Magic Car Ride, part I

Ah, driving. Nothing else so wonderful, magical, peaceful. For my 30th birthday present to myself I rented a car for 3 days. (I later guilted Pops into paying for it since he didn't even send me a card.) It was sweet bliss. Although I'm still waiting for his check.

The weekend of my birthday blew goats. I had been too down to plan anything spectacular or even semi-fun so I left everything to the last minute. Some friends offered to plan something for me but I couldn't make up my mind. Half of me didn't want to do anything at all. I was less than enthused about turning 30 and still feeling sickly.

Meanwhile, I was on the superantibiotics to kill my kidney infection and feeling a little woozy. The wooziness turned into a full-blown nasty cold. So it turned out to be a good thing that I had no plans. But that meant I spent the 11th and 12th on my couch watching TV, blowing my nose and sporadically crying. I also had to walk the 1/2 mile to the drugstore and back while feeling like every step brought me closer to death. A few people reported sending me gifts in the mail but they hadn't arrived yet. I had one card with happy sunflowers taped to my wall. (Kisses, Paul!)

On the birthday day, my friend Barbara knocked on my door, waking me at noon, singing with a birthday cupcake and some gifts. It was so sweet of her! I also got some very nice phone calls that Sunday as well. One of my good friends offered to come over and bring some movies so I wouldn't be alone. Very sweet! That would have been great but I didn't want to make him sick so I told him not to come.

On Monday, I still felt sick but had to teach in Long Island, I'd already cancelled class twice this semester. After lecturing for 3 hours, the thought of my 3 hour commute made me even more ill. So that's when I decided to rent the car and drive myself home instead. That drive wasn't very pleasant because I was so nervous. But it was much nicer than walking 2 miles, riding the train, switching to another train, taking the subway, riding the bus and walking a 1/2 mile. Much, much better than that. The car they gave me was hot! A silver Mazda 3. It had a semi-manual setting which made it even cooler and more fun to drive.

After arriving home, I found two packages waiting for me. Yay! Presents! One was a box of cookies sent by mom and another was a complete surprise from my friend April in Louisiana. She sent a big box of lots of goodies that I had fun opening. (Love ya Girl!) So the day after my birthday was a lot better than my birthday day.

That's when I decided to make good use of the 24 hours I had with the car. So I invited some friends to go on a day trip with me up the Hudson River. We'd just drive to see what we could see. I only had one taker which was fine, a trip for two is a lovely thing. Poor Barbara agreed to go with a huge fake smile on her face. She looked like she had hemorrhoids when she asked where we were driving to. She said, "It sounds great," and couldn't have looked more in pain. I told her I didn't mind if she stayed home, it didn't hurt my feelings if she didn't want to go. She thanked me with great relief. Her loss.

Stay tuned for the story of our magical car ride. It turned out exactly as I had hoped, with a few surprises.