TB's auto history

Boring personal-history post ahead, but I'm just so excited, I just have to share ALL the background with you. Oh, and thanks to eBay for making this post a bit more colorful!

I grew up in South Texas, middle-class family, only child, excellent school district. I wasn't a spoiled brat by any means, but I'm now aware that my parents definitely did without so I could wear my Guess and Z-Cavaricci jeans (tight-rolled of course!), Coca-Cola shirts, Liz Claibourne purses, Swatch watches, and Kaeppas to school. Of course my mom was kinda a fashion nut (not that you'd know it by the horrid clothes she allowed me to wear in the 80s!), but I think she enjoyed living vicariously through me.

However, the line of generousity was drawn at clothes and extracurricular activities. I was never one of those privileged kids who got a new car when they turned 16, or any car for that matter. I sported my mom's '84 gold Camry to school, football games, and parties. Not so stylish, but hey, it had 4 wheels and got me from here to there. Needless to say there were no sexy parties in the back seat of that car!

In 1993 I graduated and was moving 550 miles away for school. My dad's argument was that I was living in the dorms, could walk to class and the library, and what more did I need? HA! Luckily mom pulled through for me. Her mother (in her 80s at the time) lived about 20 miles away from my school, was convinced we needed each other, and that I needed a car to get out there. I can still remember the scortching hot summer day on the car lot when I fell in love with my dream car. It was an '90 Accord, 2 door, slate blue, just beautiful. I loved it and babied it.

And then ... an idiot ex-boyfriend decided it would be a good idea to race it a bit on a busy road. He lost control, drove into head-on traffic, hit a van with kids in it, spun around a few times, and ended up in a Black Eyed Pea parking lot. I'm getting angry just thinking about it. But you know what the worse part was? He never apologized to me or to my parents for wrecking my beautiful blue car. Yeah, I'm still bitter.

Well needless to say he wasn't supposed to be driving and I (and my parents!) got dropped by the insurance company. The car was totaled, but I did get a small check from State Farm, between that and school loans I was able to invest in another Accord. It was older and not as nice, and didn't have an A/C, but it still got me from here to there... for a while. That same ex lived in South Texas, and even after the wreck I drove over 1000 miles almost every other weekend to see him for a couple years. Hmm, who's the idiot now?! Okay, so I ragged out the black Honda pretty quick plus it had some catastrophic mechanic problem in 2001. I couldn't afford the repair, so just kept dodging the mechanic and eventually he took possession of it. Bye-bye black Honda.

Within a year my dad's mom had to move into a retirement home and could no longer drive. I got her very-well-cared-for, but very-grandmother-like '89 Mercury Grand Marquis. As a girl that was accustomed to driving little Accords, this thing was a dinosaur! It took a while to get used to, and I was blessed to have it, but I was pretty damn embarrassed to be driving this huge old relic to school and work. Maybe it shouldn't matter, but I just can't feel proud chatting and walking to the parking garage and having new friends see what I'm driving. I wouldn't even offer to pick friends up for dinner or drinks. It just wasn't a cool car, and in spite of my usual self-confidence, I just couldn't feel cool driving it.

So in December I was in a 7-car pileup. I don't think I had many readers back then, so here is the story and the picture. I was completely not at fault, and the driver's insurance covered all the damage to my car, plus some. I probably couldn't get more than $250-500 as a trade-in, but the other driver's company cut me a very generous check when I turned over the car to them last week. Excellent. Well, the big ol' boat turned out to be good for something, didn't it!

Okay, enough blah blah blah, here's the good news. With the insurance check and some money I'd been saving I purchased my new car last weekend. It isn't all that new, but is absolutely gorgeous. It's a black Maxima, leather interior, tinted windows, power everything, Bose CD system. I am absolutely thrilled to have a vehicle that can not only safely get us from Texas to [insert your city here], but also that I can be proud to drive. I mean, when a girl is 30 years old, the least she can ask for is for her home and vehicle to reflect that she's done something with her life, and can manage her finances, and has at least a tiny bit of style. Now I'm finally that girl.

This weekend I had the opportunity to thank my parents for NOT buying me a brand new car when I was 16. I've been blessed to always have transportation, even if it wasn't the most stylish on the block. But I keep thinking, what if I would've been given that BMW or Corvette when I was younger, without working for it, and without experiencing the alternative, what would I have ever had to look forward to?! And would I appreciate what I have now? I don't think so.