oh, my aching, lonely car...

WHERE DOES this story start?

Well, I guess it sort of starts a year and a half ago, when my zany friend from our high school academic team introduced me to another zany friend of his. Whom I now adore. :D

There's not much story in the interim; I delivered pizza for a while and ran my poor Saturn into the ground with that, and lots of other driving, for the sake of socializing and running errands, etc. I also spent some of the past loving people who were really hurtful and also putting a lot of energy into all sorts of projects and flying from place to place.

Recently, my car did whimper some, and I thought, "Gee, I'll be taking her in to the mechanics in the next couple of weeks, for sure, to check this out..."

I the meanwhile, Billy and I had started talking about hanging out some time about 6 months ago, but we hadn't spent any alone time together until more recently. True to form, I've spent the better part of two weeks seriously doubting his interest in me, even though the deep stares and holding-each-other-close romance had started to pick up some steam. I mean, pretty much all 25 year old guys know how to effect that emotion, right? I figured he was just acting that way, but who knows why?

Anyways, Friday night he sent a little <3 in a text, and then called and told me he was on foot, and coming to see me, if that was ok. I laughed for a while and then realized he was seriously walking from Indian Rocks Beach TO MY HOUSE IN CLEARWATER (and in flip flops, at that).

I protested as I laughed at the absurdity of it, but he said it was a way of showing me that he wanted to see me. And I deduced that he was a little bitty bit drunk. But, I acquiesced to the notion. Then I said I'd go meet him halfway (with my car, lol, not on foot). We were both feeling giddy about curling up under the covers and whiling away the wee hours to music.

I got as far as the Walmart on Missouri (that's about 2 miles from my house, for you out of towners), when I had to coast into the parking lot, cursing myself for getting out of my pj's and trying to go on this silly drive to the beach. I tried giving it oil and antifreeze, but the problem is clearly the transmission (or a cracked block... actually, that's a good possibility at this point).

So, Bill calls me right about then, and hearing my plight, immediately turns round, walks home, hops in his car, and comes to pick me up. I started to really worry after he said he was coming to get me, because he had been drinking earlier that night, but his mind was made up and that was that. I was elated when he pulled in and I knew that nothing awful happened to him. Funny, being completely car-less didn't seem even remotely important at the time.

Thankfully, somebody has AAA, and I got a free tow this afternoon to a mechanic in Clearwater. And about a hundred hugs and kisses.

This Valentine's Day was brought to you by: Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, AAA, vegetable and feta omelettes, and youthful optimism.