Malcolm's Top Ten Cars List

There are a lot of cars in the world, and if money was not a factor you have to wonder what type of car would you choose from.  For about 3 years, my cousin Joseph and myself have been answering that question with multiple list, its only now that I have a clear focus (and some time) that I can actually sit down and put together a composite, and compelling list that would make my choices known to my readers and for everybody to know, not only what I want in my life but what I hope to achieve as well.  For its one thing that I’ve always said, that when it comes to cars, you have to have certain life goals to even dream about cars like this. 

So with that being said, I would like to discuss the top ten cars that I would choose from, starting with the first category: Travel

1. The travel car I would choose from would have to be a car that I and my wife both feel comfortable driving.  This car has to be stylish but it also has to have the upmost functional features as well.  It’s got to have room enough to accompany me and my wife but also my 3 kids as well (and possibly any nieces and/or nephews that might come along).  For this job, I can only think of the Cadillac Escalade ESV Platinum.  There are a lot of reasons why I can do the Escalade ESV, its functional, it can haul stuff inside and out, and not to mention that it has 3 full rows with 3 screens and 5 wireless headphones so on those long trips I can just stick my kids in the back and shut them the hell up for most of the trip.  I think that would be the best way to go for trips in the duration of about 2-4 hours

2.  The second part of this category would be for the long haul trips.  These types of trips can be anything from going on those family bonding trips or going camping with the pathfinders or going to camp meeting (back in Michigan of course) and I can and wouldn’t want anything else but an RV, but the particular RV would be a 2012 Monaco Dynasty 45 Palace.  Now normally I would go into details about the RV but its A LOT to mention so I’m going to be lazy and just past the link for you to follow and read it there: http://www.mcmahonrv.com/pre_owned_detail.asp?sid=07078058X9K2K2012J10I43I39JPMQ6990R0&veh=2732839

The next category is the family car.

3.  The family car is a car that I would choose to ride around with the family in tow that is once again a car that both me and my wife would drive, but the difference with this car would be that it would mostly be driven around town, preferably to church, dinners and the like.  Now the car I would choose for this would most likely be the Bentley Mulsanne.  I want a car that would be easy to drive, stylish, has presence and makes a statement about the Jessup family as we roll up.  It’s also subtle enough in luxury for me to bring it to church and not feel like I’m saying too much (as long as I get it in black).  But yeah, the Bentley is what I would get to haul the wife and kids around town and it’s also a car that I would love for my wife to drive as well.

4.  A more interesting category is the Wife’s car.

Admittedly the wife’s car is very much dependent on my wife and as of typing this, my girlfriend is Krishelle Harvey and her favorite car is the Fisker Karma.  Now the Karma is a nice car, the designer penned a lot (all) of the current Aston Martin lineup, so he knows his way around the drawing board and the cars do look nice.  The other perk to it is that it is a luxury hybrid on the same principles that the Chevy Volt is on technology.  The materials used in it are more luxurious and what not but as a wife’s car, it works.  As a mother car… not so much.  If it were me just buying a car for her, I would choose the Jaguar XJ-L but that’s just me.

The next up, coming category is business and this will have 2 cars.

5.  This first would be my personal favorite, the new Cadillac XTS.  I’ve always appreciated the American luxury that Cadillac has been bringing to the table for years.  In my opinion its even gotten better now that they’ve truly gotten serious about competing with the Germans and the Japanese with their luxury cars.  The Cadillac gives me a high scale but still approachable businessman appeal to my look and persona.  It also reminds me a lot of my Cadillac that I have now, the STS (it might as well be the new STS, it pretty much is, hell my STS is even BIGGER than the XTS but that’s for another blog).

