We sold our car on Saturday. Doug listed it on Craigslist on Wednesday, and I prayed with uncharacteristic boldness, “God, please let it sell by Monday. Preferrably by Saturday.” And, lo and behold, it did.
Of course, when the new owner drove my beloved Accord away, I cried. Be careful what you pray for, eh?
My tears surprised everyone, especially me. I wasn’t expecting them. At all. I knew we needed to sell the car. I had been bugging Doug for over a week to get it listed. I had prayed it would sell. And then I go and get all weepy about it.
I tried to laugh as I wiped my eyes and nose on my sleeve. After all, it’s just a car.
But it was a good car. My first car. It was reliable, paid for, and, compared to the sofa-mobile, fun to drive. It also represents my life as it has been, and I really love my life, so watching it pull away from the curb and drive off never to return was sort of symbolic: my life is about to change, and it will never be the same, and I’m grieving the loss of this life I love.
Oh, I know my life with four children will still be good. I know it will be rich and full and all that. But it will be different, and I’ve never adapted to change easily, even good change.
I probably should have had some sort of good-bye ceremony for the Accord. Not that the car would have cared, but it might have helped me.
As I sat there weeping and laughing at myself for weeping, Doug held up the stack of hundred dollar bills the buyer had brought and waved them in front of me. I’d never seen so much cash at one time in my life. It felt like drug money. Or blood money. I cried harder.
But within the hour I’d pulled myself together and driven the sofa-mobile to the credit union and deposited the stack o’ cash into our account. Then I went home and did something really sexy with it: I paid off our credit card, padded our emergency fund, and threw the rest at our car loan on the *&^% minivan.
Maybe I should have kept a hundred bucks and bought a commemorative plaque for the Accord to hang in in the driveway. A small reminder of a life I no longer have.
Ha – “drug money” – you make me laugh.
I have this fear that I am going to get pregnant again. My husband got snipped but has not had his follow up visit – not cool. It’s easy to feel guilty because of these fears and losses of past lives.
Thinking of you today.
Ah Kimberlee, never let yourself feel that you have to laugh at your tears. Even if they were silly (which they obvsiously weren’t), you get a ton of free passes for being pregnant, and are allowed to cry when you need to, for whatever reason.
Part of the reason I say that is because I needed a pregnancy free pass this week too — last night Brian and I watched the LOST finale and I cried the entire 2-1/2 hours. I think crying for a TV show is way worse than crying over a sold car. You’re saying goodbye to one life stage while moving on to the next. I was saying goodbye to a bunch of fictional characters that still live forever in the complete set of DVD’s we own. Alas.
PS — I forgot to say, congratulations on selling the car so quickly. 🙂
Oh, I completely understand! I am not at all surprised by your tears. Sometimes, the things we have become part of who we are and how we identify ourselves.
I must say, you are a braver soul than I.
Thanks, Esther, Cathee, and Jen, for being so nice to me! I put this out there as a silly little blog post, and you all make me feel like I’m funny, smart, and brave. Bless you for your generosity!
Maybe a photo of the Accord with a votive candle? 😉 I don’t think tears are ever silly (pregnant or not), and I especially don’t think this was a “silly little blog post.” What better way to use your talent for description and comic timing than in describing a momentous transition. I hope you can keep alive the memory of how the Accord (and all it represented) made you feel, and find something new to represent that feeling (and nurture it) in this new stage.