After a Margaret Cho show a few months back, Mok couldn’t find her car keys. She ran down to check the ladies room, then back up to check around her seat, but no luck. This left only the car itself –
The key was not only in the car, but in the ignition — with the engine running.
We (Mok, Jen, me) flagged down an uncommonly motivated parking attendant, who, after about 20 minutes of sweaty struggle with this thin metal thing (what’s it called?), got it open for us. Overcome by gratitude, Mok stuffed a wad of cash in the attendant’s hands. So much money, in fact, that the guy came back and tried to give back some of it, unsuccessfully.
Less than a week later, Jen and I came out of a bar to discover that I’d left the headlights on. Here too, we had a guy come to our rescue, except he and his buddies were more than a little drunk — When his jumpstart effort didn’t take, he pronounced it unfixable, offered us chronic, then skidded off in his friend’s sports car.
So I called Better World. I switched to them from AAA a few years back — They offer pretty much the same deal, except Better World doesn’t spend tons of money lobbying against enviro-friendly policies and donates that money toward cleaning up the world instead.
Membership: $53.95/year, but with it you also get 4 mail-in coupons for $10 of free gas per year, bringing your cost down to $13.95/year, if you remember to mail the coupons in.
And the Better World guy got my car started just fine.
Happy birthday, Mok –



You’re cooler than Margaret Cho, and Margaret Cho is pretty cool — therefore, you are uber cool.
Love,
Joseph Massey
Comment by Anonymous — August 17, 2005 @ 11:17 pm
What would my ego do without you Joseph?
Comment by Siel — August 20, 2005 @ 11:49 pm
How come I am always the one caught with you and Mok when something goes wrong with the car? Am I the victim or the bad luck charm?
Comment by Jen — August 22, 2005 @ 3:07 pm
You’re the non-DD :)
Comment by Siel — August 23, 2005 @ 1:05 am
oh crap! i just got my AAA membership a few weeks ago. :/ i’ll switch next year. thanks for the info.
Comment by susan — March 22, 2007 @ 10:50 am
wow…i can’t believe you posted this three years ago and i’ve never heard about it! living (and more importantly driving) in L.A. is wrought with car-related problems. it’s wonderful to know that there is a AAA alternative!
Comment by andrea — August 28, 2008 @ 12:47 pm