6.  The second car I would pick and it’s a car that I’ve still wanted for a while now is the Bentley Brooklands.  Now I have loved that Bentley ever since I saw it on Top Gear.  Something about a 2 door coupe` that really has me going about it.  It even has a full back seat to be a coupe`.  But the best part about the Brooklands is what’s underneath the bonnet.  A 6.75-liter V8 making 530HP and a mind boggling 760 lb./ft. of torque.  To see this car in action is just… breath taking seeing as how it’s a car that shouldn’t performe like it does due to its size and weight but it boast a 0-60 time of about 5.1 seconds and man can it handle.  If the Cadillac is the approachable, sensible businessman car, the Bentley is the business car that I pull out to impress the higher ups letting them know I’m on their level.

The next category is the “fun” or “toy” car. 

7.  For that I’ve gone ahead and picked something that would typically only be used at a track but it can be used one public roads.  It’s a bit of Italian engineering at its best, from the aerodynamics down to the aluminum space frame and even the AMG Mercedes sourced V12 engine making a musical 680HP, of Couse I’m talking about the Pagani Huayra.  The Pagani is something that I appreciate from both an artistic point of view and an engineering point of view as well.  From active aerodynamics to a musically tuned exhaust and the best (or typical depending on how you want to look at it) that Italian design and leather craftsmanship can offer.  The car is simply a work of art and its only fault would be that I would be devastated if I took it to the track (or, God forbid out on public roads) and something happened to it.

The next two vehicles are in a category that my cousin and me call “project vehicles”.  Projects are anything from restos, resto/mods, or even concepts.

8.  With that being said, the first type of car that will go onto this page will be a car that, when I saw it, I knew I would have to have it.  That would be the 2012 Concept car Cadillac Ciel.  It’s a car that would only see the light of day at car shows and at special events.  If I was to buy it GM and other car companies make it a habit of selling concept vehicles without the transmission as they are not road league to have, and thus I would make it road legal.  I mean you don’t deny a 2+2 seater convertible with a 460HP twin-turbo V6 its road privileges but it would be on my personal roads.

9.  The actual restoration car I would actually want to get my hands dirty on would be the 1935 Duesenberg SJ LaGrande Dual-Cowl Phaeton. Now if you don’t know about that car you need to copy and past that name into Google and see what comes up.  Words truly cannot express what that car does for me in terms of looks, personality and old world elegance.  To own and restore that car would mean the world to me and it would only come out during my birthday or a VERY special occasion.

The last category is one that I put on here, just to shake things up a bit, and that category is Motorcycles

10.  In the world of motorcycles, there are so many to choose from, I don’t know where I would start in the decision process that would narrow it down to what I want.  Thinking as a young man right now in his early to mid 20’s there is one bike that keeps popping into mind, and that is the 2012 Yamaha YZF-R1.  A bike that is normally used to pull apron Yamaha’s sports racing tradition in Europe and the bike is a wonderful bike to have.  The balance, and precision steering that it offers along with one of the best motors in the business.  But then I think about how old I’ll be when I want all of this to come to past, hopefully a man in his mid 40’s and I think I would then like to have a bike like the Yamaha FJR1300A.  This bike is more of a “grand tourer” bike if you will but it’s a bike and its one that I also want.

But there you have it.  A look into what I would get if (or when) I get to where I want to get.  It’s not as outlandish as I wanted it to be, but then I’m not always that flamboyant.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this little view into my fantasy’s and I hope I can give you a view on how to make your own list. 

Leave your comments down below and don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and my twitter as well

Till next time, I’m out.

Have you Driven American Lately?

Hello again everybody, I would like to say first and foremost that I will be doing this on a regular (hopefully) during this summer period as I have now moved into a new house and have an unbridled internet connection that should serve me well. I would also like to give a shout out to my GF Reah Romeo for graduating Cum Lade from Oakwood University and to all the other graduates for this year of 2010, Congratulations to all of you.

