What a weekend!

Since we bought our car, we knew that our clutch would soon need to be replaced. It caught really late (if you know what that means) and needed a lot of gas to start up. Plus, as far as we knew, it had never been replaced and it had 82k on it.
We were going to the temple on Saturday (the 20th) with our friends, the Messicks. This temple:


















When we were getting nearby, we hit a little bit of traffic. Stupid LA. Well, since I had to slow down, I had to down-shift...and the car didn't like that. See, when the clutch goes out, driving at high gears isn't too bad, but at low gears (and stop and go) it revs a lot and the clutch doesn't catch until waaaayyy later. Well, I knew the clutch went out. I told them that we could still make it back home as long as I could get up to 65. We got to the temple and went in on one side and the gate was closed...and we were faced with a huge hill!! The car could barely make it up in 1st. That's bad. We had to go all the way around the block to get to the other side of the temple and the car was not working. To get through the other gate there was another hill (of course, temples are always on hills!!) and Billy, Jason, and Nicole all had to get out and push our poor little Corolla up the hill. We parked and were about to go in the temple. It was around 3:30pm.
Billy then thought that we should take care of this now, since later it will be later and might not be able to happen. We made lots of calls to AAA. We got a tow truck to bring our little car and Billy and I to a repair shop less than a mile away. We were pretty sure that late in the day our car wouldn't be done by the end of the day, so we looked at some rental car places that were all CLOSED.
Nicole and Jason stayed at the temple and just chilled. I felt a little bad, but they didn't complain and we had bigger problems. We got the car to Pep Boys and got them to take it. Then we had to call a cab to LAX airport because their rental car places were the only ones still open. Cab rides suck and they're expensive.
We got to Enterprise rental where Billy had already made a reservation. That was quick. We got ourselves a sweet car (not really). It's a Chevy Impala that someone has definitely smoked in. We took the car back to the temple. On our way there, Billy and I were talking. At first we were a little miffed. Here we are doing something good--going to the temple--and our car breaks down! Becomes un-driveable. Then we thought of some other things:

1. Our car broke when we were basically at our destination. Not somewhere in the middle. We were already there and could deal with it in a comfortable place.
2. We were able to take care of everything within 2 hours.
3. The car broke on the weekend and NOT while I was driving to my first day of work on Monday. That would not have made a great impression.
4. We broke down in a city where there WERE places open that late on a Saturday (and Sunday, Pep Boys is still open on Sunday). Santa Barbara might not even have that.
5. While the car was not driveable by the time we parked at the temple, Billy, Jason, and I all have AAA, the car got towed for free. The dude couldn't even back the car out of the parking spot. We had to push it.
6. More things

We began to think that we were actually really lucky. Lucky in spite of it all. Also, we were still able to go to the temple. Initially, I just felt like going home. I was tired, we had been running around everywhere. Then I remembered that we came to LA to go to the temple. If we didn't go to the temple, it would mean that we came to LA to break our car. Plus, we all needed a little de-stressing. Not to mention I was wearing heels the whole time and was looking forward to more comfortable shoes/slippers. We went to the temple.
We got out of our session at almost 9pm. Jason and Nicole offered--no, more like told us that they were buying us dinner. We found a Red Robin on the way home and all had good but very greasy food and felt better/really full. We got home from our temple trip at midnight, exhausted.

The next day at around 11 the guy from the repair shop called us and said our car would be ready at 5. Cool. We went to church, stayed for sacrament meeting, and then left. I got my friend Nicole to sub for my class in Primary. It was super awesome of her. We drove the rental back to LA to the repair shop, paid way too much for our car, and then caravan-ed over to Enterprise.
Let me tell you, driving this car is like driving a new car. The clutch is so springy and full of life! Our car doesn't seem as gutless anymore and it's super zippy. We dropped off the rental with more than enough time to spare--our car was actually done earlier than the guy said it would! Then we drove home and got home at about 7:30pm. It's been quite a ride, but I'm really glad that I have my car for my first day of work. A couple of my first paychecks are going to be paying for this adventure, but it all worked out and we were actually quite lucky in some ways. I am happy that Billy and I could handle it so well and that we had the Messicks to help us out in more than a couple of ways.