My last oil change was at Jiffy Lube.  I paid over $100 for their "signature service" and in return received "free" coupons for a bunch of crappy deals I never even used.  This time, I tried a different approach.  I got Matt's dad to do it. 

I had actually been planning on doing this for quite some time now (as in, 2000 miles ago) but just never got around to it because I'm out of town, like, every day.  So finally, yesterday, Matt went to his volunteer thing that he does every other Saturday, and I went to his house to visit his dad.

It's kind of weird going to your boyfriend's house when he is not there or coming with you over there.  Just sort of like, hey, I know he's not home, but ummm... can I get an oil change?  Luckily, his dad agreed.  He actually kind of owes me because I bought him about $50 worth of dried cranberries one time that he hasn't completely paid me back for yet. 

We went over to Auto Zone where they were having a really good deal on Valvoline oil.  $15.99 for 5 liters and a filter.  While I was there, I learned that once you use synthetic oil on your car, you can't go back to the regular kind after that.  So I went with the regular kind, to support my poor friends in the oil industry I suppose.  Ha ha. 

The oil change would have went smoothly except for one minor detail.  About a month ago, in a moment of pure genius, I accidentally kicked the hood release so now it doesn't really work anymore.  We spent a while trying to pry the hood open manually with dowels and screw drivers and things of that nature, but it wasn't really working.  Finally we ended up doing something Matt had suggested in the first place, which was to pull on the cable with pliers.  I tried to suggest this to his dad, but I didn't really understand what cable Matt had meant, and I kind of still don't.  But anyway, it worked, and it was super easy to change after that.  I could probably even do it myself after a couple times of them telling me what to do. 

During this process, I learned a couple things.  1) Plastic produce bags are an incredible invention that serve many purposes, including using them to unscrew the oil nut and filter so you don't get dirty oil all over yourself.  And 2) Jiffy Lube screwed both of these things on only finger tight, so that they could have just fallen off at any moment.  Awesome. 

All in all, it worked out well.  So I guess the moral of the story is, don't pay $100 for something that your boyfriend's dad will do for free.