one car poorer

this one time in march, i was driving on foothill drive at approximately 9:20 am.  due the herds of cars stampeding to research park or the university of utah, traffic is treacherous at that place, at that hour.  and when traffic stops, it stops quickly.  and that morning, stop quickly it did.  it happened like this:

a light turned red.
people screeched to halt.
i was one of those people.
i thought to myself, "self, that was a quick stop.  i hope whoever is behind me stops."
i checked my rearview.
"self, that car is not going to stop."
boom.
i got smooshed into the car in front of me.
i then got pushed into the next lane of traffic.
the car i hit hit the car in front of her.
he hit the car in front of him.
the total number of cars affected was 5.
the total number of damage to my car was totalled.

so, i am down one car.

i took the passing of my elantra harder than i thought i would...though i never thought about losing it before i lost it.  i didn't come by my car of my own volition.  it was my dad's idea.  he gave it to me for my undergraduate graduation combined with the "gift" of a credit history (aka- i had to pay a lot of it off).  i wasn't super excited about the payments that rolled around religiously each month.  but, the car grew on me.  i loved the way it handled in the snow.  i loved that it was a stick shift.  i loved that it had a hatch-back.  i love that i kind of felt like i was driving a silver bullet.  and now, all of that is gone.

when i went to pay my last respects and gather my belongings from its remains, i was more emotional than i expected.  in that moment, i decided that i should have named it Hi Ho, Silver (think of how punny that would have been), and i felt really bad that i never did.  i remembered how often i complained about paying for it.  i remembered how many cool trips it took me on.  i remembered how easy it was to park.  and i was sad.  i've never felt more like a boy in my life.

i guess the upside is that i have a huge sunglasses collection.

for the time being, until i find my new car, i'm driving around this sweet lil' thang:

it belongs to my grandparents, and, no lie, drives like a dream.  but, the hands-down-best part of this champion of a 1995 baby blue ford taurus is how my grandpa attached the registration stickers...

the original timeline.  way to go, grandpa.