this is my new alternator. or at least, it’s a reasonable facsimile of it, according to my invoice.

 I hate being quoted one amount, then another, then being charged yet another (higher, of course) price. I hate that the part costs me two times as much from the repair shop as it would have cost me to buy it online, but that there’s just no way they’d allow me to buy the part myself and have them just charge me for the labor. I hate that my brother is 800 miles away and could’ve fixed it for me for free. I hate feeling helpless and like I am being screwed over at every turn. I hate it that now I’m afraid that my car could break again at any time, and that I have made so many poor choices financially that I literally can’t afford for anything else to happen to it . . . I especially hate that everybody told me that I could trust this fine Christian establishment, and that I didn’t remember my brother’s advice to always take my car to a cheap chain, or the fact that Pep Boys offers towing.

 yeah. I pretty much hate everything right now. so I’m going to eat some donuts and asparagus (perhaps not in that order?!) and go to bed . . .