Well now that I have all the pleasantries out of the way I would like to get down to business, as some of you know, there isn't too much to do down here in Huntsville and to pass the time down here usually involves going shopping, going to the movies, or just going to the park. Well while I do those things from time to time, I don't often like doing them. My idea of a fun time is going test driving with my cousin Joseph Gilbert (or sometimes Jeff Livingston if he has time). So this week we decided to hit up some places on behalf of our friend Jessica Burns who is actually looking for a new car. They stopped by the Mazda dealership and looked at some cars, while I had no intentions of Zoom Zooming around town in those Japanese Fords; I decided that my girlfriend and I would go next door and check out some of the products from the Chrysler Corp. We wondered around the lot for about 20 minutes until a sales person came over to talk to us and asked us what we were interested in looking at. Reah told him that she was interested in some of the SUV's; I personally wanted to take a look at some of the cars that Chrysler had just come out with, namely the Dodge Challenger. What ended up happening was that I was put in for a real treat: first of all, they only had manual Challengers on the lot and all I had to do was give them some basic information and I could test drive them. To make matters even better, my sales guy got the keys to the ever so powerful Challenger SRT-8 version. To see my face, it was almost all I could do to hide the emotion that was bubbling inside of me, to think I was going to drive a 2 door sports car with over 450 HP.

When he pulled it up, I wanted so badly to just have the money and tell him "here I'll drive it off the lot from here, just let me get my stuff from my old pathfinder." But instead, he got out, let me get in the front, Joe got in the back and he sat in the front and we took off. Well kind of, seeing as how it had been some months since I last drove a manual car I forgot to take the parking break off and when I went to go put it in reverse to back out, the car kept stalling on me. Once I took it off, we were off and the first thing I noticed while we were on the city streets was how tame the Challenger was while I was going through regular traffic. I kept thinking I was going to work to keep those horses under control but while I was driving, I noticed that I had enough time to focus on other things the Challenger offered in the interior, the nice sound system, the sun roof, and all the bells and whistles the DVD touch screen navigation offered. After cruising and messing around with the interior, my sales guy told me to pull onto Research Highway to get some high speed driving in. I knew what that meant, typically when a salesman is comfortable with you, they normally don't mind if you punch the throttle on the highway just to get a good feel for the car. So when I pulled on to Research Park, I did exactly that, I buried my foot on gas and sent it all the way to the floor in second, launching the car from 20 mph to 80 in about 3-4 seconds. It was then I remembered that this car's zero to 60 is about 4.3 seconds. During this time I found it hard to talk to my cousin in the back seat, or he had a hard time hearing me over the roar of the 6.4 liter V8's exhaust in the back seat. Just to deviate for a minute, according to my cousin, sitting in the back seat was the most comfortable back seat he had ever sat in for a 2 door coupe. Getting back to the driving experience, it was breath taking, it felt like I was some kind of bad-ass black reincarnation of Steve McQueen and nobody could stop me. The steering and handling were nice too, just as long as you kept it in a straight line. At the speed I was going, I wouldn't have had too much control over the car in a high degree turn. Another thing to consider was that, since I had entered the freeway I had been doing an average of about 120mph and had not really slowed down much, I just thank God there were no cops around. Another thing I must say is that it has become a stable mate that Chrysler can make some incredible cars with some extreme power, but one thing I must put on for this car is that with great power comes great responsibility, when we got back to the dealership, my salesman explained to me that because of 2 accidents that happened when they first got the Challengers, they began to be very selective when it came to test drives for those cars. They deemed me a good driver, a driver the understood power and could respect it and use it wisely. Sorry to sound so super heroes like in this description but, honestly that's what the car makes you feel like, a superhero. It makes you feel like to you can take on all others (in red). I black, you feel like the anti-hero, the one who will save the day so it will at least be quiet. Either way it goes, wither be it a badass, the anti-hero, or just a good ol' boy, the Dodge Challenger will do what it needs to do.

