My car is senile

My beloved '95 Acura, inherited from my father and originally bought used, is on the fritz. The bottom is rotting. The hand brake somehow interferes with the brake pedal (don't ask me how). I have to park in gear and not use the hand brake. Other things are wrong, but when the mechanic told me it all went over my head. The only thing I know for sure is that I will need a new car in the near future. But of course, the solution is never as simple as going and buying a car.

So here's my dilemma:

• My job is still at the moment temporary. As much as I want to stay and they want me to stay, the logistics still haven't been worked out, and I won't have a definite answer for an indefinite period. If I don't stay with this job, my future is up in the air. I could get a job where public transportation is an option or move to a city where cars are unnecessary (NYC!). I will kick myself if I put the time/money/effort into buying a car only to end up in a situation where I don't even need a car.
  
• Money. Money. Money. Having an official permanent job where I have a salary will make me soooooo much more comfortable making such a large purchase and dipping into my savings.

However, the longer I wait till I know whether my job will last, meaning I have a definitive need for a car and the future money to revive my savings, the higher the chance of my car splitting in two on the Pike during my daily commute...

Other factors to consider:

• My parents each have a car. If my car does die on me (knock on wood), I will be able to make arrangements to get to work. I also have my trusty awkward carpool buddy.... 60-year-old Howie. I would like to avoid relying on him for rides since I would also greatly like to avoid our non-conversant 30 minute car rides.
• The ever wonderful Talya has tentatively offered me use of her car while she spends a year in India. However her plans are not definitive, so as much as I would love to rely on this option it is not set in stone. [Note: I am deviously hoping that having this in writing here will somehow solidify this arrangement!]

I'll end with some closing thoughts from Nate:

Here are your options as I see them:

1. Get a new used car today, spend a bunch of money.
   You are guaranteed to have a car that you may not need.
2. Drive your current car until it dies. That could be a week or a year.
   Get a new used car.
   You are not guaranteed to have a car that you may not need.
   

I would take option 2, but I am risk loving.

And I am not. Still have a dilemma...

Spreading the dilemma solving to others

After thoughtfully pointing me to a toothpaste-dispensing toothbrush to solve my last dilemma (see right), Adam came to me with his own work/food dilemma. Here's what he wrote:

"Last Wednesday, I brought my lunch to work as usual and left it in the shared refrigerator in the office kitchen. Strangely, I wasn't hungry enough to finish my yogurt that day, so I left in the fridge for later. I returned to work on Thursday and went about my job as usual. After a few hours, I decided that I wanted some yogurt, so opened up the fridge to reclaim my fruity bounty. That's when I realized that there were five different cups of yogurt inside, but I couldn't remember which was mine! All I know is that my brand was Yoplait (there are three of those), and that typically my favorite flavor is peach. There was a peach in the fridge, but there was also a strawberry kiwi and blueberry, which I also enjoy. I don't want to ruin someone else's day and take his/her yogurt, but I still want mine back.

So here's my dilemma: how do I reclaim my own yogurt without knowing what type I originally brought in? I thought about leaving Post-it notes on each container, asking the owner to leave a message if the yogurt in question wasn't mine. Please let me know if you have a better solution."

Well Adam, here are my expert dilemma-solving thoughts on your options (though I don't know what the status of your yogurt will be come Monday morning). I think leaving a note might overcomplicate things.* And since your actions will in no way result in a coworker having NO yogurt, I personally think you should do one of the following:

1. Wait till the other 2 Yoplaits are gone. Then the remaining one is yours to claim.
2. Eat the peach one. Maybe the other yogurt owners will, like you, also have forgotten what flavor they brought in.

In the future, might I recommend the following:

1. Channel the mother of a 7-year old and write your name on your yogurt. Or draw a smiley face on it so you know which is yours. (If it's any comfort, this is totally something I would do.)
   
2. Perhaps you could keep your food in a lunchbox or a plastic bag?
3. I always like to put my food in a specific place in the fridge so I always have a go-to location.

All right, I hope that helped in its own random weird way. :)

*though I could see the note-leaving option as a fun way to bring some playful mystery solving to the office

The tiny twist off cap is causing dilemmas

This morning something changed that will now affect me, daily and nightly, for the next few months.

My bottle of Crest Liquid Gel toothpaste ran out.

What this really means: I am now using a twist top tube.

How this happened: unfortunately, we had a spare tube of toothpaste in the cabinet, so instead of being free to go to CVS and buy another bottle of my awesome Crest Whitening Expressions Extreme Herbal Mint Liquid Gel (I'm not a Crest spokesperson, I swear) I was forced to become the user of a twist top tube of toothpaste.

The dilemma here is more about the annoyance. With my bottle of Liquid Gel, I could open my bottle of toothpaste with one hand, just a simple push with the thumb, squeeze my toothpaste out, and be on my way to minty freshness. But now I need to readjust my whole routine. I can't hold my toothbrush while opening my damn tube. Why do they make twist caps anymore? Who actively *wants* a tube -- to have to pick up the tube in one hand, grab the tiny top in the other, twist off, squirt out, and put the cap back on? They even make tube toothpaste with flip tops, though those are the middle tier of toothpaste tubes. Clearly the key here is that tubes are inferior to bottles. First and most awesome are the nifty bottles like the Liquid Gels or those awesome ones I used to use where you just push down and the toothpaste squirts out (the ultimate morning/night efficiency), then comes the tubes with flip tops, and then rock bottom are tubes with twist off tops.

All right, enough on toothpaste, this is a silly topic.