March 21, 2007

Little Things

My car was in the shop. It had been making a noise, the kind of noise I pray will go away on its own but in my head I know it won't so I need to just suck it up and deal with it, that broken car kind of noise. Perhaps you've heard your own.

I won't bore you with the entire experience despite the tale being in and of itself not completely without interest. My car was supposed to be ready after work on Monday. Arriving at the auto repair shop at the designated time, I was displeased to see my vehicle still in the bay.

"Sorry, so sorry, it is not ready," said the owner of the shop while shaking his head sadly. "All my fault, all my fault! Tomorrow, tomorrow."

"But I need my car to get to work tomorrow!" I whined.

"Here," he said, pulling his keyring out of his pocket and removing a key, "Here. You take my car until yours is ready tomorrow afternoon."

Well. I wasn't expecting that. But hey, it solved a problem for both of us. Despite the loaner being an absolute piece of shit automobile, it got me where I needed to go and back again. I'm easy.

The next day, I handed the fellow his key and joked, "Man, tell me you don't drive that thing on the freeway!"

He just looked at me sideways and grinned, "No, no."

An insurance identification card floated in the back seat of that crappy car. I looked at it. The last name of the insured person had 18 letters, ten of which were consonants. 18 letters! It stretched out three inches in small print. His last name. My entire first-middle-last name spelled out in all its glory has but 21 characters, only five of which belong to the last.

I experienced a random moment of true affection for my short last name. Can you relate?

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My first, middle, maiden and married last names are 21 letters! You really can't do much about your last name, but I feel sorry for the kids whose parents saddle them with long, hard-to-pronounce and impossible-to-spell first names. Sheesh!

I have a friend who is dyslexic and wishes his parents had named him Bob, "Because it's spelled the same way backwards and forwards."

jeanie said...

lol I named my daughter a 3 letter name - easy for her to spell, and very cheap with those little make your own necklaces.

My nephew has a 3 letter first name, no middle and then his mother's 9 letter Croatian last name hyphenated with his father's 9 letter Greek last name!!

Anonymous said...

Did you look in the glove box?

Unknown said...

YES! Totally can relate! My entire first, middle and last names equal only 12 letters total LOL

sporksforall said...

Driving someone else's car (other than Hertz or Avis or whatever) bothers me. Congrats on being more evolved (desperate?) than I.

Anonymous said...

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