 

After leaving the Chrysler dealership, expectations were high as we went across the street to the Nissan dealership, I was anxious to get into the driver's seat of the new Nissan Maxima and see how this front wheel drive car came so close to beating the Pontiac G8 in a comparison test by Motor Trend. When we arrived over at the dealership, we were greeted almost as soon as we got out of our cars by not one, but several salespeople. Jessica took one of the guys, my cousin got the person he had dealt with before, and I got this new lady who was very eager to get me off the lot with a new Nissan. I told her I was interested in a fully loaded Nissan Maxima and the next thing I know she had taken my license and got the keys and we were gone. Now it is at this point that I should point out that she was brand new to the job of selling vehicles, in fact she was brand new to the Huntsville area and didn't have an established route on which take her costumers test driving. Normally this would be fun, I can go anywhere I want and she's just along for the ride, unfortunately there was more to it than just that, I got to drive all over Huntsville but she didn't know squat about the Maxima, so while I was driving I didn't enjoy the ride because I was telling her things about the car that she should have already known. When she did stop asking me questions I was able to focus on the car and found out that I wasn't as impressed with it as I thought I would be. The ride was very sporty (by sporty I mean rough), the engine was quick and responsive and gas millage was good. The interior was very roomy, it also has all the bells and whistles that you would come to expect with Nissan, the only thing I didn't like about it was the touch screen on the Maxima. In the Challenger the screen is flush with the rest of the center counsel and is easily reachable from both the driver and the passenger, while in the Maxima one has to reach deep into a recessed cave to touch the screen. For the driver, this is no good at all, but to make matters worse, the wheel that you could use instead of touching it is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE SCREEN. Now when I noticed that I was wondering "what stupid engineer in Japan said that this would be ergonomically and smart", cause the answer is that it's not. Now you may ask me, "Malcolm, can't you just use the steering wheel buttons and get over yourself? well yes I could if I understood them. I tried pushing one button that I thought was the enter button but turned out to be the horn. I was so confused and frustrated I just wanted to go back and get into my 1990 Pathfinder (which was looking more and more attractive in comparison to its newer sibling).

 

Vs.

 

So in conclusion, these (meaning the fully loaded Nissan Maxima vs. the Dodge Challenger R/T Classic) the Challenger I would have brought would have been exactly $40,340 including the destination charge, while the Maxima would have been at test driven prices of $37,560. Now that is a cheaper price tag on the Maxima but consider that you are getting a RWD V8 making 372 HP and a more ergonomically friendly cabin (not to mention the Challenger has 30GB of hard drive space in comparison to the Maxima's 800 MB hard drive). Now I know, by the pricing and by the types of vehicles these are, they really aren't suppose to be compared but I really did think that the Maxima would have been better the Challenger but instead I was treated to a much better cabin, more comfortable seats and a more fun driving experience then the Maxima. If anything I would say that the Challenger is the husbands car while the Maxima is the wife's car which was made more evident by how Reah personally liked the Maxima but she only liked me in the Challenger.

Life Under the Rubble

Greetings and salutations dear readers and welcome to the first issue of the 2010 year of The Spectators Review.

My apologizes for the final parts of last year, I was handling some business of mine that held my time up and kept me focus on only that, but now I'm done, I'm on break, and all is well. Right now I would like to occupy your reading time with something that I have noticed since I have come home on break. As you all know, my great city, Detroit, has been through the roughest part of this, our struggling economy. What with the failing auto industry and the credit crunch that hit most of the nation but hit Detroit the hardest. People are losing their jobs left and right and it almost seems like there is no job stability in any market at all (save for the film production industry that is seeing a boom in business thanks to the tax breaks that Lansing has levied.)

