my family, a car, and the peace corps

My aunt and grandma came into town Sunday through today, and we enjoyed some good laughs and some good food. Chipotle and pizza (and some ice cream) yesterday and China Cottage today. All of it so good yet so bad. I need to kick my butt in gear to keep stable at 135 pounds. The last thing I want to do is slip into my old habits. Looks like my diet will consist of eggs, grilled fish, and vegetables the rest of the week. It's a good thing I actually like all that. 

I may be getting a new car by the end of the week. I'm pretty certain I will, actually. My good friend Patrick is hooking me up with one of his family's car. A 1992 Celica in pretty decent shape; wonderful shape compared to my beat-up, rusted-out hulk of metal known as my Geo Prizm. My car isn't even safe enough to be on the road but yet I drive it. The entire undercarriage is rusted out and I continually hear pieces of it falling out while I'm driving. The mechanic (two of them, actually) said one day the undercarriage will just completely fall out and my car will be toast. "Don't drive it!" they said, but I have a job and there isn't bus transportation in the suburbs. So I'm very thankful that this opportunity for a new car has arisen and am praying that it'll work out. Hopefully by this time next week it'll be in my hands. I remember when I got my new Prizm. It was a nice car back then; but that was three years ago (three and a half) and much has gone wrong with it since.

Dylan got accepted into the Peace Corps. As long as everything goes to plan, he'll be shipping out to sub-Saharan Africa to do HIV/AIDS awareness work. He's pretty pumped, and the peace corps sounds like a pretty great gig. I remember wanting to do it when I graduated high school, but my plans were sideswiped by a call to vocational ministry. Turns out that I wouldn't even be accepted, since I'm diagnosed bipolar. Ah well. At least I didn't waste time pursuing it. I'm excited for him, super excited, and envious, too (note last blog post). He came over this evening after work and we shared some Great Lakes Christmas Ale in celebration. He'd never had it before and was greatly impressed. Sadly all the Ale is gone now, but I may pick some up tomorrow after work.