My Views On Living Without Wheels

 Q from Mike: How do you like not having a car for the first time in near a decade? Those long legs get you around alright?

At first it was sort of a novelty. I was all like “Hey! No car for me! No worries!”. This is how I got through the whole “getting shit for the apartment” stage of moving in without shooting myself. Carrying a heavy kitchen cart up several flights of stairs to the train, squeezing through the turnstile, fighting a crowd while holding an awkwardly sized box, lugging it down the street, and up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment was all looked upon with the attitude of “Funny! It sure is strange not having a car!”.

I’ve become used to walking places much more than I ever have been. When I was in Austin a couple of weeks ago, it was really strange to me that there was fuss parking 3 blocks away from a restaurant, where walking a mile ain’t no thang to me anymore. It’s an odd mindset to be in going grocery shopping and keeping in mind that you have to choose your purchases carefully as you have to carry all this shit home. But at the same time, it’s nice knowing that I can get completely obliterated at the bar and not have to give myself the “am I too drunk to drive test” (read: ask myself ‘have I driven drunker than this?’). This test, has been replaced with the “am I drunk enough to fork over the money for a cab/too drunk and impatient to wait for the train at this hour, test”

So I guess I’m on the fence about the car. On one hand, I’m glad I don’t have a car here, as parking and break-ins are a really bitch, but I do miss the convenience of being in charge of your transportation. You have no idea how I much I miss Natasha.

Shit, I even miss Bessie. But Natasha more than anything. I see a Maxima coming down the street, and I long to be in the drivers seat, caressing that wheel, with my foot firmly on the gas pedal. 

I do not, however, miss the cost of owning a car like Natasha. Although, now that I’m 25 that cost would be significantly lower… But still, I paid nearly $500/month total for that car. Now I pay $76/month for a subway/bus pass. No car payments are a nice thing.

No paychecks, however, are a bad, bad, thing.

Which brings me to the news — I may have a job soon. And get this: a job at Columbia. I don’t want to jinx myself so I won’t say too much, but this has the potential to work out extremely well. I was offered the position, but according to them “All universities take ages to get things done, and Columbia is slower than most”, so being officially hired is about a month out, but they’re working on hiring me casually. Anyway, here’s the best part. Although it may not pay as much as cube-farm type jobs downtown…I get free classes. Who knew getting rejected from a graduate program a few months ago could turn out to be so sweet? That expensive education I wanted might be mine for free.