Winter Wonderland

                That car was my life.  I put about 100,000 miles on that Honda, and it never even broke a sweat.  I drove that ole’ girl home every weekend, 3 hours one way, from College Station when I was at A&M, and everywhere else all over God’s green earth.  I sang my lungs out blasting Christina Aguilera, Amy Lee, and Dashboard Confessional all along the way.

                So when I made the call to her CRAPPY insurance the days following the accident, you can imagine I was rather PISSED that they only wanted to give me half of what the car was worth.  I won’t even get started on how retarded Louisiana car insurance is.  So what happened?  Nothing, I got jipped on the value and there was nothing to do about it because it wouldn’t have been cost effective.  My new position was no car, no money to replace no car.  

                New Orleans isn’t such a bad place to live if you are without vehicle.  There are plenty of means of public transportation.  I had always thought that the street car was so touristy, considering every time one passed me by on St. Charles there were about 20 camera lenses aggressively pointing out of the windows.  Turns out, though, that I had a direct line to get to work.  All I had to do was go up Oak 4 blocks, hop on, ride all the way down St. Charles to Peniston, walk 7 blocks, and voilah!  Only problem was this process took about 40 minutes.   Street cars aren’t exactly the fastest moving vehicles on the planet.  That’s not to mention the fact that sometimes 30 minutes alone could be spent just waiting for the car to show up to the stop.  Oh yeah, did I mention it was freezing cold outside during this time of the year?  In summer time it’s hotter than hades, and in winter you freeze your ass off.  Why?  Once again it’s the humidity factor.  Those water crystals in the air feel like tiny needles on your skin when it gets anywhere close to 40 degrees. 

                God bless Pennsylvania.  She was living pretty close to me at the time, and since we worked together virtually every morning, she began offering to swing by and pick me up.  December was upon us, and the weather lady had forecasted the slight chance of snow in the morning.  (Reference: we are still in 2008)  The next day Will came running into my room like a little kid on Christmas morning and sang out “IT’S SNOWING!”  I rolled over, looked at my phone, and it was 7:00 a.m.  I remember thinking to myself, “Hell must be freezing over if Will is awake at 7 in the morning.”

                I rolled out of bed, threw some warmish clothes on, and opened the front door.  Sure enough, there was a gray sludge covering the ground and a micro-snowman sitting atop the trash bin.  Neighbors up in the down the street were outside on their porches also watching the weirdest sight I think I’ve ever seen.  It was snowing in New Orleans, like really snowing.  I have some pictures of this somewhere, I’ll have to dig through my archives and upload a couple. Once again, thank goodness for Pennsylvania, because being from Pennsylvania and all, she knew how to drive in snow.  Will walked me up the street to Rue De La Corse so we could see what the street car track looked like.  I will forever have a picturesque moment painted in my mind of the time I saw the beautiful street car, covered in snow, with a Christmas wreath on the front coming up Carrollton Ave.  The entire drive to work that morning was a little scary, slipping here and there, but beautiful.  By the time we got to the restaurant at 10, all the snow had nearly melted. HA.

                No, I didn’t have a car.  I didn’t have any prospects for a new one either.  I felt for sure though, that everything was going to be alright.  The city was putting on a beautiful show for the spoiled Texas kid.