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| "You seem unsettled." ~Darth Vader |
Oh, what a day this has been - and up until very recently, it was simply average! Let's start with the most important stuff: my mental health has gone from running on fumes, to rocking and ruling! In the span of exactly three hours since leaving work for the day, not only did I get my car back, but I also received conclusive word on who's going to cover the cost of replacing the engine, inspecting the vehicle, and keeping it sitting at Express Oil for almost a full month. And, spoiler alert: it ain't me!!
So to summarize from my last post, on September 11th of this year, my car broke down on the road after I got a faulty oil change from my local Valvoline. This event forced me to come out as trans to my mother, which resulted in a number of traumatic events including (but not limited to) the degradation and humiliation of being constantly misgendered in front of strangers, facing the stress and anxiety of how on earth I was going to pay for the repairs whilst being desperately poor all year, and so on. My mental health had been lower for the past month than it's been since my last relationship, reaching dangerous levels in fact, and it was all thanks to Valvoline. Even when we confronted them about what had happened, the manager did everything he could to worm his way out of any accountability, even going so far as to lie about the state of my engine and attempted to full-on gaslight me into thinking that the problem wasn't their fault.
But, today I have been exonerated with the best possible outcome of this whole situation! Turns out that, as my youngest sibling Kitt informed me, Valvoline sent a guy over to Express Oil with a check to completely cover the cost of this whole miserable misadventure. Apparently the fine folks at E.O. found conclusive evidence that it was my oil change from Valvoline which killed the old engine, prompting the company heads to pay for it so that we wouldn't sue. But it gets even sweeter; as for that manager who lied to me and did everything he could to coerce Mom and I into letting him off the hook for this whole situation - the man responsible for my oil change that day, which led to all that undue stress and trauma that's been plaguing me since September... his ass got fired!
This is a triple-whammy of joy and relief that I genuinely did not see coming. Mom and I had been talking about the financial aspect of the situation for some time, deciding that she and Dad would probably have had to cover the repairs themselves, and that I'd be repaying them with $200 a month afterwards. And having spent the entirety of this year as a dirt-broke trans girl, the idea of accumulating even more debt than what I've already got was so stressful! All over something I didn't even do! It's been a struggle just to get out of bed each morning since that day, but by Goddess I've made it, and I feel amazing! I'm so happy! I might actually feel refreshed tomorrow morning! Look forward to more posts from yours truly in the days to come, including one or two regarding a Halloween party I'll be hosting. Till then though, thanks for reading and I wish you all the best!
~R.B.
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