A New Experience

I drove my first Prius today.

(Background: my driver's-license issue was FINALLY cleared up...wait, looking back to link to the post where I mentioned that, I find I never mentioned it. I tried to sign up for one of those car-sharing services--here in Chicago we have ZipCar and iGo--and all was well til they ran my driving record, whereupon I got a notice that my provisional acceptance was now an outright rejection. I said something to the effect of "???" and requested a copy of the info on which they'd based their decision; it came back that my license had been suspended two months previous due to...

...wait for it...

...failure to have the truck emissions-tested.

You know, the truck; the one which since mid-summer has been somewhere in rural Ohio with LJ; the one which, despite his promises to pay the car note, I still make the payments for two months out of every three; the one which is, because money is still owed on it, in MY name despite its physical absence from my life.

I was forced to jump through an astonishing number of hoops to PROVE to IEPA, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the truck was more than 100 miles from the nearest Illinois testing center, and was not likely to return for several months. Finally, after about seven calls to various agencies and a spate of e-mails, I received at last a notification that my license was now reinstated, and I was once again a legal driver.

Then I had to prove it to the car-sharing people, and the net result of this was that finally, two months after first applying, I was finally approved as a member. I am now once again free to buy my own groceries, without paying Peapod's exorbitant delivery rates or trying to schlep home a bunch of kitty litter and laundry soap on the CTA. Another benefit: I can now drive myself to my monthly appointments at the methadone clinic, which is several miles away and to which my mom has been driving me since LJ's girl's car got repossessed. Which brings me, albeit in a roundabout fashion, back to my Prius experience.)

What a cute little car! I could do without the postage-stamp-sized rear windshield--seriously, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to see behind me at all!--but otherwise, it was a neat, perky little vehicle. It took some getting used to--pressing a power button instead of turning a key, a gearshift on the dashboard, whatever that weird display about energy-consumption is (I didn't have a chance to look at it too closely, as I vastly underestimated the amount of time my clinic appointment would take, and was forced to drive back to the parking space like a bat out of hell to avoid incurring late costs and being late for work in the bargain) but all in all, I thought it was really fun. If I wanted to buy a car, I'd consider one of them; however, I can't think of too many things I want LESS than a car right now. Broccoli, maybe, or a cold sore--either of which are cheaper.

I'm beginning to like this neighborhood. I think I'll like it more once I get a chance to really explore it, when the weather is a little better and there's more daylight to play with. But there's a lot of good stuff here, really....and I don't just mean the place that delivered the mini-pizza I demolished for dinner tonight. MAN that was good.