My Ride

I am 32 years old, have been driving since I was 16.5... 

(almost half my lifetime!)

In the, almost, 16 years of driving that I have under my belt I have "owned" or possessed (isn't possessions 9/10 of the law?) 4 cars (that's about 1 every 4 years)...

My first "ride" was a hand-me-down x2...it was my moms, then my sisters, then mine...(and it was used when mom got it...)

the silver '81, Mazda GLC station-wagon...the upolstry was patchy, the radio was spotty, and I had no idea what gas mileage even meant...

...

off to college I go, leaving my sweet ride in the driveway never to be driven again...

...

Met my beau...
no, really, He's my Beau (and he HATES when I call him that)...

and I start driving his gold'ish '89 Honda accord...

Then we marry and my name goes on the title...first car I owned...

Nothing too special about the Honda...no fancy rims, no banging sterro, it gets us from point A to point B...most of the time (there are a few stand alone blogs about when it didn't get us from point A to point B)...and because of that...and a pregnancy we decided with the help of some family to make our first car purchase as "adults"...

the Ford Focus..we loved her...well, maybe it was just me that loved her...

we went to the dealership, test drove some cars (I felt like a grown up)...ordered the car (they didn't have the color we wanted) and bought a BRAND NEW car, when we picked her up she had less than 6 miles on her...she was so pretty...shinny dark green....

This was OUR car, the family car...

dependable...

safe...

affordable...(thanks to grandparents)

OURS...we picked her out by ourselves...sort of...

...

she made 3 moves with us...(okay so they were just across town moves not like across the country moves, but there were still moves)
she was the car that drove us to the hospital when I was in labor with Madison...

she was the car that we brought Madison home from the hospital in...
the car that took us to the hospital the day Wilson was born...and the car that brought him home...

and in my crazy head, the car that I had imagined being Madison's 1st car, and me telling her that the car was older than she was!

...

Life happens...

grandparents move into town, down the street actually...

grandpa falls and breaks his hip and is no longer in the home with grandma but in the recovery hospital...

I now spend about 2 months (on and off) using their car...a '03 tan'ish gold'ish Buick LaSabre, to pick up grandma, load her wheel chair into the trunk along with Wilson stroller (Wilson's 5 months old), drive grandma, Wilson and Madison to the hospital, unload everyone, push grandma and Wilson thru the hospital halls to visit grandpa...and then back again, I was trying to take grandma twice a day...

Grandpa decides to give us their car...the '03 tan'ish gold'ish Buick LaSabre...because he can't use it anymore and I am using it a ton, the Buick has become my car...

I'm 32 and I've never been proud of my "ride"...

..okay, that's a lie...I was proud of the Focus...

but I never cared if my car had the fancy paint job, the best stereo system, the cool car seat covers, the neat stearing wheel thingie...and what ARE rims???  (are they the tire, the hubcaps, both, neither???)...
Yeah, it'd be nice if the car was pretty, but if it gets me from point A to point B safely, dry and warm or cool depending on the season...then I'm pretty okay...


It's been 4 years now with the Buick...we had to sell the Focus 
(a bitter sweet day for me, 
sweet=I was glad to see it no longer just sitting sadly in our driveway, bitter=my dream of it being Madison's 1st car had to die!)
4 years of  kids...diapers...potty training...sippy cups...vomiting...fast food meals...family vacations...vomiting...camping trips...animal crackers and gold fish...trips to grandmas...first day of school...dr. appointments...grocery shopping...vomiting...countless hours of music blaring...crying, yelling, laughing, hitting, bitting..."he touched me," "well, she touched me first" fights....
4 years of explaining why ME, a young'ish (28-32 yr old woman),
not very hip...
but not too by-the-book 
kinda of girl drives a car that people over 60 should be driving!
No disrespect for all my friends over 60...
but if you drive by our church parking lot on any given Sunday there are at least 5 other Buick LaSabre's just like ours and EVERY other Buick owner is at least in their 60's (some might be a tad older!)...
all this to say...
I want don't want my Buick anymore...
I want a grown up car, but not THAT grown up...I want...

wait for it...

I want my next ride to be a mini van!  YES...I want to embrace my station in life...I should be driving a mini van NOT a Buick...I should be driving some foreign made vehicle shipped to me from Korea! 
I WANT a MINI VAN...yes, that's what I want my ride to be!