Feeling blue...

So, this past summer, I took my trusty little '97 escort (known to many as Zander) into the mechanic. The news wasn't good. The repairs tallied over 2000 dollars, while my poor Zander only managed to reach the 500-1000 dollar resale value. I considered that with the repairs, it might be worth investing to keep my little car, but as I reflected over the past several months, I realized that lately, I had often been paying medium to large repair bills to keep it running. To add to that, the interesting new noises and rattles were really starting to make me nervous on my long distance (and often quite mountainous) trips.

To add insult to injury, the escort's air conditioning died the moment our local Spring approached 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Our summers often top out at 112 degrees, and keep a general average of 108 degrees. I literally sweat this dilemma out all summer. The main hold up I had was that I just could not find a vehicle for sale that I liked better than my little stick shift. I have often referred to it as the motorcycle of cars, as it is so small, light weight, so quick and responsive. I was having a difficult time finding comfort in the larger, heavier models of cars that are currently being made. True, these vehicles are all better equipped. They are all prettier. Some of them even have better gas mileage, however each test drive felt like I was driving a new gaudy, metal, leaden fat suit. I found that the Hyundai Elantra was tolerable, but it was just okay. It is a great car. It would do, but I had no love for it, but maybe some day, I could grow to love it. In short: I was so ridiculously tired of car hunting, it wasn't funny. I was on the verge of settling for the Hyundai when on the spur of the moment, I decided to test drive one more vehicle.

Here's where I get really corny: You know in the beginning of the Bible(Genesis 2), when Adam needs a companion, so God brings each animal to him one by one, and Adam names them all, but none of them were it? And then Eve showed up, and Adam cried "At last!" (NLT "Finally!").

I am not saying that this is the same as the start of a romantic relationship, and I am in no way saying that shopping for cars is that same as finding a spouse (and I'm not implying that women are material possessions to be bartered for. Let nobody panic). I do feel that in this moment, however, I gained a partial understanding of Adam's relief, after seeing how very "just okay" every option in the world was to him, to finally be presented with "just the right" solution. From the point of pulling this car off the lot on the test drive, my driving instincts cried out, "At last!" and it was love at first drive. I left that poor Hyundai high and dry, but I'm sure it'll find someone who can love it for its bulky qualities. See, blogfriends, I warned you it was going to get corny, but you just kept on reading, didn't you?

And now you're thinking, enough of this chatter, where are the pictures?!

This blog has been delayed for a long time in waiting for me to come up with pictures of this car. I finally got the pictures, but I have to give a heads up, it's dirty and the pictures were taken on a cloudy day, so the color in the photos seems a little muted to me.

 My friend, Merida, saw the car as she pulled in to the parking lot. "It's just a color that makes you happy!"

  The official name for the color is Blue Raspberry. 

That just happens to be my favorite jolly rancher flavor.

My sister in law says it's "Blue like a tic tac!"
I enjoyed that.
















Another phrase that came to mind was swiped from a book title, "Blue Like Jazz" but in a happy sort of way.

Whatever you can say about the color. It pleases me.  It's a color that makes me smile, attached to a car that I like, attached to a loan that is deepening my credit score to open doors of possibilities in the future.

Additional things that come with my choice of car and color:

-My youngest siblings enjoy the ability to easily pick it out when it's near school, and they are hoping a kind, wonderful older sister will give them a ride home, rather than having to walk home after school.

-I don't have much of an issue finding it in a parking lot.

-People I know are having an easier time tracking my movements around town. ("I saw your car in the Target parking lot Saturday...")

-When I chose this color, I realized that if I ever wanted to sell it, I had narrowed my selection of buyers, because I thought the color was so girly that no self-respecting male would buy a car this color. I think I was wrong in that assumption. Every stranger who has complimented the color in a parking lot, every stranger I have caught lingering over it, or asked what the official name of the color is has been a male. I've never owned a new car, so it has been surprising to me how many people actually comment on it.

-The backseats are oragami! They fold up in all sorts of ways!

