you know, i don't know how i ever got by without a car. nothing in the world relaxes me quite like driving around aimlessly, singing loudly to good tunes (in tonight's case, simon and garfunkel's greatest). the feeling of being completely carefree, going over 45, being completely alone on the road... very refreshing. i'll have to remember that around finals time next year. of course, then, i'll have dr. mario :)

see, i just had to test him out, that's all, see if his transmission boo-boo was all better. yeah, that's it. :) he gave me quite a scare, though. seemed like every time i touched the gas he would refuse to go, and make the kind of sickening noise you'd expect if you put on the gas while in park. well i only did that once (whoops!) so i knew it was a pretty bad problem. sure enough, when i described the symptoms to my dad, he immediately guessed transmission. i was so upset - you know, i just got this car, it still has the temporary tags on it. i'm thinking, i've totally killed my baby. and, i knew there was some reason he was only $2500. so we took it in to a transmission place (i was terrified it would die before we got there), and turns out i was just out of transmission fluid. i mean - completely out. and i just had the fluid changed two weeks ago, so obviously it had a huge leak. that and they wanted to give the transmission a tune up and replace the cooling lines. left it overnight, shelled out $300, and got it back today. runs like new. so there's a relief! i love my little 'tang baby.