true stories of my life

Here's a little afternoon story for you...

About eight years ago, give or take {I have a terrible memory and not-so-good time frame reference}, I bought a car from my awesome friend Octavia. For five hundred dollars. Amazing! It was a little '95 Nissan Sentra. It was the first stick shift I ever owned. And I have driven that car for the past eight years. No power locks or power windows, leaked oil and power steering fluid -- but it ran and it had a radio and it had cold air conditioning {a must in Oklahoma}.

See, here's the thing: I love cool cars. I really do. In fact, my dream car is a late 60's or early 70's Corvette Sting Ray. But, I refuse to have a car payment, ever. My family has always bought used cars for cash, instead of financing a new car from a car lot. That just goes against the grain for me. Sure, if I had the cash to drop on a nice vehicle, I would do it. But, as I miiiight have mentioned on this blog before, I have not always done the best job managing my money.

So anyway, back to my current car situation. I drove my little maroon-colored-leaking-oil-dented-up Nissan for about eight years. Until a few weeks ago. You see, a few weeks ago, at about 11:30 at night, I was driving on I240, and the engine just died. I mean, it didn't really just die. It rattled and gurgled and basically blew up, I think. There were awful noises and there was smoke. My poor dad, my eternal rescuer-when-my-car-breaks-down, came and confirmed the death of my car.

He told me, and I quote, "Well, you could buy a new engine for it. But I wouldn't waste your money." I looked my dad in the eye. And there I saw the reflection of countless car repairs he had done on my little Nissan over the past eight years.

And then I got a little angry. {"Why does my stupid car have to die?!? Doesn't God know that I don't have the money to buy a new car right now?!? What the heck am I going to do?!? This is so DUMB!!! I hate cars! I hate money! I hate not having money!"} I mean, never mind that this car was a miracle in the first place. Did you read the part about me only paying five hundred dollars for it?!? And then driving it for eight years?!? Yeah, okay. So then I calmed down.

And then I cried. Sitting in my dead car on the side of the highway late at night, I cried. It was, after all, a very sad night.

So, for the past few weeks, I have been driving my parents' car. God bless them. I feel a little spoiled, what with the power locks and power windows and cd player and all. I have also been working a lot. God has blessed me with plenty of photo shoots over the past few weeks, and I am trying really hard not to spend my money recklessly.

So here's where you guys come in, my lovely readers. In the next week or so, I should have a little cash to get a car. Will you keep your eyes and ears open for me, please? All I really care about is getting a vehicle with decent gas mileage and an air conditioner. Other than that, my preference would be that it is a stick shift. But I'm not picky, honest. I am poor, though. :) So, nothing I would have to take out a loan for - we're talking cheap, people!

Thank you in advance for your help. And for reading about my car situation. Because, really, I'm sure there are better things you could be doing with your time on a Wednesday afternoon.

I love y'all! :)

~abi~