Do you ever wonder?
A friend asked me that a while back, and to answer that question, "Of course, I wonder."
I wonder about a lot of things. One thing in particular struck me as interesting.
My car just recently turned over to 90,000 miles. Mind you, I've had Lena, that's her name, for 2.5 years and when I purchased her from my parents, she'd already seen 60,000 miles of pavement, blocks of offices, shopping centers, factories, and amusement venues. She'd already seen Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minnesota, Michigan, and all the cities in between.
Originally, she was a practical purchase. Being a compact car and a GM product, the price was right and the gas mileage was primo. A great car for business travel. Though not exceedingly roomy she's comfortable and seemed to fit the bill of what my dad was looking for. That sweet satisfaction that comes when a family gets a new car lasted a short time as my dad's 2 hours trips turned into 8 hour trips, multiple times in any given week. A car that size does not exactly invite you to a luxury cruise.
Sooner, rather than later, my parents began talking about trading the Cavalier in for a more comfortable car suitable for a family of four and a business traveler. Being 18 and almost ready to head off to college my ears perked up.
It took two more years for my parents to make the final call that they were going to sell the car. Great timing! It was the summer after my sophomore year of college when I went to my parents and expressed my need for a personal mode of transportation suitable in all weather. I'd had a couple babysitting jobs and tutoring positions off Cornerstone's campus and had been blessed to borrow random cars from some dear friends. In the coming semesters I would have two internships and perhaps more babysitting opportunities. It would no longer suit to frantically text my friends at seven in the morning begging to use their vehicle to get to school.
After many a discussion, and 222 hours of work, I purchased the 2001 Red Cavalier from my mom and dad. Soon after she became mine, and I discovered her personality, squeaky, I named her Lena. Lena Lamont is a character in Singing In The Rain who plays the leading lady in one of the first "talking pictures" titled The Dueling Cavaliers. Lamont was known around her studio to have a high pitched voice that left all ears ringing. Thus, the squeaky hub caps, the model Cavalier, the spunky color red, my car's name just had to be Lena.
Lena and I have now crossed more than 30,000 miles of earth together. Sometimes with other pleasant company. The tall ones are my favorite….to see them scrunch their knees into their chest as they relinquish their right to breath due to the close quarters, is quite a sight. She's heard many conversations, often one sided when my cell phone is attached to my ear. Boy oh boy, if CARS could talk…I can not begin to imagine what she might say, nor the voice in which she'd say it. Perhaps, she heard, and seen, and smelled, many of my more vulnerable moments. Days when I'm sick of people, sick of working hard, sick of being an emotional hormonal female, or just plain sick…she gets the brunt of it. Days when I think I'm the best driver in the world and everyone else is a moron…she hears the many "nicknames" I've chosen for perfect strangers.
She heard me the night I got in my first fight with my boyfriend. She soaked up many of my tears when my best friend and I were on the outs. She took beatings when I hit curb after curb because I was 1) not a seasoned driver 2) when I was parking the day after I got my license and dad told me to break as I pulled into an empty space at Culvers…Unfortunately, my foot had a mind of its own and pressed hard on the gas instead, sending my dad, Lena, and I over a curb. We sat and cried and laughed while we straddled the curb, one wheel in the parking space, one wheel on the sidewalk. 3) When I didn't check my blind spot as I started to merge from 131 to 96 and smacked into a poor old lady.
Lena has taken me back and forth to Green Bay countless times with friends, with family, with acquaintances. She's seen the big city full of sky scrapers, and backwoods country towns with cornfields and rolling hills for miles.
Lena took me to Sheboygan for visits and the wedding of a dear friend. To Milwaukee to go shopping and to the Cheesecake Factory (yum-o). To Flushing, MI to visit my grandpa's grave for the first time, to visit my Grandma Scully, and my mom, dad and brother. To Lansing for a Death Cab for Cutie Concert with Melissa. To IWU many times for excursions with my family, Melissa and Liz included. To Michigan City to catch the train into Chicago. To my favorite stop, the Lake Forest Oasis, between Chicago and Milwaukee. To Muskegon to see my brother sing with Chorale. To Holand for a very pink wedding. Back and forth to Lowell, packed with 4-5 people. It seems, that Lena's been far and near, to familiar that the obscure.
Ceratinly there are trips not mentioned, perhaps forgotten by my faded memory, perhaps left out due to their personal nature.
Oh the Places You Will Go....30,000 miles, 10 oil changes, 2 sets of tires, 6 sets of wiper blades, and 85+ tanks of gas.
I found this quote yesterday in Criss Cross by Lynnae Rae Perkins. It's an adolescent novel about finding joy in the ordinary. I highly recommend it.
" I think that it's a good thing to get out of your usual, you know, surroundings. Becasue you find things out about yourself that you didn't know, or your forgot. And then you go back to your regular life and you're changed, you're a little bit different becasue you take those new things with you. Like a Hindu, except all in one life; you sort of get reincarnated depending on what happened and what you figure out. And any one place can make your go forward, or backward, or neither, but gradually you find all your pieces, and they stay with you, so that you're your whole self no matter where you go."
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