Yesterday morning at 6:30 AM, my phone rang. I knew from the ringtone that it was Amanda. Groggy, I rolled over and grabbed my phone.
“Hello?”
“Jeff, I'm OK, but I've been in a bad car accident. I need you to come get me…”

I rushed out of bed, threw clothes on, put Bella in the bedroom, and left for 696-E before Telegraph. Amanda had been in the left lane, and an 18-wheeler had sideswiped her into the left-hand barrier. She spun out across five lanes of traffic, miraculously not hitting anything and winding up in the ditch on the right side of the road. There were two ambulances when I got there, and I found Amanda sitting in one, unharmed. Looking at the scene, she could have been seriously hurt.

Nobody stopped to help Amanda. People called the police, but the semi driver — who may not have even felt the incident — kept going and the witnesses never stopped to see if she was OK. That may be the worst part about the incident.

Naturally, I didn’t go to work that day, nor did Amanda. We spent the day at car dealerships looking for a replacement — I was pretty confident that her car, which was valued at around ^$500 in the KBB, would be a total loss (I was right). Eventually we settled on leasing a new Jetta, which she loves. I thought it would be a great opportunity to get rid of my old Blazer, which I’d been trying to sell with little success. So, the Volkswagen dealership asked us to bring it in so they could appraise its value. We drove back home, I got the Blazer key, I stuck it in the ignition, and the damn thing wouldn't start. Shit. I eventually called a man from the paper who came out, looked at it, and gave me cash. I probably would have gotten more from the VW dealer as a trade-in if it had been working, but the weeks it spent languishing in the parking lot screwed it up. What an opportune time, huh?

Everyone’s OK now, but yesterday was a stressful, long, exhausting day. Amanda and I both lost cars, and now we have two license plates collecting dust in the apartment. We’ve also gone from no monthly car payments to two monthly car payments, though I bought my Charger and she’s leasing. Awesome.

So far, we've made some awesome cookies: chocolate with cherries and cinnamon roll cookies. Delicious.

Life is a lot different after college. With no classes to go to, no homework to do, and nothing to read, I always have the feeling that I have something that I need to do—you know, the feeling that there’s an assignment due or I need to study for an exam. Now I get to play video games whenever, chat all night on AIM, drink on a Tuesday, whatever I want. It’s fun. The 9-5 job is going well—I had some major caffeine this morning and I knocked out a sweet script. Today I got Grand Theft Auto IV in the mail so I imagine that’ll be taking up the majority of my time this week, but on Thursday night Amanda’s coming to visit, so at least I know I’ll have some human contact; my roomies are all in the process of moving out and I don’t know who will be living in my apartment (besides me) for the summer, but I know they’ll all be back and forth as they start new jobs and stuff.

I think I’m going to start working out in the morning. Apparently there are all sorts of health benefits and you can do a lot of core exercises without getting a gym membership. Starting my metabolism a couple hours early seems like a good idea. The 2006-pack I wanted two years ago has turned into a keg, and if I’m not careful this bachelor lifestyle of cooking for one is going to turn it into a cask.

I was wondering what to write a LiveJournal entry about this morning, because I do want to update more often. Then I was surfing Fark and came upon this news story. I can’t even begin to imagine how much of an idiot this manager is. Not only did he waterboard an employee, the article details a host of other misdeds:

• Taking away his sales staff’s chairs if they had a bad day (or, presumably, if he did).
• Threatening to draw Sharpie moustaches on “negative” employees.
• Keeping on his desk a wooden “2-by-4 of motivation.”

All that stuff is the sign of a bad boss, sure. But the most offensive thing in the article? The guy tried to use Socrates as justification! He read about Socrates holding a student's head under water for training and decide to torture one of his own employeees. Ahem. Socrates also regularly had sex with boys. I wouldn’t start justifying things with ancient Greek morality and customs as your guide.

The company that the manager works for isn't that innocent either. They sell “coaching” to people, charging $3,000 to $15,000 for their instructions, which they sell over the phone. For, among others, Donald Trump.

What is wrong with people?

Well, my college career is coming to a close. Thursday was my last day of class and I have assignments due tomorrow, Wednesday, and by the 24^th. That means I have three things left to do before I’m done with my undergraduate education. I have to say that that’s a weird feeling. I’m pretty lucky in that I’m already working at a full-time job, so I won’t have the post-graduation job search while I drain my savings account.

The end of college comes with a host of frightening realities. First, Amanda’s parents have never met my parents. To that end, we’re eating lunch together after graduation. But it won’t just be a pleasant meal with our parents. No, that would be too easy. There are going to be fourteen of us altogether—my parents, her parents, all four of my siblings, and all four of her grandparents. As long as no one talks about politics, religion, or the fact that Amanda and I aren’t yet engaged (though I’d much prefer that option) we’ll be OK… yikes.