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Sunday, November 23, 2008

My first car

Yesterday I just bought a car. It's a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse GT 2 door. Dennis helped me a lot in the process. He found that car on a website, contacted the owner, e-mail back and forth to her, test driving the car, etc. Thanks a lot Dennis, I owed you a lot. Then I picked up the car with Dennis on SLB Sugarland office (she worked there). Because I didn't have driving license yet, Dennis took the car to our San Felipe office.

Then at 3 pm, we went to insurance company. Dennis asked me "Hey wanna drive your car?". "Could I?", I asked. "Yeah, yeah, try it", Dennis said giving me the key. Oh boy, this is very different than the manual car I used in Indonesia. First Dennis taught me how to adjust side mirrors. Dennis was busy opening and closing the sunroof. Oh wow I didn't know it has sunroof *lol*. "Ummm how to change gear from P to R?" I asked. "Press the brake pedal all the way, then press this button and pull the gear", Dennis answered. "Oh okay... So to go from R to D do I have to push the brake all the way too?", I asked. "Yes", said Dennis. "Whoa, whoa, why the car goes forward when I didn't push the gas at all?", I asked panickly. "Yes, because D is supposed to drive forward", Dennis answered not exactly answering my question. Okay, now I can reverse the car, and I can move the car forward. That's a big progress I think haha *lol*. "So how can I stop in the traffic light?", I asked him direct question. "You press break pedal and hold it there", Dennis answered. Oh it makes sense now. I guess it was my very first automatic car lesson 101 then haha...

Then it came to the real traffic. We have to pass the Galleria area, one of the busiest street in Houston. Oh come on Dennis, you should give me easier task! Dennis was like car instructor: "Ok, now prepare to go left, change to the left lane if you can", "It's red light, prepare to stop the car", "You can go to the right if it is safe", "Do not slow down when you move lane", and his instruction of the day "Now move forward quicker, you don't want the car behind you to wait". Oh my god, it's too much information to take at once. And I several times turned on the wiper instead of turning the right/left sign, and Dennis laughed out loud everytime I did it. Hey try to drive Asian/Europe car and I can laughed you at that *lol*.

After office, I took the car to the apartment myself. It's only 2 blocks away though :D.

Saturday, November 01, 2008

Halloween

Check us out.. Me as Gandalf and my friend Dennis as the wolf in grandma's dress haha *lol*. Yesterday night is the Halloween night, and we went to bars in mid-town Houston enjoying the night. It's fun to see a lot of peoples were there, and they all wore different kind of costumes. They had a halloween costume contest on the midnight. And the winner for this year's costume? Ernie the chicken *lol*.

I didn't see any people wore old wizard dress like me. Perhaps no one wanted to be old huh haha... That explained why we had to visit several stores just to find a long white wizard hair. At the end, I just used "Babe Wig - Glow in The Dark" as my hair *lol*. That's exactly what's said in its package haha... Thankfully, some of them guessed me correctly as Gandalf *Oh thanks Lord I'm not mistaken as a poor homeless old man on the street haha*. And one cute girl asking me if I was Dumbledore. I told her no, I was Gandalf and she leaved me dissapointed. Ah well...

Oh and I was having my first beer here. Two small bottles of beer and I said enough, next I will have coca-cola. The first order is right a coca-cola. But the second one the bartender was probably misunderstood and she gave me "Crowne in Coke". Whoa that was strongg >.<. I just sipped it a bit and left the rest. I was like struggling with my conscience for a moment. I don't like it. And I still can't enjoy chaotic atmosphere on a bar.

At 2.30 AM when the bar was about to close, we went home. On our way to the car, Dennis helped a girl that was totally drunk. She fell over twice to the ground, spilled water all over his car, and mumbling about her direction. But we got her to her apartment finally. So this is my first Halloween experience. It's sure a fun theme once in a year!