I’d planned on today being a great day, since I cleared my schedule in order to prepare for my birthday later this week. What could go wrong? I thought. Really, I just had two goals–clean my car, Tom Collins, and get my other car, Garfield, running, since his battery has been dead. But I should be clear–the important thing in my mind was to get Garfield on the road because I love driving him in the fall and thought it would be a fabulous way to spend my special day, tootling around in my antique Mercy Comet.

Everything started off well. I got Tom Collins cleaned up, and even repaired a broken sun visor on the driver’s side thanks to the magic informational library known as YouTube. Before, due to a damaged piece of plastic, the visor kept falling down. So rather than buy an entirely new visor for $75, I fixed it with a screw and a washer for free. Now the visor stays up and can swivel and everything. However, this cheaper method did require cutting the electrical wire that turns on the light when the mirror on the visor is opened. (Since I’d damaged the cord fixing it “my way” before I looked to YouTube, I was one step ahead of the video.) Anyway, I could have survived without the light, but per the video’s optional suggestion, I added a switch on the outside of the visor that can be used to turn the light on and off. Check it out.

I was not so successful, however, in dealing with Garfield this afternoon. For two hours my dad, our neighbor, and I futzed with him–added gasoline, put in a new battery, talked to him real nice and sweet–and still, nothing. He’s just dead as a doornail. And my mechanic can’t take a look at things for at least a week or two. Ugh, I can’t tell you what a serious damper this put on my mood this evening. Granted, I knew this was a possibility (he is an antique car), but I was really HOPING I could get him going in the next couple days. You know, to celebrate. But–once again–the universe had different plans than I did.

Frickin’ universe.

For a few hours after this disappointment, I stewed. It probably didn’t help that I immediately sat down to pay bills after everything with Garfield happened and immediately realized I don’t have money to fix my car or–really–celebrate my birthday, at least how I would like to. HOWEVER, after I soaked in these feelings for a while, they did subside. Eventually I thought, I don’t NEED a car OR money to have a great day. Whatever happens will happen–and it will be fine. Plus, I reasoned, the process of getting Garfield fixed HAS started–that’s the main thing.

This evening I went for a walk to deal with the leftovers of my bad mood and found a one-hundred-dollar bill on the ground. Isn’t just like the universe? I thought. However, when I picked it up, I quickly realized it was a counterfeit. (The paper felt funny. The wasn’t a hologram strip inside. There were Chinese letters printed on it!) So that was another disappointment.

Isn’t that just like the universe?

Shortly after I found the fake money, a total stranger cat-called me as they drove past in their mini-van. I think it was a dude. It’s hard to tell these days. Anyway, they stuck their head out the window and yelled, “YEAH, BABY!”

“Thank you,” I said.

I don’t know how women deal with this sort of thing, since after thanking the guy, it occurred to me to be frightened and offended. I’ve been objectified! I thought. But then I realized that I’m almost thirty-eight, Daddy’s obviously still got it, and it doesn’t quite do for a single adult who posts a selfie every day to complain about being objectified.

Someone–please–objectify me.

About an hour later, toward the end of my walk, I lay down in the middle of the road and looked at stars. Constellations that were only on the horizon this summer are now progressively higher in the sky and, therefore, easier to recognize. Tonight for the first time I clearly identified Aries and Triangulum, in addition to getting a more-defined picture of Perseus, Andromeda, and my darling Pegasus. OH, and I almost forgot–earlier in the evening I saw THE BRIGHTEST shooting star. It was worth everything else that had to happen today in order to get me out of the house in order to see it.

There’s so many glorious things you see when you’re looking up instead of looking down.

During the last bit of my walk home, I started thinking about Aries, the first sign of the zodiac, the one that corresponds to the beginning of spring, which I always associate with hope. I just never knew that she (or he–it’s hard to tell these days) was up there all through the fall and winter. But that’s how it works with the sky–you see “the signs” of the seasons before the actual seasons appear. Personally, since I’m not a fan of winter, I love that Aries will be up there waiting for spring while I’m down here waiting for spring. As I watch her move across the sky, I can remember that life has its disappointments and counterfeit moments, but it also has its shooting stars and springtimes. Yes, as we both bare the cold winter nights, I can think, Your time is coming. OUR time is coming.

YEAH, BABY.

[Screenshot from the Stellarium App. The direction to look for these constellations, at least at three in the morning, is “up.”]