the passing of the celica . . . and horsepills

so when i went away to college in my early twenties, i was the proud owner of a 1981 ford ranger F100. nowadays, a ranger is a tiny truck that really has no purpose, i don't think. but back in 1981, it was a bad ass truck . . . very big and bulky and made all of metal. i ran over things and ran into things and never once dented my truck. it had an oil leak that was so bad that i literally carried a case of oil in the bed of the truck. every morning, i popped the hood and poured an entire bottle of oil into the engine; repeated this ritual just about every single morning for the year or two i owned this truck. it had the original push / knob radio, a cloth bench seat and most importantly, it could hit about 65mph tops when it was warmed up. it took me all over college station and back and forth to and from killeen on weekends i didn't have to work.

and then one day, it suddenly became unreliable. the leak got worse and worse and it started to have trouble making the trip back and forth from college to home and back. i was a poor college student, though . . . worked a full-time job, went to school full-time but still never had enough money to do much of anything. and in stepped my father.

he had gone onto the "lemon lot" on fort hood a few times over the months i had been having car trouble and he found a sporty little toyota celica for me. the GI selling it was getting ready to deploy and he really just wanted to sell it. one guy offered him $2000 cash; Daddy offered him a $1500 check with a sob story about his daughter in college. needless to say, daddy got the car. he and mom drove it down to college station one weekend and we traded cars. he got my truck to take home and use for his pool business; i got a reliable, sporty (albeit somewhat ugly and banged up) celica to cruise around town in. i loved it instantly.

my friends and i had great adventures in that car when i was in college. one summer, between spring and summer semesters, my best college friend (veronica) and i hopped into the celica and took a week and a half road trip to california. we had never been and it seemed like a good idea. we got out of texas and into new mexico the first night; onto california the second day. we hit the beach and knew we were styling in my sports car, whom by now i called Celi (pronounced 'Selly'). after our week in cali was up, veronica and i loaded celi back up and made the long trek back to texas. we even outran a cop on the new mexico border into el paso. my celi was the shiznit.

a few years and a few wrecks later, my poor celi was no longer as fast as she once was, and was even uglier than she was when i got her. mismatched -- and later, i found out, not even the same sized -- tires seemed to help add to the flats and blow-outs i had often. i had a blow out on one of the tires one night in a rain storm on my way to see my college boyfriend. i sat on the side of the road for over an hour waiting on him to come get me. he finally did and ended up dumping me that weekend. perhaps celi was trying to prevent me from going down there that weekend, from getting my heartbroken. it was definitely an omen. but i lived and learned, i suppose.

celi made it's way back home with me to killeen and we both settled nicely into my parents' house. one morning, someone broke into my car and stole the only nice thing i had in the car -- my sony XPLODE sound system my parents' had paid for and had installed in my car not even a year prior for my birthday. i drove around for a long time with cardboard and duct tape on the back window before my brother pulled a favor from someone and they fixed my window for me. and then there were wrecks and soon the bumper was falling off and the trunk didn't open. it was a mess.

one afternoon, i took it into the mechanic (the same mechanic we have used for like 20 years) and i was told i would be better off buying a new car rather invest in fixing everything that was wrong with it. and so, i faced a dilemma because i didn't have money to buy anything. my brother, again, stepped in and helped me buy a 2000 dodge stratus from a major on post who had used the car for the live-in nanny he employed. he wanted $8000 for it, and quite frankly, he could've prolly gotten more for it than that; we offered $5000 and he took it. and then suddenly i had this stratus and my celi was no longer needed.

fast forward a few months to me being out of a job for one reason or another and suddenly i'm $600 behind on the rent i owed my parents. at this time, dad's van was in bad bad bad shape and he was looking for a beater to get him around, to and from work, etc. in stepped celi. daddy and i agreed that i would essentially "sell" him celi for the $600 i owed him and then the love affair of celi and my daddy began.

for years they went all over town. and they broke down all over town. but dad managed to get things fixed on it little by little -- nothing aesthetic, of course. my daddy's theory on cars is that it is a tool. no need to have something pretty when you're just gonna run it into the ground anyway. and believe me, it was run into the ground -- and quite a bit of poles, too -- and about on it's last leg.

mom and daddy decided they needed new cars eventually. one got a camry, one got a corolla . . . and like that, celi was the red-headed stepchild no one wanted. she has sat in dad's driveway for a few months now, never running, never moving. nothing. he and mom finally decided to call a charity and have it donated but then i intervened.

my beau and i have been looking for a car for him to use to get to and from school, and to serve papers. we had been sharing the stratus for a few months now : he drops me off at work in the morning, and picks me up at lunch so i can take him to school and take the car back to work. after work, i pick him up from school and we would serve papers in it. problem with that is, my stratus isn't the most gas-efficient car out there. and surprisingly, the celica is. and so i asked dad if i could re-own the stratus from him. i didn't wanna pay anything for it aside from the fees to change the title over to our name and to pay any taxes on it. ended up costing $100.60. about $100.60 more than i wanted to pay, but at least now we have a second means of transportation.

and although it's his car and he'll be the one driving it, my beau asked me not to ever mention that. he usually has the same theory my daddy has on cars -- that they're just tools. but today, we took it for a ride around the block and to get it washed, and we were both thoroughly embarrassed by it. blue smoke pours out of the back pipe thing and it smells bad. we took it to the carwash to see if that would help, but after we were done washing, we realized it was still an ugly car. and so i decided, at that moment, to take the proud owner approach and post pics of my beauty. and without further ado, here she is, MSSSSSSS. CELI!









and my absolute favorite, cuz it shows the seat cover:



and PS : when did the pharmaceutical companies start making pills the size of a horse suppository? this is a picture of my calcium pill, which i am required to take since i'm on the b/c shot, compared to my sleep and anxiety pills. it's huge:



hopefully tomorrow's post will be a lot more interesting than tonight's. i'll be posting all about our home improvement projects! i know, you just can't wait!