Can't He Catch a Break?

My brother's summer has been very rough. Luckily he's made the most of it, though. For a while we were all thinking, "Can't this poor guy catch a break?"First Allison broke up with him quite suddenly, without so much as wanting to work on it. They'd been together for over 5 years so it was hard on all of us. I remember right after it happened I just sat at my computer and sobbed, feeling sorry for myself for losing such a great person in my life. How selfish am I?? God, poor Edward.

The breakup caused him to have to figure out how he'd afford the entire rent check each month and how to afford a car. Allison brought her car out from California but Edward didn't have one of his own. Keeping Emmy meant needing a car--not just wanting one--because he has to be able to take her to the vet (not to mention be able to go grocery shopping during blizzards).

He decided to come back to California for the summer, partly because Troy, NY is THE most depressing place in the world, partly because all his friends were out of town for the summer, partly so he wouldn't have to deal with living in the same apartment as Allison, and partly because of the baby. For over two months he lived in our guestroom/office. It was so nice to have him around all the time!

Things started looking up for him...but then he went to Las Vegas with some college friends for some R&R and his laptop and camera were both stolen out of their car the morning they were all flying home. So he was stuck having to replace the laptop so he could do his work without having to return to NY (he owns a start up company in NY and had to work on the software development).

Getting a car was tricky--he's never owned a car so he wanted to make sure that he got exactly what he wanted. (If you're going to spend that much money on something you might as well get what you actually want, right?) He wanted something useful, affordable (preferably used), and Emmy-friendly. He settled on a red Mazda 3 hatchback. Because of the snow and road salt, cars in the northeast don't last as long as they do in more temperate climates like California. He could have purchased a car once he returned to NY but wasn't so sure about buying a used car there. Plus to do that, he'd have to return to NY sooner in order to have time to find and purchase a car and with the baby due at the end of the month he wouldn't have more than a few days. (Not to mention the hassle of us having to get Emmy vet-certified to fly and then getting her to the airport ourselves while having a brandnew baby in the house.) Driving himself, all his stuff, and Emmy back to NY would just be easier.

Being quite particular about the features, it turned out there were only a handful of the cars available in the US. He found one up in Seattle that his friend checked out for him. The day he was set to fly up there to make the purchase, the seller backed out. So he was back to square one.

Then he randomly found one at the Roseville AutoMall. It wasn't the exact color he wanted, but it was close enough. We went to check it out about a month ago, realized it was being sold for only a few hundred dollars above wholesale, and ended up buying it. It was SUCH a great little car. He spent a bit of time getting up to par: installing a trailer hitch, buying rubber floor mats online, and going to a pick-n-pull place to get a few things it was missing (like the cargo area cover).

His plan was to depart for NY with Emmy this past Sunday. So he spent Thursday-Friday in Livermore with my parents to say goodbye. On his way back to Davis from Livermore on Friday evening he was rear-ended on the Yolo Causeway. Thank you God for keeping him safe. His car is completely totaled...TWO days before he was going to leave and only THREE weeks after he bought his FIRST car ever. What are the chances?So he was again back at square one. Except that for the time being he was out the cost of the first car since the insurance company hadn't yet decided was to do with his first car (total it or fix it). And his classes start this coming Monday.

He looked online and found another car that met his needs/wants but it was in Missouri. So on Tuesday he flew out there, made the purchse, and came back the following day. That same afternoon he and my mom packed up her car and started driving east. They got to his new used car yesterday. Whew.

All in all I think he had a great summer--he had lots of friends come to visit (he became a lay-tourguide for northern California), went to Yosemite twice, hung out with high school friends, and got to see the birth of his nephew. He certainly made the most of a crappy situation...especially one that seemed to keep getting crappier.I'm sure he'll make the most of his final year of living in crappy upstate NY with lots of fun weekend trips and hanging out with cool people from his program at school. Here's hoping it all goes well!