It rides smoothly. It's high tech, and gives the ambiance of my own personal space shuttle. I feel like I've stolen a vehicle from a Disneyland Tomorrowland ride, and I don't intend to give it back! A majority of the time, the CD playing is the Pixar's Greatest hits sound track, which includes the music from the credits of The Incredibles (action spy music) as well as the instrumental section from UP, when Carl's house takes flight. It just seems like the correct soundtrack for my car right now.  My car. I'm still adjusting to that idea. It's nicer than anything I've owned before, and honestly, I'm still fighting the expectation that any day now, a rental car company is going to show up and say, "Okay, you've had your fun, time to give it back now."

So, this is it. I have had a few far away friends ask when this blog is going up. My cousin Keira has been aching to see its color. Her mom, (my first cousin) Laura, told me that Keira has been pointing out Fits whenever they pass them on the road, "There's Caitlin's car...but what color is it?" Well, Keira, now you know.

Thanks for letting me share.

-Caitlin

What's going on here?

Admittedly, I have been rather absent lately. I am trying to get back on track though.  I thought maybe, to make it up to you, I would do a sort of blog I don't usually do, an update on life.  Often I do blogs on ponderings, and blogs on places I've been, but I usually leave my day to day out of it, mainly because my day to day bores me, but just for you, blogfriends, I will compile my recent day to day into a summary.

This summer I did another week of teaching the memory verse station at VBS.  I enjoyed doing that again. I have been teaching the 1st-3rd grade station these 2 years, so it was really sweet when a sweet 3rd grader came to me on the last day of VBS and told me that next I "should move up to the 4th-6th grade station" so I could still teach her. It was very nice of her, and I will cherish it...but if I do it again, I think I shall stick with 1st-3rd grade... as I have already taught most of the 4th-6th graders in the past, and will likely teach them again soon in Jr. High.  I need to give them a small break from me if they're still going to think I'm cool by the time they get to junior high youth group.

During that week, I discovered that my car needs more repairs than it is worth. I have been working on fixing the cheaper, bare minimum stuff to keep it running, while looking around for a new car.  I'm thinking hyundai, at the moment, but I have yet to test drive anything at the moment.  Part of me cringes at the price of another car.  The other part of me says, "But wouldn't it be nice to drive something with a CD player, cruise control, and power locks?"  In the meantime, I am thankful that Bakersfield has been mostly merciful, in not having it's normal, daily record breaking heatwaves as I am, yet again, driving around another summer without air conditioning. This is the 3rd summer in a row, for various reasons each summer.

As many of you know, I went on a quick trip to Hawaii with a friend, and we visited my cousins and played tourists for a while. That was very enjoyable. Oh, how I miss Opal's Thai truck... And my cousins, of course! ;-)  I am now trying get myself back into the swing of things here in California.  It is hard to come back to a life where I have no schedule, and very little to do on a daily basis, after being in Hawaii, with something to do every day, and a lax, but interesting schedule. Also, the rental car had air conditioning and a CD player. And then there is the fact that Hawaii is 3 hours behind California. So while in Hawaii I had managed to adjust to getting up at 7 am, and going to bed at 11 pm, I am having a more difficult time adjusting back, which often means I'm getting up at 10 am, and going to bed at 2 am...  That probably should be fixed.

I am scrambling together the last bits of required application stuff for graduate school, and hoping to be in this fall.  Which is good, but means that while Compassion is hosting a sponsor tour in Haiti, I will be doing homework instead.  This is sort of a win win situation, though, because if I am not going to Haiti, it is because I got into graduate school, but if I don't get into graduate school, it means I get the chance to go to Haiti!

I am enjoying going to my church, the few times I have been in town on the weekend this summer.  There aren't many people there my age, but everyone is warm to me anyway.

And I have enjoyed the down time I have been able to have with my friends this summer.  And this weekend, I get to go hangout in Marina with my brother, and Laura, maybe go to the aquarium, maybe hangout with a cousin, but in general, I get to go play again.  Don't tell my cat...  She's still mad about the Hawaii thing.

And that, blogfriends, is my summary of my summer life so far!