The Ped Gets a Car

I've never owned a car until very recently.

In the winter, Beloved and I moved to a new neighborhood. In my old neighborhood, I could get anywhere with about a 20-minute walk. In my new neighborhood, that turned into a 40-minute walk. At first, I didn't think that would be a big problem. More walking! More slowing down this crazy life! But over time, it did pose challenges--and often, the challenges seemed insurmountable. Beloved could give me rides, sure, but my self-determination and independence were rather sorely challenged. (I was a Zipcar member as well, but the closest car was over two miles away--too far to be of any real use.)

When my folks came to visit in the Spring, they got into a fender-bender about a mile from our house (not their fault--but that confounding Chevy Chase Circle!). In my old neighborhood, I could have jumped into a taxi and gotten to them lickety-split. In my new neighborhood, there are no taxis unless you call them, so I called Beloved and asked him to leave work to meet me at the scene, and I pulled on my running clothes to run there. Not an ideal situation.

So, when Beloved's sister started talking about buying a new car, Beloved and I discussed buying her old one--a 1995 Celica convertible (soft top). It would be a good city car. It was a huge, happy shock when Beloved's sister and husband GIFTED the car to us when they purchased a new one (though we have since given them some gifts in exchange). So now I have a car!

It's white, it's old, but it's mine, it's all mine! It still hasn't sunk in that I have a car. I don't use it to commute (I still either do the walk-bus-metro thing or drive in with Beloved), but the car has really come in handy. Like when I wanted to go to a friend's wedding shower in a nearby town, and I couldn't have gotten there on public transportation. When I picked up my family at the airport recently. And when Beloved was driving me mad and it was too hot to walk outside so I drove myself to the nearest shopping center to cool off (in every way).

It will be interesting to see if I like car ownership overall, but so far, I love it!