Requires Supervision

We were two thirds of the way through the intersection.

Kyle said, "You're running a red light."

I had come to the red light. I stopped. I waited. There were no oncoming cars.

And then I drove forward.

I have no idea what I was thinking.

Kyle was laughing so hard. I told him if he hadn't been there to tell me I was running a red light I may have never noticed that I did it.

The Mitsubishi Abyss

I predict that 7% of you will reconsider being my friend after reading this. I just cleaned out my car, and here are the tallies of what I found:

18 pieces of mail (1 piece not mine)

15 cds

11 socks (note the uneven number)

10 used napkins or tissues

9 gum wrappers

6 receipts

4 pairs of shoes (1 pair not mine)

4 pens

3 of each of the following: straws, Starbucks cups, free literature brochures

2 of each of the following: coffee travel mugs, issues of the NY Times, sweatshirts, tissue packs, pieces of tape on the back windshield (that, um, remain from my temporary license plate from when I bought my car 2 years ago)

AND the following miscellanea: 1 pair of broken sunglasses, a drawing of me as a Muppet from Brad, a spoon, water bottle, 1 penny, book, hat, Cat in the Hat doll, a crust of bread (I am not making this up), cup, piece of paper, ice scraper, Mom's coat, McDonald's bag full of trash, A LOAF OF BREAD, an almost empty bag of Cheetos, a Coke can, an empty bagel bag, a piece of paper that says "I [heart] U" that I gave to Brad and he gave back--jerk, a hair elastic, a cough drop wrapper, a yogurt container top, a pound of coffee (Italian roast), a Dora sticker, an empty grocery sack, and my dentist goodie bag (i.e., new toothbrush, floss, paste)

For those of you who were brave enough to finish reading this, please still be my friend! Don't judge a girl by her Lancer!

Le Sigh...the mistakes I sometimes make...

Remember when I locked my keys in my car, while it was still running? Yeah, unfortunately so do I.

Thankfully, my (brand new) dear friend John, barista at the Starbucks where I parked, let me use the store phone for as long as I needed, called his brother who was a locksmith, and gave me my drink and petite vanilla bean scones (mmmmmm) for free.

I put all the cash I had in his tip jar.

Thank you, John, for all your help today. At Starbucks, we give out "MUG" Awards (for Moves of Uncommon Greatness). John, I don't have a MUG award on me, but here is a picture of a Starbucks mug that I found on a google image search--we'll call that good enough for now.*

*And Brad, you always get a MUG award from me, for being my favorite barista, and my bestie.

The Silver Bullet

This week I was at a stoplight, looked in my rear view mirror (which I do all the time, by the way, curious about the people behind me, especially cute boys), and I saw it. A Previa. Oh, dear Previa, how I love thee.

I looked at the woman driving it, by herself, probably on her way to fill up the back seats with kids getting out of school. I thought, "she might be thinking, 'this car is pretty old, I wish we could afford to buy a new SUV...'" And I thought, "if only she knew how jealous I am right now..."

I loved our Previa. It was our car for over 10 years. We put over 200,000 miles on that baby, and it still had the best pick up of any of our newer cars. When I was a kid and had a bowl cut, my family used to make fun of the fact that the car's shape matched my hair style. Many a drive in that car, long road trips to grandparents' homes, short trips to and from day care, the grocery store, church, everywhere. My senior year in high school I drove that sucker, and when the steering wheel went as far as it could go it would squeal, causing my friends to turn and say, "Nice car, Bailey." Never cared. My love was too deep. When I was a social work intern, I went on home visits with one of the case managers, and we would ride in his Previa, and I told him how happy it made me, took me back.

The day we got rid of it, I wasn't aware of the trade-in. I knew we had talked about it, it was somewhere in the near future, though I liked to ignore the "near" portion of that fact. Sure, the A/C had gone out more than a year before, the sliding side door was unusable. But did I mention the pickup?! You tapped this gas and you were flyin'! I was home for the summer, and I came home from my job, and what had been in the driveway that morning was no longer there.

"Dad, where's the Previa? Did it go on a playdate with another 1991 model?"

...Long pause....

Gasp! "No!"

I assume my parents didn't tell me so as to soften the blow. When Mr. Rogers died, my Mom didn't tell me until the end of the school day. "Dad and I were afraid it would ruin your day," she said. How well they know me, those two.

I know I do a lot of tributes on this blog, and you're probably rolling your eyes, but who doesn't have a family car that still tugs at their heart? I love you, Prev. We all miss you. We always will.

"Make Good Choices!"

So it may not have made your newspaper today, but there was a hurricane last night. I lived through it, that's how I know. I was chilling with Brad and Melissa, and when a sudden freezing wind came through we decided to pay some attention to the brewing clouds, and they promptly sent me home, with orders to call when I arrived safely.

I got in my car, saw something orange and thought, "oh yeah, I forgot my car was on empty." Guess what? I drove home anyway. I somehow sucked 26 extra miles out of my gas tank. It started raining shortly after I got on the interstate, and then it started pouring. Now I pride myself on being a very good and calm driver in the rain. But this was still no fun. My thoughts ran back and forth through the following:

"I am going to hit someone because I can't see anything."

(going up hills): "I am going to run out of gas and be unable to get up this hill"

(going down hills): "There is going to be a ton of water at the bottom of this hill and I am going to hydroplane"

"I'm going to run out of gas in general"

"I'm going to pull off the road and wait this out"

"Nevermind, I'm just going to keep driving, Brad and Melissa will worry"

"I'll stop at a grocery store and call them"

"No, I want to get home and go to bed, I work early in the morning"

"There's a gas station, maybe I should stop"
"I'll get struck by lightning if I grab the metal gas pump"

"Well, nevermind, guess I just passed the gas station"

...Etc...

After passing many a gas station and grocery store, I finally made it home, miraculously on my one tank of gas, like the never-ending oil lamp. Dibbs was hiding under the bed. I rescued his cuteness in distress, who was happy to see his mama, then immediately reverted back to nonchalance when I told him it was cuddle time. I called Braden, who then typed to Melissa, passing the message that I was safe. Thanks, guys, for worrying about me. It means the world to me. ;)