Current mood:

seriously annoyed

Why?
Ok, so. I need a car. I've been riding the bus and walking to the grocery store like a good little green girl for six months now, and have been coping with it not too badly. However. It is now summertime, which means the university reduces the bus system to about a third of what it is during the school year. I have been going to campus at 8 and coming home at 4:30, just to teach from 10-12. Even that I can kind of cope with. But now I've been offered a really nice tutoring gig, and I just plain need a car.

The problem is, it's nearly impossible to BUY a car unless you already HAVE a car. Because you can't get to car dealerships or people's houses on the bus. Because in America, it is just assumed that everyone has a car, and will drive it constantly. So after two frustrating weeks of trying to find a car I want within walking or bus range, I finally gave up and decided to rent a car for this weekend, so that I could look at cars farther away. Fantastic. I found some very cool deals in Manchester, a big-ish city about an hour away. I found a good deal to rent a car over the weekend. I made appointments to test drive cars, to meet people privately, to have cars checked out at local mechanics. I printed out directions and had them all organized. I cribbed a ride to the car dealership. I was excited.

Yesterday afternoon, my credit card company called and told me that there were some unusual charges on my card, and had I made them? Nope. Card's been compromised. Better cancel it. New card in 7-10 days. Sucks, but what can you do?

Yesterday evening, the owner of the car I'd been most excited about, with whom I had exchanged at least eight emails over the past week setting up an appointment for this evening, told me the car had been sold. Damn. Again, that sucks, but it's Craigslist, what can you do?

Today, after a frantic dash to the rental place, I am informed that a person with an out of state driver's license must have a credit card to rent a car. No exceptions. It doesn't matter that I have a local bank account with an ATM card, or that I'm locally employed, or that I do in fact have a credit card account. I must have a valid physical credit card. There's no other way to do it. The guy was nice about it, but that's the deal.

So here I am, sitting at home, all my elaborate plans shot, no way to get to all of my appointments, no way to get anywhere in fact, soaked from the rain, and incredibly frustrated. I'm smart. I'm organized. I even have money. Why is America like this? WHY THE HELL DOES THIS SIMPLE THING HAVE TO BE SO GODDAMN HARD?