holy rollers

Okay, we got a van.

When people see the van, they usually say "Oh, poor Ben!" as if my husband caved and got ol' mom a van finally. Actually what happened is this: I loved our SUV. The Saturn Vue got 18-ish miles per gallon around here (ALL city-stop-and-go) and 32 MPG on the highway--awesome. It was our nicest car to date, and the only one we actually bought secondhand, instead of like 6th-hand. We always buy our cars used (read: extremely used), for example, Ben recently sold his Toyota T-100 truck for a Ford F-150. The T-100 had 200,000 miles on it. The Ford? 240,000. The Saturn? Only a 2006 and had 60k miles when we bought it. Also power windows. And it was the first car we ever owned that had air conditioning for longer than 3 months.

So I had my lovely little SUV, but Ben wanted more space. I searched craigslist every few days for a year (really) to find a van, a super-loaded Chrysler with more miles than you should have after owning it 2 years, the guy was getting a company car and his kids were getting older so he didn't need a van. We bought it. And I drive it.

You can take the girl outta Detroit, but you... Okay, no one really lives in Detroit, but the auto industry pervades every aspect of living in Michigan, at least in Eastern Michigan where I grew up. So driving a van when I want to drive a Dodge Charger, has given me a little mid-life crisis. (Mid? Maybe "third-life crisis.") I don't see myself as the van-driving, stay-at-homing, 30-something mother of two. I prefer to see, just like Charlie Sheen, what I want to see, which is a fun, sexy, outrageous woman who drives a CAMARO. Just like the one in Better Off Dead. Or heck, maybe even a DeLorean, if we're going 80's movies. I told Ben "we can get the van if every year on my birthday I can rent a car I want to drive."

Okay, I guess I can be a van mommy. But just wait until these kids are older and there are no car seats. Then I can be what I want. Right? No, you're right: by then I'll definitely be what they want. What's worse? That will probably be what I want, too. Ahh, children.

BTW, I'm still getting a fast car when they leave. Mark my words. :-)