A Tale of Windows and Speedometers

Have I ever formally introduced you to my car? No?! I apologize. Gender and name are still yet to be determined, but hey, don’t most parents have 9 months to decide on the name? Last Friday (the infamous 13th) marked my car’s 5-month anniversary with me. No, we didn’t go out for celebratory ice cream then, but we did have a little fun on Saturday! That story to follow…

First, a grand introduction! My sunshine/bumblebee car is a speedy lil 5-speed 1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse with a custom paint job, cold air intake system (that’s what he said!), a trunk that only stays open when it wants to, and a rather loud exhaust system. Tis grand indeed!

Tada!

I recently had to take my car in for a mechanic to “check clunk in rear.” Said clunk had begun clunking rather suddenly, which caused me due concern. Turned out to be a broken rear strut mount….whatever that is. It is now fixed, that’s what it is.

I also had the brilliant idea to have him check on my passenger-side window. It was spastic. Obstinate. Moody. Sometimes it would go down, sometimes it wouldn’t, and of course it was all the absolutely gorgeous days when that window would decide to stay up!

I was undeniably frustrated since the guy I bought the car from had specifically told me that he had fixed the passenger-side window. “Very fixed, hmph. Won’t even go down!” thought I.

“Window lock was on…” said the invoice from the mechanic who was kind enough not to charge me for “fixing” the window. Hey now, in my defense, all the other cars I’ve driven have window cranks, which can only be locked by maiming, paralyzing, handcuffing, dismembering, or otherwise impairing the hands that would crank the window. How was I to know my new car had a window lock?!

On to Saturday’s fun! I’ll give you a hint: it goes “WEEEEooo WEEEEEooooo!”

Time: an hour(ish) before my 3-11pm shift ended at the hotel.

Setting: torrential downpour.

(time lapse)

Time: 11:10pm(ish)

Setting: slow black sports car in right lane, followed by equally slow black Charger, being passed by a yellow and black car, in still-rainy conditions.

Introduction of characters:

–Unidentified Driving Individual – slowpoke in black sports car, undoubtedly updating his facebook status to reflect the following sentiment: “Just got passed by some woman in a yellow car, then passed her sitting on the side of the road…must’ve been one expensive ticket, the way she was flying!” (likely minus the correct spelling and grammar)

–Officer M – follower of said black sports car, driver of aforementioned black Charger

–Amanda – driver of speedy yellow and black car, recipient of the following warning: “Don’t drive so fast when the roads are wet.”

Conclusion: No ticket. Reduction of speed (for now). Knowledge of what a vehicle registration card looks like.

lovely driving

Who needs a destination when the adventure is driving?! I have a new (to me) car. Tis a lovely yellow and black Mitsubishi Eclipse.

It’s bright. It’s noisy. It’s speedy.

I know that driving is not a race, and there are no prizes for the winner. But I just like to prove to the guys in the jacked-up jeep that my yellow car and I are better. Because we are.

I like to drive on curvy back roads just when autumn is beginning to put Penn’s woods into a trance of yellow and orange.

I like to drive down the left-most lane of the highway with the windows all the way down, the music all the way up, sunglasses on, and flip flops off.

I like to drive in the snow and feel my tires slip just enough to freak me out, but not so much that my life is jeopardized.

I even like to sit in traffic because I’m sitting in MY car, a delightfully yellow car that I absolutely love….even when it gets stuck in snow.

 

Light Reflectors

How many times have I driven past those two-inch-wide reflective markers on the curves of Route 100 and hardly noticed them?

Tonight I drove home in the snow. It was about 2 inches at the hotel when I left, and at home, the accumulation was already 4 inches. During one section of my drive home, there were no street lights. The windshield wiper blade was not getting all the snow off my window. And I could barely see more than 10-15 feet in front of my car. I tried to just follow the tire tracks in the unplowed road, but it was difficult to differentiate between the tire tracks that were ON the road and the tire tracks from the cars before me that had veered OFF the road.

