Had A Stressful Day

I woke up this morning and did something I never do. I smoked a bowl first thing. I usually only smoke at night after everything is done for the day. I had nothing to do this morning so I lit up a bowl of Dorchester. It was pleasant but didn't knock my socks off. Here's where it gets stressful. I've been having car troubles, cracked radiator which led to blown head gasket. I had the radiator replaced and then they discovered the head gasket was bad. My car has been sitting at the shop, unrepaired, for a few days because I was too busy, until this morning, to go retrieve it. They wanted $2k to replace the head gasket and I just don't have the money for that. I picked it up and swung by my friend's house who's a mechanic. I talked over what my options were with him. I asked him if he thought it was something I could do myself, as I have a small amount of automotive repair experience. He told me, for my car, it's out of my league and in order to do the repair correctly and in full it would still cost me close to $1k. I don't have the money for that either and I don't have the ability to put 10-12 hours into a repair. He offered to buy it from me for $500. He wants a car to do autocross. At this point, it isn't worth too much more. I told him I'd have to think about his offer. So now my car with a blown head gasket is now sitting in my garage. I've been fretting all day what I'm going to do until I can get a car that runs. For the last week, I've been having family give me lifts to work. I don't want to ask them to do it too much more.

I have a test tomorrow that I procrastinated studying so I had to cram it in today. The one thing that was able to bring me joy was the thought smoking my pipe. I loaded up a bowl of Mac Baren Vanilla Flake and smoked it while studying. One of the better vanilla aromatics I've tried. This is where the Coup de grâce comes in. I load up a second bowl of Boswell's Northwood and all I can taste is vanilla. I couldn't get a taste of the latakia at all. All I could taste was the black cavendish. After 15 minutes I dumped the bowl in frustration. I then packed a third bowl. This time of Boswell's Berry Cobler. Again I was getting only hints of vanilla and no berry at all. Dumped that bowl after 15 minutes as well. I then went for one final bowl thinking I just needed to smoke a blend without cavendish to get over this vanilla problem. I prepare a pipe of Hal O The Wynd. I lit it up I could taste almost nothing. The vanilla flake skunked my tastebuds. I've never had a more fatigued palate. Even though my day was already downhill this really put a damper on my night. I took a break from studying to clear my mind. I'm trying my best to not let the frustration get the best of me. I needed to vent a little. Thanks for reading. I hope y'all have had better smokes tonight than I did.