Driving and Me

I got my driver's license when I was 16. Unfortunately, I was hit with the new (at the time) law that made me unable to drive with anyone under the age of 18 (or was it 25?) in the car for the first sixth months, so essentially I drove by myself a lot. BOR-ING. But soon the six months were up. And I could drive my best friend around. Although there was another law that said I couldn't drive after midnight for a whole year after receiving my license. The only time that became an issue was during times when my best friend would be hanging out at my house and we would play Scrabble until late in the evening. Then sometimes my mom would just write a note. My friend only lived a matter of blocks away anyway.

My first long drive was probably to this magical place called Pinecrest ... I'll have to do a whole other blog post on that, perhaps tomorrow. It was about four hours away. When I went to college, my parents drove my car down from the Bay Area to So Cal, and I flew in from visiting relatives elsewhere. But driving back up at the end of the school year ...

I left before noon, hoping to arrive before dark. That did not happen. My car was a 1985 Volvo, and the year was 2001. The radiator wasn't so great, so I wound up having to stop a lot to put more water in, let the car cool down, that sort of thing. I think I got home around midnight. Tough times.

On my way down at the end of the summer, I drove my car with a friend of mine who was coming down to visit his girlfriend, and my mom followed, as we were moving out of the house we were living in, and I was taking a lot of stuff to school with me, mostly to store, in storage units or with my parents friends. We saw a car turned over in a ditch on our way down. We were so surprised we didn't stop, but did call the police - although the line cut out.

That Volvo never returned to the Bay Area. I sold her, Katherine, on Craigslist in 2006 and bought a 1995 Vovlo I named Sandy, after a trip to the beach with my mom shortly after I bought her.

Anywho, while I love my car and the independence it gives me, driving it these days makes me somewhat guilty due to my consumption of foreign oil, and angry, because drivers out there are unbelievably inconsiderate and distracted. So I do my best to take public transportation, and bike, and walk. Altogether more pleasant, if less convenient.