"Wow! Really? That's awesome!"

"Um, well, there's a problem. I'm not totally sure if I can drive it or not."

"..."

"See, Josh gave me some lessons in driving stick last year, and I know that overall it was a smart thing to do, in terms of longterm maintenance and stuff, but now I really don't know if I can get it home."

"You bought a MANUAL car??"

"Uh, yes. Yes I did. Help me??"

"Let me get my keys."

So KC and I spent an hour driving her car yesterday, and we'll spend another hour this morning. Most of it came back right away, but I only had about a 30% success rate on hills. That worries me. I just may have been incredibly dumb yesterday.

(NOTES FOR NOW: Update: This morning, I achieved practically a 95% success rating on the hills, but the one I screwed up cost KC a tailight. D'oh! However, the drive home from Appleton was without incident. Pretty silver car was not only much more forgiving than the KCmobile, but features a working speedometer AND tachometer, so it was way easier to figure out when to shift.)

***

So, hooray. I have pretty silver car, and I can in fact drive it. Now I just have to figure out a way to pay for it. I kept myself going during the last year of Purple payments, by counting down the months. "OK, this sucks, but only for six more months. OK, sucks to be me, but in a mere five months it will all be good...." Now, I've got 60 MORE MONTHS of suck. On the bright side, though, I have FOUR interviews next week. Two of them are even second interviews! A better job seems like a distinct possibility, and then everything gets a lot easier.

previous--next