I need to windshield wipers during a major rain storm a few months back, I made (or asked nicely by sticking out my bottom lip, and batting my eyes) change them for me during said rainstorm. My car stalled out last year in the parking lot of work, I had the security office jump it for me. I don't have AAA though I really should, and I don't know the difference between the expensive oil and the stuff that is on sale, and I generally get screwed over in said situation either way.
So, last week, yes, last week, when I was told by a nice drive in the lane next to me during rush hour traffic that I need to put air in my back drivers side tire, I kindly thanked him and promptly forgot. Until yesterday when I said to my roommate that I really needed to put air in my tire. Being the girl that I am, and the amount of lazyness that set in since I've been laid off, I didn't do it because well the gas station was on the other side of the street and I was in the wrong lane.
Flash forward a few hours later, said tire was flat... flat flat, like really flat. And, being the girl that I am don't know how to change a tire, and I once again I don't have AAA, even though I should. Sadly my roommate is on crutches, so he couldn't help and my other roommate is also a girl. I did what any self respecting LA girl would do, I complained about it and waited to figure out a way for someone else to change it for me. Enter my upstairs neighbors. I finally decided that my other male friend who was on his way over, wouldn't know how to change it either, and my other friend who changed the windshield wipers would probably never let me live it down if I called him again for yet another car related problem (he also sits in the back of my car every time I think I hear a noise and has also let me pull my car into his driveway so he could smell the smell I was so convinced was coming from my car). So the neighbors it was. Nice guys really, so they came out and changed my tire for my spare thing in the trunk and now I have to make them cookies.
Today, I ran all over town with said spare tire thingy on my car so I could help out my roommate who cannot drive at the moment due to being seriously injured a few months back in a motorcycle accident. But then I really had to go get my tire changed. I dropped off said roommate at my house determined to do at least getting the tire changed on my own.
I didn't necessarily believe in the whole "girls will get treated differently at car places" until I actually a few years ago saw it with my own eyes. But, alas off I troted to the tire places. Being a girl, I'm a bit...sneaky?... manipulative?...clever... I'll go with clever, I knew the first place I went too would probably try to convince me I had to get all new tires, or that it would cost x number of dollars to blah blah and I had no idea what kind of tire I needed, or how much it would cost. So I went to one tire place to get all the info I needed so I could throw a fit at the cost, storm out and then go to another car place with all the info I needed and get somewhat of a fair deal because despite the fact I have boobs, blondish hair and was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of a cat on it, I might have some idea of what I was talking about. So, after being told 103 dollars for a new tire and installation and something else at one place, I did in fact tell him it was too much storm off and proceeded to get a more expensive tire, a patch job for the other tire I apparently needed to have patched and all 4 tires balanced, for 85 dollars. Not to shabby, still more than I wanted to pay, but if nothing else this will serve as a lesson for doing things I should do even when I don't want to them because in the long run I really need too.
I'm not quite sure how this is in anyway putting myself out there, I guess it's a lesson I will need to work on during the course of this year of putting myself out there, and I probably need to call up said male friend who put on my wipers etc etc for my car and ask him to teach me how to change my own tire... so if nothing else next time I can save money on the installation and not knock on my neighbors door to have them put the spare tire thingy on it... and maybe figure out what the spare tire thing is actually called.
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