it's a special day . . . for my car

Laugh at me all you want, but today I'm celebrating my car on her 3rd birthday!

Showing her off on the day I brought her home

Let me tell you about my beloved blue '08 Toyota Corolla LE that I got on Sep. 14, 2007.  Her name is Ginny; it's short for Virginia.  She got her name because I bought her so that I could move to Virginia!  I had never actually had a car before her.  I had driven the extra family car (a '95 Volvo named Vlad the Impaler) my senior year of high school, but then my sister promptly took it back when I started college. 

So I spent all my college years taking busses, bumming rides, and walking up and down large hills, and then I moved to Jacksonville for AmeriCorps with no money and making no money either, still bumming rides but also riding a bike most of the time (which was then stolen!).  Thanks to everyone I bummed rides off of -- I promise I have and will continue returning the favor to friends in need.

As for my car, she has 43,713 miles now and has seen many wonderful things in her life so far.  She has had both a Georgia tag and a Virginia one (she had to get holes drilled in her front end for that!), with a Florida one probably coming soon.  She has endured countless trips from Norfolk back to Atlanta, and she has been through every tunnel in the Hampton Roads area (her favorite being the awe-inspiring Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, although she was not a fan of the massive toll).  The farthest north and east she has been is Pelham, NY, in which trip she had to endure the obnoxious New Jersey Turnpike (and its tolls), and the farthest south and west she has been is right here in Pensacola.  Her favorite road to drive is US 58 going east between South Hill and Emporia in Virginia. 

She has been in one wreck - a very minor fender-bender on Atlantic Avenue in Virginia Beach on Labor Day weekend of 2008, but it was not her fault and she got her damaged fixed promptly.  In that same year, she got a nail in her tire tread, but it was patched quickly and cheaply.  She has had absolutely no maintenance problems and always passes inspection on the first try.  She learned how to parallel park on the streets of the Ghent neighborhood in Norfolk.  The best gas mileage she has ever gotten was 39 mpg on the highway. 

Last year for her birthday, she got a hibiscus tattoo on the bottom right side of her trunk (a "tramp stamp" as my cousin called it), and earlier this year she got some University of Georgia decals for her back window, along with a small yellow ribbon magnet to the left of her back plate.  For her birthday this year, she already got new windshield wipers, and she is asking for a new air freshener.  And maybe new tires eventually.

That's my car - happy birthday Ginny!  Here's to many more happy and catastrophe-free years together!