200,000!!!

well, i finally hit 200,000 miles in my car. and now i am thinking (stress thinking) about the next car i get. i'd like it to have air conditioning. and a main requirement will be that it have power steering, so as to avoid another incident like the one that almost killed me in may. how am i supposed to remember when panicking (?) that the steering does not work when the breaks are all the way down, but that it will re-engage and jerk violently when the car slows down? i like to stay in one lane of traffic, not veer back and fourth across 3 and a shoulder, thank you very much, and i don't care for embankments. no, no, no, no, no. i'm still amazed that: 1. i did not flip my car; 2. i did not end up down the embankment; 3. i did not hit anyone; 4. no one hit me.

in celebration, after i get a tune-up, i am thinking about going to Yosemite one last time before the season closes out. it would be fantastic to see all the fall colors in the valley, snuggle down against a cold night. i've been listening to my jack johnson cd that i listened to on my last trip there and feeling the pull in my blood to set out again. i'm trying to line up a small group, but not holding my breath. i need that stillness, the solemness that happens at night in those high granite walls. oh, i hope, hope, hope it works out.

i think the best part about hitting 200,000 is the status it gives me - the mileage i get out of saying to my peers that my car has over 200,000 miles. compete with that! i say to those daring to suggest that they are poorer than i am. it instantly confirms my social status - the the fact that I am an industrious graduate student paying my way as i go in a low-paying job, dedicated to a somewhat do-gooder occupation, and depending on a very shoddy little jalopy (that has over 200,000 miles on it!) to transport me all over the valley. woohoo! nobody ever wants to take my car!