It is in these trying times that I look for what is still going strong in Detroit; my findings surprised me a bit. For one, the best job opportunity that pays the best and requires a good amount of schooling (i.e. a college degree with the option of a master) was computer science/ engineering. This surprised me because, of all that Detroit is known for, it's not in this field. I started doing more researching into this and discovered that, besides California, Michigan (namely the metro-Detroit area) is the 3^rd best place to be for this field. Michigan has given a big deal of tax breaks for these types of businesses and they are taking advantage of them. There is even university based support as well, the most of it coming from Wayne State University. It seems that they have an on campus office building that encourages companies to either start up or move all or part of their operations downtown in exchange for certain supplies, and other types of tax breaks from the city. It also provides hands on training for the university's students as well. Those wishing to become IT technicians or computer science engineers or computer graphics designers need to look no further than down the street.

The next surprise boom for the economy of Detroit is that of the film industry. In other words, there has been an abundance of filming going on in Detroit latly, to this end I would like to support that by naming the movies that were filmed in Detroit recently: Gran Torino, parts of The Island, Four Brothers, and various others that will be filmed in the D (including the reboot of RoboCop!!) It seems that Hollywood liked that type of tax breaks Lansing was offering and has taken a new fancy to shooting in Michigan all together, but specifically in Detroit. More credit to that was that of the old location for the MGM Grand Detroit was recently bought and is being converted to Michigan's largest studio that will focus on CGI technology and filming.

The next one is, in my opinion, the most shocking of all three, but then again not really: Baptist or non-denominational pastor. Now this isn't just any pastor, I'm talking pastor of one of those mega churches. Its seems that, while I was in the south, the local news papers kept me up to date on what was going on economy wise, I didn't pay attention to what was going on religiously in the city. Apparently there is this big movement to super sized churches and people when I say super sized I mean it. One example would be this church that's off the Southfield Freeway; this church was built or converted out of an old Super K mart. Another example is this huge church that's off of I-94 that was constructed while I was gone too, and let's not forget the church that the Winans are building off of Woodward right by the State Fair grounds, that thing is mounumentus in size. This surprises me in a way that churches like these can afford to do all this type of building and construction in this type of economy, but then I am reminded that the main things that continue to bring in money is TV entertainment and religion. People want to get away from their troubles so they drown them out by entertaining themselves or they turn to God in which they believe that a nice donation and doing all they can finically for "His" place of worship. People in that position want to be comforted by the position that God will make sure that His people are taken care of. It's not that I don't believe that God has his people, it's just interesting to see what kind of people will show up when you have financial crises all around you and people are losing their houses.

All in all it surprises me, coming back to my city after a year of being away and finding it better and worse all at once. The only thing I can look forward to is that the automotive industry is starting to look better. Ford posted a profitable year and GM lost a lot less money than it did last year, and they also started replaying back the government loan as well. As for Chrysler, change hasn't come to \quickly for them in their products but their management team is the best they've had since Lee Iacocca was in charge back in the 80's. Turns out there is still some life underneath the rubble after all

So till then, I'm out:

Like Pontiac, Saab, Hummer, and Saturn.

The Older we get....

You know, there was a time, a simpler time when my generation was between the ages of 5-10 years old.  We didn’t have to worry about things like bills, gas, food, and other such things that adults had to worry about, no, we had it easy.  There was something about that time though, that I remember very distinctly, it was something that I said a lot, especially to my parents, I couldn’t’ wait to go up.  It was something that I dreamed about, not having to answer to my parent s, not having a bed time, being able to drive and having my own car, and living by myself and having my own stuff, no more sharing with my brother and sister, it would all be mine.   I remember telling these things to my grandmother when I was younger and she said that it was all well and good to think like that, as little kids will do that, but she told me to enjoy this part of life now for when its gone and you have all those responsibilities, that care free life will most likely not materialize ever again. 

Being the stupid little kid that I was, I didn’t believe her, I thought that being a grown up will come with all sorts of perks and I’ll just make so to do well in my engineering job and make a whole bunch of money working at GM and still be able to live the care free life that I enjoyed then.  Little did I realize that it would all hit me in a very hard way that old people know what they’re talking about? 

