imagine a different world of grilled cheese.

I had a Diversity and Sexual Harassment meeting tonight at Nordstrom. Sitting at my table was a girl who I found cute and interesting.

Unfortunately, I was at a Diversity and Sexual Harassment meeting.

My car, a Nissan Altima, has not been sounding so great recently and the ride hasn’t been as smooth as when I first got it not so long ago. Considering that the nice ride is the top reason why I bought the car, there is some concern.

I scheduled an appointment to have it checked out with our “car guy.” There was just one problem: the dealership opens after I leave for work and closes before I get home. How I would be able to get my car to dealer? Luckily, Nordstrom scheduled me for a Diversity Training today at 5, normally when I leave my “real job.” With the help of my mom, we came up with a great plan. I would drop off my car before I headed to Nordstrom, since I was already planning on leaving real work early.
Last night I asked my mom if she thought I would be getting a SUV as my loaner, since they won’t be checking out my car until tomorrow. She said no, she didn’t think so. Boy was she wrong.

The nice car guy agreed to meet me at a gas station near Nordstrom, since I was on somewhat of a schedule. Somehow, I arrived there in 30 minutes, instead of the 40-45 I expected. As I waited for him, I kept looking at the different cars pulling into the gas stations, noticing the SUVs and saying no, I hope that isn’t him, and crossing my fingers when I noticed a small car.

Well, the finger crossing got me nowhere. There he was, driving his own Honda Pilot. My mouth hit the floor and I was not too happy. It is very nice that I am able to have a loaner at all, let alone the fact that he lends me his, but simply for safety reasons, I would have preferred a small car! Way back when my dad had a Ford Taurus, I was scared to drive it because I thought that car was huge!

Anyways, we talked about what I thought was wrong with the car, exchanged keys, and I entered the behemoth known as a Honda Pilot. Being the nice guy that he is, he let me leave first…probably not his best move. I backed up, once I found the gear shift, and attempted to not hit my own car, or the curb behind me. I really don’t know how I didn’t scrape my back bumper, but I didn’t, thankfully.

I exited the gas station, on my way to Nordstrom, driving at or near 35 MPH, attempting to acclimate myself with the car. It didn’t happen. I felt way too small for this big car. I couldn’t tell how far away the front was and how far back the actual back was. Trying to turn? Yeah, that was a blast! Somehow I arrived and parked at Nordstrom with no problem. Then, somehow I returned home, with no problem, even though on one turn, I almost thought I was going to hit the car in the lane over. Phew.

Tomorrow will be the real test, when I have to drive 30 miles, each way, most of it on the freeway, with a car at least 2x what I am used to. I plan on leaving extra early simply to allow me to take it extra slow and avoid hitting any other cars, trees, or telephone poles. I already prepared myself by parking in the driveway, as opposed to in the garage, so I can simply back up and go, instead of trying to twist around my dad’s car.

Based off of this lone experience, and whatever happens tomorrow, I do not understand why people buy SUVs let alone enjoy driving them! I like my small, ok somewhat small car, that doesn’t feel like it is going to rollover every time you make the slightest turn. I like being able to see my back without needing binoculars. I like small cars, and will be giving my specific car a big hug when I see it again in less than 24 hours.

I have been saying that this blog needed some sprucing up for awhile now. However, I never actually acted on that thought no matter how many times it crossed my mind. Well, tonight I did thanks to a very good article at Smashing Magazine entitled 100 Excellent Free WordPress themes.

To be honest, way back, I tried to start creating my own WordPress theme but I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I was floundering out in the ocean with no life jacket or any sort of flotation device. I was lost, completely and utterly lost.

So when I came across this article, and realized how easy it was to install these already created and designed themes, I thought why should I have to reinvent the wheel? I shouldn’t, smarter people already invented the wheel just fine the first time. I looked through all 100, picking out certain ones, trying them out on this blog, seeing what worked and didn’t. I kept coming back to the first design I found, the one I am using now. Something about this design, besides the fact that there is blue involved, struck me, made me say wow, that is pretty cool. Something about this design made me choose it over about 8 other possible candidates. I don’t know what it was/is, but I am just glad I found it because it looks great.

There is only one problem, which isn’t that big of a deal. On the old blog you were able to look at my Flickr photos without visiting Flickr. You could do so by simply going to myblog.imagine24.net/photos/. However, as you have already seen if you clicked that link, that page is to put it bluntly, ugly. It seems as though the new styles have made that page go haywire and look just absolutely horrible. The fact of the matter is, I bet only me and maybe one other person ever visited that page, so the loss isn’t huge. I can still place Flickr photos in blog posts without a hitch, which I need to do eventually, I just can’t have my Flickr albums appear on here, which as I have come to realize, isn’t that great of a loss. Oh well, I and the rest of the blogosphere will be able to go on with their lives.

Anyways, enough of my ramblings. The title of this entry asks a question, so please, if you would, tell me what you think of the new design in the comments below, I would really love to hear them! I have already begun to make a few simple tweak and would love to hear your suggestions for more!

Enjoy the new design, and I hope to see you back here real soon! Oh and I forgot, thanks to Michael Whalen for creating such a cool WordPress theme and great thanks for making it free. I greatly appreciate it!