The Fabulous Adventures of...

The Honda CRV. No song title this time. "Baby you can drive my car"?

It's red. It's a manual. It has a rusted undercarriage and is usually going over the speed limit. It has strict safety belt regulations. It's hauled many of you around. It drives in the snow fabulously. It is a beast. The driver's side window is broken. It has a very noisy exhaust system. It's usually messy. It's MINE! :-)

I feel now is the appropriate time to write an ode to my little red Honda CRV. It has carried me many, many miles. Countless trips back and forth to Gettysburg. My CRV and I met in 2003 before I knew how to drive a manual transmission. An all-holiday present from my parents, we continue to be in a long term relationship...and a happy one at that. We even made it through learning to drive manual...I'm sure that was tough on the CRV!

I recall going up the driveway to Fox Run (where I was about to start working) and stalling out. I spun tires and rocks that day! It's no wonder the CRV still loves me.

It overcame the incident pictured below...Anna driving it around the parking lot in Gburg, loaded to the gills with my favorite people.


It carried my mom and I cross country. It saw many things...including:

Kadoka, SD:


Mt rushmore, yellow stone, a tornado, a lot of cheese in wisconsin, the wild wild west...well, you get the picture. My Mom thought it was a sweet ride too.



It carried me from WA south, to my current home. Since being in California, the CRV gets moderately offended from time to time because I chose to walk over driving it, but to make up for my neglect, I take it on some pretty awesome adventures.

Like to Big Sur....



Part of my Honda's enduring identity (and mine) was that it had NY license plates.

Well, this weekend, I paid my dues to the state of California. Laying out $200+ dollars to declare my permanence. I had my car plated here. It was very sad.


The (grouchy) DMV person snatched those beauties right out of my hands (along with 2 months worth of grocery money) and I nearly cried. (Partly because of the remaining $0.93 in my bank account!)




I affixed my new plates and adjusted to them and told the CRV not to despair, we could still drive like New Yorkers. :-)

Here's to the journey of the next 130k miles, CRV! Thank you!

Cheers!

Old Man

He's mad at me in this picture! Hehe!

I am VERY sorry that I haven't been in blog touch lately. I have been a bit busy with residential schools (they really SUCK, btw) and I just haven't felt like blogging lately. I know I'll kick myself for not blogging the past month as I am less than a month from leaving, but, I often kick myself for less.

For those of you who were unaware, my Casey, my old man and very best friend, died in late June. I got the call from Mom on a Saturday night here while I was in Sydney. It's been a rough few weeks for me, and it will be even rougher when I get home and realize that my bestest bud isn't there to greet me. My house and room and bed and sweater drawer will have an strange emptiness to them, I know it all ready. I'm sure he's happier, he's in better place where he can be young and vibrant, and it's assured that I wont dress him in my doll clothes, put him in my baby buggy, and wheel him up to grandmas. I can't believe he'll never look up at me again or rub his cold wet nose on my hand in search of a pet. I feel monsterously guilty for not being there with him, especially considering that he was there for me every time I cried for, oh, about 17 years, and I went off, knowing damn well that he'd need me in his darkest hour while I was away. I can't believe I wasn't there for him. Good thing Mom was. I hope he knew that I still loved him.

Other than that, life as been moving on at a pretty average pace. I had an outstanding birthday, made that way by a few people that I didn't know really cared! I really couldn't have asked for more, especially considering that I was expecting to spend the day alone.

Other than that, I've been doing res schools. The first was 6 days of straight tasting. Which sounds glamourous, but it's actually not as glam as you would think. This may sound completely ridiculous, but it reasonably difficult to taste that much wine in a day. Your senses just tire, and you get sick of it. I know I know, my life is clearly hard. I got to taste wine for 8 hrs a day for 6 days straight. Now, the fates are repaying me, and I'm doing 8 hr blocks of biochemistry labs. You cannot deny that THAT doesn't sound fun.

But, I return to the states in just over 2 weeks. I am having incredibly mixed emotions about it. I am excited to see the people that I miss and love, but I feel like I'm leaving something incredible behind. Didn't I just feel like this?!

Well, Alison, there you have it. I hope I have entertained you for a few moments. :-)

Cheers
Catrina