I gave it the goodbye it deserved.

And that goodbye was one final clunky drive into Bartlett, blasting Blink-182 from the tape deck, avoiding the potholes on Bartlett Boulevard out of fear the entire rear suspension might give.

I took it home and I cleaned it up - top to bottom, inside and out - and along the way, found all sorts of memories.  A dried-up Strawberry Lip Smacker, circa 2003.  The directions to the hotel in Nashville where my college friends met up in 2006.  The Mad Libs that Kara gave me for my birthday in 2004 (that I never filled out; God love her, Kara thought Mad Libs were far funnier than I ever did).  A 2007 map of Illinois that had been rained on and was completely illegible...

And you know....try as I might, even I could not get choked up over a rained-on map and an old tube of lip balm.  Thank you, 1999 Dodge Neon with Sport Package and Rear Spoiler, for the ten years of loyal service you gave me, and especially thank you for not killing me that one time, because that would have sucked.

But you've been out of my life for all of 24 hours now and I barely even remember you anymore, so goodbye, MOVING ON.

I should find more reasons to post Fast and Furious stills.

(In comparison to the Neon, my new car - which I feel for security reasons I should maybe not describe in detail on the internet - is basically one nitrous oxide cannister and a Paul Walker cameo away from being in a mid-series Fast and Furious movie.  It's a fucking step up.)

Yay for adult decisions and surviving the (absolutely horrific) process of negotiating the price of buying a car!

IN OTHER NEWS, I will be gone all this week because I'm going to visit my brother in New York state.  I leave Tuesday, so there's your heads up as to why I'm absent from the internets (or group runs, should you be the type who is accustomed to seeing me in person).

IN THIRD NEWS, Zuckerberg got married over the weekend.  Way to fucking overshadow my car-buying experience, Zuck.  You couldn't just let me have my moment, could you?

This picture was pilfered from Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook profile.

I will never buy Facebook stock.

That's all the news from here for now.  'Till next time...