love is the drug
The minivan is no more. Finally we decided to eat the loss (thousands) and trade it in, crippled by gas prices and emotional trauma and vanity. We bought the thing—the pentecostal retiree convention motorcoach, the Ferris-Beuller-endcredits schoolbus, the circa 1850s battleship—just over a year ago because we were going to have three children, and three children pushed us hopelessly into peoplemover territory.
We are once again Volkswagen people, our fifth. It’s sturdy-sexy and it smells right. It’s a standard. It is us. And we no longer require those guys in jumpsuits with the orange glowsticks to help us navigate underground parking garages.
As we drove away from the dealership Justin ya-hooed I’m not even looking back! as I turned in my seat to stare at its bulk, a brick shithouse in a lot full of German minxes, my eyes suddenly glassy. Thinking as I do with every step that leaves him further behind us goodbye my Liam, we wanted you.
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The grasses are knee-high now around his blackened ruin, lupins and bramble spreading where there was once hissing smoke.
Now to be a wife again, a friend, a woman. To laugh and mean it.
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FB | Message : night out
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Today at 8:23pm
So girls: I've been thinking lately how great it would be to get out. Not 'out' as in a barf-encrusted sweater and a trip for groceries, but 'out' as in a yummy dinner downtown and drinks, plentiful drinks, and TAXICABS (!!!) and maybe even a few bars—just a chance for a bunch of us to get polished up and whatever else may follow.
I'm wondering just how late I can stay out. I'm hoping I'd be able to make it past 10:30. That would be EPIC!!
so... care to join me? I figured you might be tempted....?
xo Kate
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Reply at 8:30pm
OH I AM VERY TEMPTED!!!!
I may have to make it a full night and crash at K’s—she's away for the weekend, but I am sure she'll be up for it!
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Today at 8:36pm
Oh goodie! ...I guess I'd need to crash somewhere too. I plan on being incapable of much else other than giggling and eating, so let’s make a night of it. yay!
K's going to get back from her weekend to find the two of us have invited ourselves for a sleepover. Where do city people go these days to drink and dance on the speakers? Where does it, you know, rain men?
Kidding.
Kind of.
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Reply at 8:45pm
HAHAHAHA....no kidding, we'll find that place!!
I am sure she won't care if we crash there!! Plus then when we get up in the morning and enjoy R's fresh muffins and coffee... he set the standard last time I was there!
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Today at 8:51pm
YES. This is so great. I'm going to have to find my way to Winners first though, see if they sell all-over body girdles. I'm determined to *not* look like a lesbian farmer as per usual.
although... if I try to not look like a lesbian farmer then I really will look like a cougar. must find happy middle ground.. must find happy middle ground...
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Reply at 8:53pm
you are too much!! ;o)
Yes I may have to pull out the spanx!!!! they do the trick!
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Today at 9:02pm
Okay, that's what I need... I've seen them at Winners before but never the right size.
Christ. We’re totally cougars. Before we’ve even figured out where to go and when, we’ve already discussed the required maximum-support undergarments.
sweetsalty kate
19 Comments
Reader Comments (19)
omg Winner's sells spanx? i'm gonna need me some spanx, babee, when this is all said and done!
i mean, how nice for you to get out. :)
and the minivan...ah, the minivan. farewell, trick of the light. what kinda VW? my first car - the one we had when i lived in Hali - was a used 1990 silver Jetta. i loved it. not a stick though. never learned.
Hello b! yes, I've seen the odd Spanx at Winners and I always trip over my own feet sprinting to the Intimate Support display but alas... I need to actually go to a real store for once.
We've always had Jettas but now we have a Golf... never had anything new. Justin keeps telling me to slow down now. Funny, he never had to tell me that in the MPV.
A *real* night out! Congratulations on getting that going, even if it means industrial support!
My first car was a VW Rabbit. I drove it into the ground and adored it. Later I had a Jetta which I think was Satan's beater. It drove me into the ground. We've been a carless family for six years, but despite gas prices I'm jonesing for a car, any car, but a sturdy-sexy VW sounds perfect to me.
I hope your night out was great, girdles and all, and that you had a birthday drink for me too! :)
I wish I was close enough to join the party.
i wanna' go. i swear i could stay up until like 1030 or so and down lots of alcohol before then. wishing i did not live waay west and south of you.
we have an outback...it is like the compromise family wagon...like we might actually take it in the snowy sierras to snow shoe. yeah right.
I'm havin' my own party tonight. A bottle of chardonnay and cheap red wine...nothin' like a mom with a glass (or two, or three)and lots to be thankful for...
Cheers to you, Kate. Hope you enjoy the new wheels.
{{clink}}
I'm baking a post on how all the flotsam in our lives has segued from 4 to three. I don't really get how growing your family lands you in negative territory, but I guess it does for some, huh. Bleh. Anyway. Enjoy as you can.
And WOAH do I need a girls night out. I hope someone takes some surreptitious cell phone pix and posts them on the web somewhere . . .
I don't comment much, but I just wanted to say that I love your writing, and that with nearly every post, something you say gets me behind the eyes and makes me all blinky because of some deep or tender moment you impart. I'm so sorry for your loss, but you do such justice to Liam's memory with your words.
I do hope the night out was/is as much fun as it sounds. And it reminds me to find my spankx and see about finding somewhere to wear them. My barf-encrusted sweater needs to be laundered.
Enjoy your girls night out; those are the very best evenings ever, save for the ones where you roll around on the floor with two small boys, wrestling elbows and sticks. But indeed, you are right: you need this. Enjoy! Congrats on your trade-in - it's all good, sister. Hard, as you so duly explain, when you look at small moments for the underlying meaning. I do that too. But it's right to get back to your place in life right now, to continue on moving forward tweaking along the way that which needs to be. You will never leave him; he is always with you. Repeat after me ;). XO
oh, a girls night out sounds so lovely...although i must admit when i wear spanx they hurt my chubby thighs!! and leave an awful dented in space where they cut off the circulation to the rest of my leg! i have much better luck with super control pantyhose with the hose cut off...been using that trick since high school!
deep yet gentle, meaningful laughter to you, always.
Spanx? Rock.
Have a great night out!!
xo CGF
How did it go? I hope it was even better than you imagined.
I am sorry about the minivan. Ugly and terrible and all, but such a symbol of what was to be. I am sorry.
Julia and Eve, we haven't gone yet. It will take a few moved mountains and planetary alignment to figure out the day (and cooperative daddies), but I hope it'll be in the next couple of weeks... meow.
I'm jealous, I wish I could join you and the Girl's Night Out! Have a great time, if you haven't already. And welcome back to the car world, we missed you. You are right, you are not a minivan person, a VW is more your speed.
I learned to drive stick on my ex-boyfriend's Jetta in university. I think I thoroughly killed the transmission, but I did learn eventually. I just traded my wagon for a newer wagon last week, and promptly got a speeding ticket over the weekend. Oops. Slow down, indeed.
Oh gosh...we went shopping for Spanx today. The sales lady kindly pointed out I was going to need a different garment than Spanx, gee thanks. I got over it and went to Chick fi la with my girlfriends and bought lipstick. New lipstick always makes everything better.
Now this is a reason to go to Winners. Although I may need something stronger than Spanx - my last pair have given up entirely from the strain of holding in my belly-ass.
Oh, the minivan. It never stops, does it, the constant reminders of what was lost. Hugs to you.
You are being featured on Five Star Friday:
http://www.fivestarfriday.com/2008/06/five-star-friday-edition-10.html
supportive undergarments = cougar? i'd better tell my grandma.