Ode to Exit

I loved my car. One of the toughest things I've done since moving down to California was to buy a new car. Driving away from the lot, I cried. Actually, the real story: I was too scared to drive my new car off the lot, so I made Brandon drive it, then I started crying. Exit and I have been through a lot the last 8 years...

Our story begins when I was 14. My parents first bought the 1991 Toyota Camry for my sister as her first car.  I thought she looked so cool driving it. I knew it would be mine when I turned 16 and couldn't wait for that day. Until she got in an accident and totaled it... My dad, the handy man at his best, thought he would just go to the junkyard and get two new doors from another Camry... that was a darker blue than my car... and a different year... But it was mine. For three years in high school, four years in Seattle, and one year in California, I drove around a 1990 and 91 Two-Toned Totaled Toyota Camry.

I'm not sure if a car can get more totaled, but if so, I definitely did that...

In my possession, Exit broke down (like stopped running on the side of the freeway) 4 times.

In three years, Exit took me from Seattle to Salem for the weekend a total of 79 times.

I have gone through 3 hula girl air freshener around my rear view mirror.

I contemplated replacing the Exit sticker in the back window twice.

The address on the title was a house I lived in, four houses ago.

At the time I handed the keys over, Exit was on its way to hitting 225k miles.

 [last trip in Exit... to the bank]

 [Oh, hello air conditioning...]

I will miss the little things like...

being able to take my keys out of the ignition while the car is still running

kicking the passenger door shut

never driving because everyone is afraid we will break down before we leave the driveway

not washing or keeping my car clean, because no one expects that from a two-toned car

having an excuse to drive with my windows down, all the way down

the automatic seat belt

 the larger-than-a-semi-truck steering wheel

knowing that if I called work telling them my car broke down and I couldn't come in, they would believe me

but mostly, its the past 8 years I spent in the driver side.