I said those things back in 1994 when I was about seven years old, just starting to realize the world and what went on in it.  Looking back on that year now, I never thought it would get to this or get so bad.  I find myself now 21 wishing I was still a kid with my only worries being what new toy I wanted, will I get the new game for the Sega Saturn.  And as far as school was, the only worry I had there was the basic math homework I had to finish and wondering what me and my friends would do for recess the next day or which one of my toys I should bring with me.  

But now in 2009 things don’t look the same from when I was seven and now at twenty one: the company that I wanted to work for GM, has all but been run into the ground financially, I have bills to pay, my college courses are getting harder by the semester and I have social issues to deal with that I never envisioned I would have as a kid.  I think thought the one thing that trips me out the most is the fact that a lot of my friends I grew up with or had back in school are having kids now, only when I realized that people I knew, my age were either getting married or having kids (by the way, I also feel terrible about that order too) it hit me in a way that I wasn’t ready for.  It forced me to realize that I myself am not a kid anymore, by mental and governmental standers; I am an adult and must put away my childish things. 

It’s sad really, to have to make that full transition but that’s how life is, it’s forever moving and changing and you have to move with it and still try to find time to enjoy it and just be thankful for even getting to this part in your life now. 

Well till next time, I’m out: Like I’m about to hop in the DeLorean and go Back to the Future!

The Sports Review

Ladies and gentlemen welcome once again to the Review

This week I'm going to try and focus on the pistons and what they plan to accomplish this year.  For those of you who don't know, this year is the pistons 50^th anniversary of operation in Detroit, they original started out as the Fort Wayne Zollener Pistons in 1942 then moved to Detroit in 1947.  With that in mind the pistons have prepared to celebrate there anazersy with some special logos and also a hardwood classics jersey that will be presented later on in the season in November.  Bringing the total number of jerseys up to 4, the first one being the white home jersey, the blue away jersey, the red alternative jersey, and the new hardwood classics. 

In other news deals with our roster situation.  As it stands right now, we have over 17 people on the roster that must be trimmed down to 15 by the official start of the season.  Chris Webber is the easy one out right now due to the fact that he only had one veterans minimum contract and the salary cap space issue with Nazr Mohammad.  Chris has stated that he doesn't mind waiting around until the issue with space is settled.  Joe D has talked to him and gave him a guarantee that if he is able to fix the space problem soon he will bring in Webber by the middle of the season. In the meantime Nazr has also stated that he will come back into training camp stronger and ready to get his starting job back, seeing as how he is the only true center on the team.  That remains to be seen though as we do have a rookie prospect in Check Sambie, who is 7'2 but looks to get playing time in the DL. 

Speaking of playing time, this year looks to be a good year for 3rd year forwards Jason Maxiell and Amir Johnson.  Joe D has instructed Flip to start integrating the younger blood into the rotation to "insure that the veterans know that there job isn't safe anymore with them around".  Maxiell looks the most ready to start the season, he came back about 25 pounds lighter than before and has been working on his mid-range, lay-up, and free-throw shots.  Amir Johnson came back to camp taller than last time.  When we drafted him 3 years ago he was 6'9, right now he stands at 6'11 1/2.  He has also worked on his game, developing a 3 point shot which could make him as dangerous as Rasheed is.  Also look for the rookies to contribute as well.  Our 15th pick Rodney Stuckey is poised to become the main backup to Billups, with his skill modeled after Dwayne Wade, he can cut thorough defense and drive it in, while our other rookie, Arron Afflo will remind fans of a younger and taller Lindsey Hunter.  His shot isn't' that good but his defense is pretty damn good.  The pistons have him being the second option off the bench for garbage minuets and coming off behind Flip Murry for Rip. 

Last but not least is the condition of the coaching staff.  Joe D went kind of crazy on the asstants and fired all but one and hired new people.  This was done to take Flip out of his comfort spot and give him something to work for.  As you know since he took the helm, the pistons have been excellent during the regular season but suck ass during the playoffs.  The farthest that we have gotten as been to the eastern conference finals.  It's starting to look like the same problem that he had during his tenure in Minnesota.  Joe doesn't want that and the only reason that he wasn't fired was due to his business like conduct and his not pissing off the owner, Mr. Davidson.

