We sold my car today. And when I say "we", I mean my mom, as I sat inside her office basically crying, while my sister tried to distract me. I had anxiety just thinking of being in my mom's place, selling my baby AND having to barter with the man who eventually bought it. I enjoy bartering when I'm the one buying, but being the seller of a beloved possession? Nope.
One day, Mom, I swear I'll stand in your place and be a strong barter-er/seller for Weslie, and do so in your honor. But for today, I'm thankful my mom took on the grown-up duties. There aren't too many of those days left for me, so I savored this one.
It was the end of an era as I watched my little Lexie drive away. More precisely, today was the end of a decade. Ten years. TEN. YEARS. She was my first and only car up until this point. There's nothing quite like your first, is there?
My parents surprised me with her a few weeks before my 16th birthday. Our doorbell rang and to tell you the truth, I thought it might be a boy I had a crush on at the time. When I walked down our hall, I was a little disappointed not to see him standing in the doorway and instead saw no one there. As I reached the door, there was Lexie, parked on our front lawn with a big pink bow on top of her hood. She was so much better than that boy could have ever been! That car saw me through so many boys since then. And then, she was the one who drove newly wedded Cory and I back up to Utah with all our wedding gifts in the U-haul attached to her. She was even the car we drove Weslie home from the hospital in. I didn't realize how much that car had become such a HUGE part of me, until I had to let her go and started reminiscing of all my memories with her in it.
So many music-blasting, windows-down drives on PCH. So many pranks. So many talks, laughter, and tears. So many Taylor Swift songs. So many times sitting at my thinking spot, looking out on the Dunes. So many drives from Utah and back (Mom, Dad: remember that one time I didn't tell you I was driving home from Utah and surprised you at 10PM!). So many trips to Fashion Island, South Coast Plaza, and then later to University Mall. So many nights racing home from a boyfriend's to make my curfew. So many times I was lost. So many dances. So many friends coming in and out of it!
I was most often the one who drove when it came to me and my friends getting around. Two friends will not let me live down the time it was pouring rain, I took a turn around a corner too fast, and we hydroplaned. T and I sat, parked across from Newport Harbor, and talked about boys in Lexie our junior year, after zero period. Natalie and I made many trips to Zinc, together, in that car. We also sat parked, listening to My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade album, when it first came out. A certain friend (the one with the small bladder, you know who you are!) peed her pants on the front seat, laughing and hiding during a certain baby powder prank. Peter and I blasted our latest songs we recorded through those speakers. In college, Lexie was our go-to gal. We took pictures before and after all the dances we went to, seat belts buckled and in her seats. I would pull up by my freshman apartment and text my roommates, talking them into shopping with me instead of going to class. Those three roommates/best friends and I took a road trip, home, to California in Lexie.
Kimberly's first driving experience was behind her wheel, in an empty Utah parking lot, way before she even had a permit. A few years before that, she, Lexie, and I got in our first accident. Aly and AJ's "Do You Believe in Magic" was playing as I rear ended a jeep and watched as my front hood bent up and steam started rolling out the engine.
She's been driven to Atlanta and then to LA, and then home again. Cory and I have gone on so many adventures in that car! The night my water broke, I sat in the passenger seat while Cory drove Lexie to Hoag. We sat and waited at literally the longest turn light to just get into the hospital parking lot. Baby Weslie cried for months every time we put her in that car...until the blessed day when Taylor Swift's 1989 album came out and it calmed her down.
