I recently decided that I had to buy a car. I couldn't do it any longer without one. Now, I really love the idea of going car-less. If I lived somewhere where it was possible, I would walk or bike or take public transportation everywhere. I've been trying this in Syracuse for about a year now, and let me tell you something. It doesn't work. Or, maybe it would, but my options would be really limited. Also, my poor boyfriend has been driving me everywhere, so it's not like I'm that much more environmentally friendly - someone is still using gas to transport me, even if I'm not the driver.
I told my parents this, and, miracle of miracles, they told me they had been planning on giving me my grandmother's old car. I am now the owner of a 1991 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera, who is now named Harriet Jones. She's a grand old car, except that the right speaker crackles and pops like a bowel of radioactive Rice Krispies and my grandfather, for some reason, cut the wires to the cigarette lighter, making it a heck of a lot harder to charge the GPS.
Either way, I suddenly feel gloriously independent. I can go to the nice grocery store without help. I can drive to my boyfriend's house when I want to, so my schedule no longer revolves around him. I can drive to visit friends who live further away. Life is great. Part of me mourns for the environment and wishes I weren't adding another car's worth of pollution, but most of me is just relieved to have one less thing in my life to worry about and plan around. Viva Harriet!
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