs. Diet Comedy, if you will. Go read.

posted by Jeremy Bear 4:37 PM

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