No getting away from Monday

I stayed home from work today because I woke up with just about the most horrible menstrual cramps I have had in a long time combined with some pretty bad lower back pain. I am not sure if that is period related or a result of my snow shoveling activities yesterday. But it turns out that staying home does not mean one gets to escape Monday.

I found that I had no Tylenol or Advil or anything of that sort and I needed some of that action in a serious way. But when I went out to go buy some, I found that a tire on my car was completely flat. I swear! I get more flat tires. Is someone going around Ypsilanti dropping nails on the street or what? Ugh. I managed to use my foot pump (best $10 I have ever spent) to inflate the tire enough to drive on it and went to the drug store and then to the tire place. I was very very irritable while in the tire place even though they had good magazines and the Advil started working while I was there. I found that I wanted to yell but I didnt.

I did have to laugh as I was leaving. They couldnt figure out how to get my car in reverse. VW has this thing on manual transmissions where you have to push the shifter down before putting it into reverse because you know, VW’s are cars designed for dumb people like me who might accidently put the car in reverse when they want first or something. My car also will not allow me to lock driver’s side door except from the outside with the key which is why it is the first car I have ever owned where I havent ever locked the keys inside.

My mom borrowed my “dummy proof” car once a long time ago and she couldnt figure out how to put it into reverse either. I guess it isnt intuitive for people who havent driven VW’s. It is funny how things are designed sometimes. Like, on Thanksgiving, I almost burned the rolls I was heating up because my mother has a kitchen timer that requires a person to move the dial all the way past 55 mins and then *back* to whatever they want to set it. I just set it at 5 mins and it never dinged. I guess like my car, it isnt a very intuitive design.

I am sometimes fascinated about how things are designed. Things like cars. I especially notice such things when I am driving a rental car or borrowing a car from someone. It is sometimes very easy to figure things out and sometimes one needs a manual just to figure out how to turn the wipers or the headlights on.