Indifference is Bliss

I paid off an automobile on Friday.

I "bought" a 2006 Nissan Frontier Crew Cab 4X4 Nismo in June of 2006.
The synonym for 'purchased' is in double quotes because few people actually buy a car. Cars are financed, yielding people in debt, like I was.
I am no longer in debt. I used money saved while working my ass off at UCSD as well as the bonus I got from joining Actel as an American. No, the company is not ethnocentric. They just happen to hire most of their interns from Canada...University of Toronto to be specific, which I understand rivals the best universities in the U.S. when it comes to engineering...so I guess they don't "happen" to do it, they hire these kids for a reason, a good reason, as I can confirm after working with some of these Canucks for 3 years. They are sharp.
But back to the point...I don't necessitate extra expenses for a work visa as I am a Californian douche by birth.
So while the "facilitating your trip back to Canada" meetings I was called to as an intern at Actel were designated nap times and work diversions for me, I still gladly accepted the cash handouts Actel gave to interns for relocation fees, holiday travel, and being a SUPREMELY INFERIOR Canadian in general.
This essentially boils down to an analogy for the continuous VIZIO HDTV upgrades my Romanian friend enjoyed from Costco until they got wise and changed their policy.
But, like Tiberiu says, "It's their policy, you can't feel guilty. I have a much bigger TV now."
So, after all this diction, the point is that I had extra cash from a "signing bonus" and from my own transfer-to-savings monthly discipline.
I used it for a down payment on the redneck-mobile mentioned above. Yes, I concur, it's akin to the compensation Marty McFly had as a present-dream car when he returned to the future after going to the past and back.
But...I can snatch my 'rents' boat to wakeboard in Don Pedro, climb any mountain you want to go to for snowboarding, bring home the Christmas tree, and move your fucking couch, though that won't happen unless you buy me a burrito.
So, in short, the new University of Toronto intern can ask me why I chose to buy a pickup truck during my "short stay in Cali", not knowing that I fucking live in this state, but when I take the five of us to Arikato for sushi in fall and the same five plus boards and skis up the icy mountain in December without chains, they can shut up and sleep to the music playing through my Nissan iPod interface in comfort.

Listening to
Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Led Zeppelin - BBC Sessions
Tricky - Knowle West Boy
Air - Talkie Walkie
Portishead - Third...only with chocolate syrup

Watching
The Rock - Blu Ray, bitch
My salt water creatures
The Office
Futurama

Drinking
Sutter Home - yeah, cheap wine, but it's like juice...delicious
Jim Beam & Diet Pepsi - because "Jack 'n Coke" is so cliché
Water - 2 parts hydrogen, 1 part oxygen