best and worst days...

so leeann and i had great/crappy days on monday. we both had good work days...i got everything done that i needed to. and then some. plus, i actually cleaned my bedroom on sunday night! it was the first time this had been done since we moved into the place (in july!) so it was pretty rewarding and totally overdue. monday i still had a cleaning high from it. it's just wonderful to walk into your private space and have it be relaxing. messiness can be extremely stressful!
anyways, leeann and i had plans to go to walmart. i needed hangers and cookie cutters and she needed christmas stuff. so off we go to the waterworks...
on the way there, she tells me her identity has been stolen. so of course this involves talking to your bank (yuck) a whole lot and filling out forms and lots of aggravation. booooo!
now, walmart around christmas time SUCKS. actually, walmart sucks in general. unfortunately, there is nowhere else near us to buy cookie cutters and hangers. so it's off to walmart we go.
of course, we pick the day where it's 25 degrees outside, so we have tons of layers on and decide to get a cart to handle it and the other stuff that we will invariably "need". carts make things difficult. especially in narrow aisles with stupid people with carts. but we get through it and get in line.
wait wait wait. the cashier is trying to deal with a gift card that won't scan. no one will help her and whatever help she called for over the intercom isn't showing up. booo. we finally check out.
get in the car, arrange all the bags in the trunk. on the way to walmart, i thought i heard a weird sound coming from my back driver's side wheel. i checked it when we got there and nothing seemed out of place. i start driving now and it's obvious that i have a flat. pull over into a parking spot. look at the tire. it is completely the wrong shape. there are 2 places in which it is curved inward. that's no good.
call jp, except he doesn't have a car to come rescue me. ask him to call someone to help me while i start the process. get out the jack, the lug wrench, the lug key, the donut. start to jack up the car and my father-in-law calls. i tell him i don't think i need help, but i'm not sure if what i've attached the jack to is actually my axle. he tells me he'll be right there.
while changing a tire in the middle of foot traffic, people are bound to stop and talk to you. the first woman who did told me to go buy 'fix a flat' and then drive to a gas station. why? so i can put the donut on there?? no offers of help, even from the burly teenager with them. he does confirm that i have the jack in the right position, however.
jack up the car. get lug wrench out and realize rather quickly that i am not strong enough to undo the machine tightening of lug nuts. luckily, someone stops and asks if we need help. i ask him if he could please loosen the lug nuts, i can do the rest. so he does, and it takes a lot of effort. i'm infinitely grateful for his help. he suggests i go into walmart and buy myself a 4 way wrench to make things easier. who are these people? marketers for walmart?? everyone's got a product suggestion....
i take off all the lug nuts. now i can't get the tire off. we had this problem the last time i got a flat and we had to call AAA to come. the guy ended up underneath the car and had to kick the tire several times to get it off. i'm not really into trying that.
by the way, it's still 25 degrees out.
someone else stops. middle-aged guy with wife and kid. he asks if we need help. i tell him i can't get the tire off. he kicks it from the front a couple times and it pops right off. sweet! he even throws the donut on and tightens the lug nuts for me. all the while, he's complaining about how much this walmart sucked. apparently they went in, filled a cart with stuff, got disgusted with walmart, and left without buying anything. he said he'd never come back again.
so, donut is on. call my father-in-law and tell him disaster has been averted. we drive across the parking lot to giant eagle, where leeann needs groceries and i need my prescription refilled. only we have a problem: eckerd closes at 9pm (where it needs to be transferred from) and it's 8:45. i wait at the pharmacy for 5 min. before anyone talks to me and i ask very nicely if they can hurry up and call for my script. luckily, the chick was really understanding and did it right away. yay! the highlight of my evening.
i drive home and am annoyed and exhausted by the evening's events. where does my car karma come from? is it because of that accident i had? will i pay for the rest of my life because i hit someone and their back was hurt? i still feel terrible about it, and i still have back pain from it too. you would think that with all the disasters i've had with cars that i have paid for it many times over. like being poisoned with carbon monoxide from my exhaust leak? or having my car break down in the middle of 51 and having to have 3 men push it to the side of the road? what about the 2 other flat tires i've had? or needing 2 new head gaskets in 1 year for my cavalier? the honda mysteriously dying after i started driving it? i thought when my intrepid was stolen that was the last straw.
damn you karma!