carventures

impromptu double nap, originally uploaded by kelanew.

i'm writing this post from the car (hurray for wifi), sitting with eva parked in our driveway. it's about 68 degrees, and we have the windows open, listening to the sounds of rush hour traffic as people head home for dinner. we're also listening to the radio -- it started on NPR, until eva tired of my "woman radio" and changed it to her "kid music" CD. she's in the driver's seat right now in more ways than one. she keeps changing tracks or stations, adjusting the volume to her liking.

as it turns out (and you may be surprised by our spontaneity in vacation plans), eva is driving us to the airport so that we can then fly to guatemala. apparently, we'll see all of our cousins there. just now, she buckled her bear into the car seat (correctly, too, quite snugly tightened), and both eva and i have our seat belts on as well ("so we can be safe").

why are we sitting in the driveway at 6 pm? well, it all started at 3:00 while driving home from our ice cream date, when i suddenly decided that i must, absolutely right now, clean out the car.

the car has been a huge mess for a few months -- traveling nonstop contributes to this, as does taking a month's worth of stuff plus everything christmas to college station in december. the poor car never really recovered from that. i think we had four of eva's hats, three of her pairs of shoes (one outgrown), and a coat or two for each family member all in the back seat. i feel overwhelmed by such things -- if it's not simple to tidy it up, why even start? -- and the car is just a microcosm of the house. i'm seriously done with the clutter, but feel helpless to overcome it. that's something i need to figure out before this new baby arrives.

so, at 3:00, frustration or a surge of can-do-it spirit or (and this is most likely) nesting urges brought on by pregnancy hormones caused me to drive straight to the car wash place. i did it by hand, feeding quarter after quarter of hope and cleanliness into the little slot. i cleaned every surface of this car, places such as the crevices of the air conditioning vents and the weatherstripping inside the trunk lid. it took two hours. i think the attendant was chuckling to himself watching me -- for all i know, he sees pregnant women scouring the hinges of their car doors on a regular basis.

upon returning home, we showed larry the fruits of our labor, and then eva refused to get out of the car. i so rarely let her play in the driver's seat for an extended period of time, so she's pretty much on cloud nine. now that the street lights and traffic head lights have come on, i think i might try anew to convince her to go inside. i think she gets the power of the driver's seat, and is hesitant to give it up. however, the power of my rumbling stomach will soon tip the balance, and all we have in the car is water and oatios.

who knows, next time i might be blogging from a sturdy branch of a tree.