I was annoyed and depressed about the whole string of affairs, but was trying to keep it cool. However, any little thing would set me off. I started my car, but it died right away before I could give it gas. So, naturally, I started it again by turning the key as hard as I could, and as soon as it started, I took some of my aggression out on the pedal, though careful not to make it too loud, since people in my apartment complex might wonder what's going on. As soon as I felt I had given it ample time to warm up and made up my mind that if it hadn't warmed up in that time, that it was its fault, and I had warmed it up enough for what I think I should have to, I drove off. It got close to dying whenever I stopped, which just annoyed me more because I had given it enough time to warm up, so I just slammed on the pedal whenever I started going because I felt the car deserved to be treated that way if it was going to insist on having an unreasonable amount of time dedicated to warming it up. I brought along "Vanishing Act" as a backup plan in case nothing good happened there. I could always watch it with Laura some other time.

At my parents' house they were watching "Superman Returns". I had watched that just the other night. I liked it. It was at the part where the guy with the machine gun shoots all the police cars and then shoots Superman in the eye with the gun and it just bounces off. While I was there, I figured I might as well ask everyone what they want for Christmas. Everyone was saying they have lists, but they weren't here right now and I just wanted some clear answer like a list right there for me to take, but I got none. I showed my dad the police auction site and he was really interested in it. Then he had me look in the paper for a movie I wanted to see. I looked and none of the movies out were new from the last time I looked. I had already seen all the ones I really wanted to see except "The Nativity Story". He picked out "The Illusionist" and so I half-heartedly agreed to that. I wasn't really in a disagreeing mood.

I think he could tell something was wrong, but to prevent him from guessing wrongly, I just told him I was kinda depressed. He said he knew and was trying to un-depress me. My brother, Matt, wanted to go along, and I started feeling better about the potential of the rest of the night. It couldn't be that bad going to a movie with my dad and brother, whom I haven't been to a movie with in a long time. Once I started feeling a little better, my desire to think came back and I started considering how much I really wanted to go see "The Illusionist". It turns out, my dad thought it was the movie that is really called "The Prestige" and once he found out it wasn't he same movie, I could tell he was no longer set on one movie, so I suggested "Stranger than Fiction" since it was really good in my opinion and I thought they'd like it. They agreed to it, though my dad was skeptical since it had Will Farrell in it and, from what my dad had seen, he didn't like the guy's acting style. See, my dad doesn't like the Saturday Night Live kind of humor. He didn't like any of Jim Carey's movies prior to "The Truman Show". I'm the same way. However, this movie seemed to have him in a more serious role.

So, we headed out in my dad's car, and about 2 miles from Santa Clara, the car started dying and my dad says that he thinks we were out of gas. I said they should probably watch the gauge more closely and he said they can usually go 300 miles before they have to fill it up again and it was only at 283. Regardless of the statistics, the car slowed to a stop and my dad pulled as far off the road as he could. However, there was only a shoulder and the car was still halfway in the lane of River Road, a 55-MPH rural road, at night. If he turned any more to the right, it would have fallen into the ditch. He put on the hazard lights and suggested we push the car to Steve Wasson's, his mechanic. It was about a mile up the road. The hope was that he had some gas, or at least a gas can we could fill up at a gas station. I figured we would miss the movie but this event was unusual enough to make up for it. We could always watch the movie I brought over at home.

So, my dad would open the driver door and push the car while steering it while Matt and I pushed from behind and watched for approaching cars so we could tell my dad to get in and close the door as the car passed. It went that way for about 10 minutes before a car stopped beside us and asked us if we were alright. I told him we were out of gas and was trying to make it to our mechanic's. The guy and his wife said they would take one of us there, so I went. I got there and he had a gas can that felt a little more than half full. I thanked him and called my dad to tell him what was up. I heard him breathing hard and knew he was pushing the car as he spoke and I told him the news. I tried to run while holding the heavy can and went for maybe a minute when, to my surprise as to how soon it was, I saw my dad's car's headlights. My phone rang and I answered "Yeah?" because I thought it was my dad. It was my mom. I was breathing hard from running:

Mom: How are you guys doing?
Me: Alright
Mom: Where are you?
Me: I'm on River Road... leaving Steve Wasson's... heading toward the car.
Mom: I'm in Santa Clara so I can come get you if you need a ride.
Me: No, I can see Dad's car's headlights.
Mom: So you don't need a ride?
Me: Mom, it's like... 100 meters away.
Mom: Oh, so you'll probably get there before I would get to you.
Me: Uh, yeah.
Mom: Okay, well call me if you need anything.

We put the gas in the car and it got us to the Santa Clara Chevron where my dad put in $10 and I went inside and got a King Size Reese's. It even looked like we would make the movie on time. My dad was accustomed to paying for gas with cash so he didn't know if he could pay with a card. He tried, but didn't know to give the guy the card beforehand, so he had to go inside and pay. We got to the mall and had a minute to spare before the 10 minutes of previews started. We got to the theater and saw that all 3 lines for tickets had about 30-40 people in each. I knew at least my dad felt despair at the sight of the lines and knew we'd either have to see another movie or be late. I didn't despair, however, and walked right past all the lines as if I had some kinda of VIP pass.

Once I was past the ticket booths, I saw to my delight that the online ticket machine was free. I turned back and looked at my dad, who had stopped and was standing in back of one of the long lines and looking at me, probably wondering what I was doing. I kinda felt sorry for him standing there, thinking he has to wait for all these people. I bet he felt a little how I did when my plans didn't work out. I motioned for him to come over here and after a little hesitation, he did, with a confused look. I pressed the buttons for buying tickets and all that was needed was his credit card. I told him to swipe it. He didn't know what it was and hesitated. I said he just needs to swipe it. He did and it promptly printed out 3 tickets for our movie. He was quite surprised and happy with this. I wonder why hardly anyone else knows about that, but I'm sure glad they don't or there would be lines for that, too. He told me not to tell other people about it, lol.

We got our confessions (yes, confessions, I call them that all the time and will continue to) and watched the movie. Needless to say, it was good. Then we went to their house and I left and came back here to write this.