What kept me on the road? The reflective markers. I could usually see one at a time. And as I would pass the one I could see, another one would blink its reflectiveness at me. From such reflective blinks, I found my way home.

It also helped that I was going about 20mph. (I only slid around once on a totally unplowed section of road that was an inclined curve. I’m blaming the road for that slip and letting my car off the hook.)

But I thought about those light reflectors.

They needed the light source of my headlights. But even my headlights could not reach very far.

This isn’t going to be a perfect analogy, but listen anyway! We are all like I was, driving with poor visibility and only reflective markers to guide me home. In life, our poor visibility is caused by our shortcomings, our lack of faith, or maybe just a trial that God has allowed in our lives. The headlights are like the light of God’s Word. It illumines our pathway, but not the whole path. Just the part that we must tread upon soonest. The reflective markers are the promises that God gives to us. But we won’t see those promises unless we “turn on” the light of God’s Word in our lives. Make sense?

whilom days

So much has changed this past week. Sincere insanity has descended, transpired, and ascended from my post in this household in just over a week’s time.

Slightly over a week ago was Sunday, December 12th. I awoke on a somewhat rainy morning and schlepped over to church. I had no car. I had taken no finals, nor studied for any. I had a rather dear friend whom I thought I’d have forever. I hadn’t even met a certain person who I am now friends with. Most of my Christmas gifts were in the mail or still unordered. I felt as though my life was, for lack of a better word, depressing. I wasn’t depressed, goodness no!! But I felt like I was spinning my wheels, being dragged downward, and just plain schlepping through life (betcha couldn’t tell I like that word!).

A whirlwind touched down on that very Sunday afternoon.

I went to look at a car that I ended up buying the next day. It is a wonderful, yellow car that will be getting its very own post someday. In Sunday School, I sat by a somewhat new girl and really hit it off with her. Who knew there was another Christian girl my age with such a passion for sewing AND coffee?! Over the course of a few days, aforementioned “rather dear friend” and I hashed out some issues, and I felt the need to sever the ties between us that were apparently based on lies. But there is peace in making a wise decision, despite the pain in the severance. By Friday, every last final was completed, including a drawing that I hope to frame sometime. I just need to do some more touch-ups to make it perfect. Furthermore, these were my finalest finals. I graduated yesterday, Sunday the 19th, with my Associate’s Degree in Fashion Design, which is super exciting! As of today, I’m only waiting for one last gift to arrive in the mail, and all that have arrived are wrapped and under the tree.

Today I feel and AM so different than a week ago. I’m still somewhat in shock of everything that has happened. Do I long for those whilom days of yesterweek? No. Because I am certain that all these changes are for the better, and I can only thank and praise God for those workings in my life. His thoughts are truly far above my thoughts, and His ways are most definitely far, far superior to my ways.

dehoped

One beautiful thing about the English language is the use of prefixes. And for that matter, suffixes as well.

Prefixes change the way the word begins. They set the tone for the rest of the word and can revolutionize the entire sentence. It is one thing for a person to be presented to an assembly of people. It is quite another to be represented to that same group of people. And yet what does “re” mean? It could mean “again” and it could also mean “in the place of.” (Another beauty of English: multiple meanings for one word/prefix/suffix/etc.)

To hope for something is an exhilarating thing. If I hope for a cherry tootsie pop and reach into the candy jar and pull out a box of raisins, I have been dehoped. (Here we see two beauties: a prefix and a made-up word that can be understood because of the simplicity of prefixes and root words.)

This past week, naaah, it’s been about a month, I’ve been constantly dehoped. I hoped for a car. I set a budget. I set my sights high and have since lowered them considerably. Still no car. Every time I get my hopes up, text/call/email a car seller, test drive a vehicle… I end up in the pit of dehopement (ah, the combined beauty of prefixes and suffixes).

I’m so over this car search saga. May it end before my minuscule amount of patience evaporates.