But he has been warned, Detroit has high standards for winning and he is the first coach in ten years to last to third season, the last coach to do that was Doug Collins in 97, and he only lasted till the middle of the season.

So here's to Flip not doing a Doug Collins.

Well that's it for now,

I'm out, like Coach Collins in '97.

Life's Progress (part 3)

During the next few weeks I avoided her calls, I couldn't' take what she had to tell me, and yes I know that wasn't the manliest move I could have made but I'll get back to that in a second.  The rest of the time I didn't talk to her was due to my phone nearly being crushed by a falling garage door that made looking at the screen impossible.  For the rest of that summer we didn't talk. The only form of communication that I made with her was an e-mail addressing what had happened with my phone and nothing else.  All the while during this period of silence between us my personal back ground was made a living hell, but that's another story for another time.

            Now here we are, another year of school has started and with it, another chance to try and work that which has been built up and torn down over and over again.   With school back in session things where starting to look better, we where back into talking to one another and I was trying desperately to enact all that I had learned from therapy. (talk about that later) Like I said everything was going well until I offered her help with her calculus.  She said she would let me only if I seriously wanted to, and of course I did.  So we set up some dates and I didn't' think more of it.  We where suppose to meet some time on Saturday night, in my opinion but I think we had a mis-understating and she called me on Friday afternoon.  Now keep in mind that I like to get my sleep in during the afternoons and I just wasn't' awake to answer the phone.  Later on that night I found out about what happened and how pissed off she was at me, which brings us to the present. 

Commin soon, Part 4.  ( I think I might be runnin out of stuff to say at the end )

I'm Out, like the Detroit Tigers are out of the MLB Playoffs

Life's Progress (part 2)

Well I hope you enjoyed part one, without delay here's part 2

Christmas break didn't do much to help us out as far as a relationship goes. There is an old saying "Out of sight, out of mind", that saying couldn't be any more true with me.  I rarely got to see her from the jump seeing as how we go to different schools and I don't have a car (I'll get back to that point in a minuet), and now having to go back to our respective homes just made it worse.  Prompting this downward spiral was a little incident that happened when I got back to Huntsville a week or so before she did.  I was supposed to be helping her with some money that I had promised to give her, and wouldn't you know it, I couldn't come through with it.  Looking back on that and what it turned into, with the running around and pay-day advances here and there I look at that and see that it was clearly my fault that that situation escalated the way it did.  After that, she started looking at me as some kind of unfortunate asset that she had unwillingly taken on and would cause her grief. 

            During the last part of my sophomore year, things between us settled then rose and settled then rose.  It was a back and forth see-saw motion.  One that both I and her were getting sick of.  When school finally let out, most of the stress was lifted away and it was a mutual feeling between the both of us that we would work on our relationship during the summer.  Unfortunately the fates had other things in mind.  I started working at General Motors under the instruction of Mrs. Reeves and she started back at work at Cracker Barrel and picked up a second job (as did I) late at nights.  The phone calls became few and far between, I kept promising her that I would try and make it down there so I could at least spend a week or a weekend of the summer down at her house, but nothing ever came of this.  She started getting upset with me over issues such as me "never wanting to help her with some of the bills she had" and "never caring about her".  It all came full force some time in the middle of July when I mentioned to her that I was considering buying a watch, bracelet, and chain set that was going for a good price from jeweler in Livonia.  The reason I was telling her about it was due to her constantly telling me that I need to dress better, and I thought that it would help out with my image (plus I always kind of wanted a chain to match my watch.)  Anyway, she got really upset about this and it was like all hell broke loose. 

Look for part 3 tomorrow.

Until then,

I'm out, like my patience.