How Many People Does it Take to Jump Start a Car?! Part I

Earlier this month I had an issue with my car and the Tires going flat. Although one of the tires still has a leak and gets pretty low once a week, the other tire was replaced one night when it went completely flat. The other evening I was driving back to Columbia, when I noticed the Battery light would light up every now and then. I didn’t really think anything of it, and made note to ask my parents what that meant. The next day I noticed it again at a stoplight and made a point to text message my mother and ask her. It meant the Battery was getting low and dying.

With that information, I figured that my car would be okay for a while, but that I may need to get it charged later this week or next month when I went home to visit again. I need to go home and actually let my dad change the oil and do some other things to my 17-year-old Toyota Corolla. However, I was mistaken with this assumption, because the battery died later that day.

I was driving around waiting for Sara or Marisa to text me back and let me know if we were doing anything later that evening or now, when I decided I would go to Krispy Kreme and get myself an original glazed doughnut. When I went back out to my car in order to leave, it wouldn’t start. I obviously was angry and embarrassed. I proceeded to text message all of my friends to let them know what had happened, and to see if any of them could come and help me jump-start my car.

After much discussion with numerous people, we finally found a set of jumper cables. Ironically it was Meghan that had a set, and they were in her car. Of course, her mother had to tell her that. Marisa came to keep me company at Krispy Kreme, even though she didn’t have cables. Meghan soon arrived with her cables and as we were trying to moved my car so as to line up the batteries, Mitchell also arrived. Once he was there we got things on a role, because as we all know, he is the most masculine man in our group of friends. We finally succeeded in getting my car going and as we were leaving, Meghan and I decided to stop and get a drink at Monterray’s Mexican Restaurant in West Columbia. Mitchell and Trey Also came.

So, the answer to the Question “How Many People Does it Take to Jump Start a Car?!” is 4.5, two Men, two Women and a Boxer Puppy named Maxcy!

Too Be Continued…

Contemporary Artist: Emile Bellet

Last year I was fortunate enough to go on a cruise with my parents and a couple of their friends. The cruise was a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Carnival Glory. We left from Port Canaveral on May 15th, 2009. While on the cruise I decided to do some of the extracurriculars aboard, including the daily Art Auction (by Park West Gallery) in the Ebony Lounge. The first day I went I saw a few pieces I would have absolutely loved to have had, however they were starting at prices over $600.

The second day that I went, I discovered that they actually were giving away small lithographs. They weren't worth anything but the amount it cost to print them, but they were beautiful nonetheless. On that particular day, however, I discovered an amazing artist. His name is Emile Bellet, and the piece that I discovered him through is entitled "Les Terres Rouges." I actually ended up buying that specific lithograph because of how much I absolutely adored it.

Because of this, I discovered my love of art. I believe that Emile Bellet is one of my favorite artists, and I look forward to the next opportunity that I get to purchase another one of his pieces. Whether it be a number lithograph or an actual painting. However, I must say that he is more known for his paintings of the Faceless women, I much prefer his still life paintings and landscapes.

Sara's 22nd Birthday, True Blood, and Bed at 6 AM

On Saturday, May 15th, Sara, Meghan, Ben and I took a nice over night vacation to Sara's home town of North Augusta, SC. We went to visit her mom and have some party time for Sara's 22nd birthday. We left about 7:45 because I was a little late getting to her place. In my defense the stop lights always seemed to turn red when I got to them. However, we did make it to North Augusta within an hour and a half. only stopping in Columbia to get gas, and passing our exit to go to Augusta, GA to get liquor.

Once we got to Sara's childhood home in North Augusta, we noticed strands upon strands of Christmas lights hanging in some trees a good ways from her house. We had no clue as to what it was for until we went inside and her mother informed us that her uncle had cooked food for us! When we walked over we discovered that the lights circled a clearing with a nice fire pit in the middle. Soon after we had the fire pit lit and were enjoying each other's company, as well as a few spirited drinks. Soon, Sara's mom told us of the time she saw a U.F.O. near their house and informed us that, "These are the times that we remember being close to nature," in reference to us being around a campfire and drinking.

We all stayed outside for a while, and then about 2 o'clock in the morning we all ended up back at Sara's eating some of her birthday cake and chips with dip. Soon we were all watching TV. After channel surfing for a while, Sara started the first episode of True Blood because no one else has seen the show before besides us. With that one act, we have recruited a new group of True Blood Addicts. Soon though (around 6 AM), exhaustion caused everyone to fall asleep. We woke up the next morning at the same time (around 11 AM), to hear someone on television say "I'm going to beat you like a run away slave." That was hilarious because everyone in the room woke up at that exact time because of that and laughed.

Soon we said our fair-wells to Sara's amazing mother and headed back to the Capital City. Needless to say, fun times were had by all, and I strongly believe we will be going back a few times this summer!

How to Change a Flat…. First Hand!

A few weeks ago I was hanging out with a friend of mine named Will. Randomly he walks over to my car and shows me that there is a gash in my tire, which is all the way through the metal wiring that holds the rubber together. I just let it go because it wasn’t had at that time. Fast-forward a few days. I am driving and I notice my steering wheel is shaking while I drive. At that point I noticed that a piece of rubber is actually missing from the outer part of the tire. Again I procrastinated changing the tire. At this point I am going to describe my experience of getting a flat tire last night at 1 AM.

I was on my way home from hanging out and watching Betty White on SNL with my friend Aaron, when I start hearing my tired to flop. I knew that it was going flat but I had hoped to get back to my apartment. At that point it went completely flat, right before the Greystone Exit on I-26. At that point I text my friend Sara to tell her, just in case something happened to me. But thankfully she offered to bring help to get it changed. After text messaging her, I decided that I would just try and “limp” up the hill at the exit, so that I could be in a well-lit area. Once I got there, I stopped and got all the stuff out of the trunk I needed to change the tire; the Jack, the Spare tire, and Lug Wrench.

I made a sad attempt to put the jack under the car, because I forgot that it had a special place under the door that it went. After that epic failure, I was going to just wait until Chris, Sara and Rachel got there, but a guy in a wrecker showed up to go into the Exxon. He was nice enough to come over and show me where to put the jack, and also help me loosen the Lug Nuts. At that point I was able to get the car jacked up and proceeded to take the lug nuts completely off as to get the eviscerated tire off. I got three of them off with no issue, however, the last one didn’t come off… the entire bolt broke off.

After getting the lug nuts off, I attempted to get the tired off, so I wouldn’t look too completely helpless, but failed at that too. Only succeeded in getting my hands really dirty. Thankfully my friends got there at that point and were able to put the other tire on in less than 5 minutes. It was actually really funny because it was Sara, Meghan, Rachel, Chris, and his friend Mikey. I felt like such a failure, But I learned how to change a tired from first hand experience, and I also learned that I have some great friends!!