Test Drive

Yessss….at 2 pm tomorrow, I’ll get into the driver’s seat of a 2006 Mazda MX-5 Miata, and begin the process of looking for a suitable convertible. Honestly, that process might be done within the week.

Possible reasons that this specific car would not be suitable:

1. Rear-wheel drive. I want a car with front-wheel drive, since I’ll be moving to Madison (oh, yeah, I’m moving to Madison in July or August, by the way…) and I’ve heard it snows there sometimes. Rear-wheel drive is common in roadsters, but it’s impossible to drive in snow without front-wheel drive…especially in something so cute and little. This is my biggest worry.

2. Color: White. I’m test driving a 2006 used car, so I’m not sure what color it is. For some reason, I have an aversion to white convertibles. I know, I know, it’s the stupidest reason in the world not to buy something, but it’s my very first car, and I want to love everything about it. I’m just not sure if I can do that if it’s white. (Do I sound a little racist? Eee!).

3. Problems: Spontaneous Combustion. I can’t think of anything else that would possibly happen that could make me NOT love this car. I guess if it spontaneously combusted, I’d be pretty against buying it (although the price might go down significantly!). I just hope that it doesn’t decide to spontaneously combust during my test drive. That would suck.

One of my favorite poems

It’s nice to know that my family always accepts whatever I choose to do totally and completely, and I’m one of those lucky kids who’s reminded of it over and over. My mom sent me a card and this poem on my 21st birthday, and I fell in love with it.

Wild Geese
by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting —
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.