1) Lately, I’ve been feeling embarrassed about my older car and wishing I had something new and flashier. I hate having these moments of embarrassment because it’s fine to have an older car. There’s nothing morally better about having a newer model, and my car drives just fine right now. And also, I just got it paid off and there’s no way in hell I want another car payment right now. But still, there’s the sense of embarrassment that my car is 13 years old and is nearing 125,000 miles, and doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of newer cars. No Bluetooth or backup cameras or self-closing trunks. It’s old and slow. I’m trying to remind myself that a car is not a measure of financial stability. Those with newer cars aren’t better with their money than those with older cars. (In fact, it’s probably the opposite.) And this little old lady I’m driving is my first car, something I got on my own and paid off in full due to my own hard work. That’s something to be proud of.
2) I’ve been having a ton of anxiety when I’m driving on the highway. This is a problem since I have to drive on the highway to get to work. It usually appears right as I’m merging into traffic, which can often be a scary task for anyone with all of the cars flying by. And I know the anxiety is due to my recent highway snafus, with tire blowouts happening right during the morning rush hour. (The first tire blowout happened as I was merging, so there ya go.) I’ve never been a particularly fearful driver, which I know may seem crazy with how fearful I am about everything else in my life. It’s probably due to the defensive driving skills my dad taught me (hey, he was good for some things!) and I’m a pretty good driver as it is. So this highway anxiety is a new experience and I don’t like it at all. I’ve yet to have a straight-up panic attack, the kind where I have to pull over and calm myself down. But the signs are there – heavy breathing, racing heart, overheated body – and I have to take a lot of deep breaths and remind myself that I know what to do if something happens. I’ve done it twice already. I’m not really sure what more I can do to help myself through this anxiety, but I’d sure love for it to disappear any day now.
3) It looks like my days of wearing contacts are coming to an end. I had a feeling this was coming, due to my worsening astigmatism. I’ve had astigmatism for a while now, probably since my early college days, and I used to have no issue with contacts. I wore toric lenses, which are specifically designed for those with astigmatism, and never had an issue. But over the past year, wearing contacts (especially at work) was growing more and more uncomfortable. The contact would move around in my eye and get stuck in a position that made my vision blurry. So I’d have to constantly put rewetting drops in my eyes and move the contact around to get my clear vision back. It’s really annoying, and I talked to my eye doctor about it at my last appointment and he agreed with my assessment that wearing contacts for everyday use is probably not the best thing anymore. For most people with astigmatism, the contact can move around a bit and they can still see fine. But when you have really bad astigmatism, one simple rotation and you suddenly can’t see at all, which is what I’ve been experiencing. So, I’m going to switch to wearing glasses most of the time (the main reason why I bought prescription sunglasses finally!) and getting daily contacts to use when I don’t want to wear glasses.
4) I’ve been thinking about the next place I want to travel to. I thought about planning another cruise for the spring of 2019, and I might still do that, but what I would really love to do is see the Grand Canyon. It’s one of those bucket list items for me, something I’ve always dreamed of. I think it’s time to make it happen for me next year. I haven’t spent a ton of time researching about taking a trip to the Grand Canyon, just did some digging about where to stay for a trip like this, but I think I might dive into the research and planning more deeply in the next few months. (And yes, I would like allllll of your recommendations because I don’t really know what I’m doing here.)
5) August 28th is the midterm primary for Florida, and for some reason, I requested a mail-in ballot for the first time ever. I don’t even know why because we have the option for early voting and voting on election day isn’t really that big of a deal for me. (I could always work from home that day.) But I got my ballot in the mail a few weeks ago and have let it sit on my counter since then. Realizing that election day is imminent, I finally opened it up only to discover I had waited too long to fill it out and would have to go to a physical location to drop it off. Still, it was nice to fill it out in the comfort of my home and take my time looking at each candidate and position and making an educated vote. And, since I’m dropping it off instead of mailing it in, I should still get an “I Voted” sticker, and isn’t that the point of these elections? (Joking, of course.)
Where would you like to travel next?
Darn it, I waited too long too. Are the library locations still open?
I have a really bad astigmatism (been in glasses since 3rd grade!) and a few years ago when I got a new eye doc, we did a trial with contacts in the office. My eyes rejected the contacts in less than 10 minutes and now I’m the proud owner of trifocals for my regular glasses and special computer glasses. Even all these years in glasses and wearing them 99% of the time I’m awake, and my eyesight still doesn’t improve!
Grand Canyon tip– fly into Vegas and drive down from there!
Ahh, isn’t getting older just grand?! 🙂 And wouldn’t it be nice if wearing glasses and taking care of our eyes improved our eyesight? Instead, it just gets worse no matter what we do!
Thanks for the tip about the Grand Canyon! Flying into Vegas would be fun! I’ve never been, so I’d knock out two states with one trip. Niiiice. 🙂
You definitely shouldn’t feel embarrassed about having an older car. I drove my 2003 Honda Accord until it died on the side of the road and I was SO proud of the fact that I drove it for 13 years. I was hoping it would last even longer so was disappointed when it died on me (the transmission went out). Now we have a Corolla and a Camry and we intend to keep these cars for 10+ years. But I am so not a car person. It was nice to upgrade to a car with Bluetooth and a back up camera but I loved my Accord! When Phil and I met in 2012, he was driving a 1997 Camry (I think that was the year of his car?) and when he picked me up for our date, I told him that I was more impressed that he was driving an old car than I would have been by someone who picked me up in a new BMW as it said something about his financial management. But I just hate that cars are seen as status symbols. I’d much rather drive an older, paid off car than a flashy new car with a hefty monthly car payment!
I just *barely* voted in our primaries a couple of weeks ago. Phil had something after work so I had Paul on my own until just after 7. I was so tired and the last thing I wanted to do was go anywhere at 7 at night to vote, but I did because I knew it was important.
Have fun planning your Grand Canyon trip! That’s somewhere I’d love to go someday. We don’t have any travel plans. Traveling with a baby just doesn’t sound fun. I know they are somewhat ‘easy’ to fly with but he still naps so much so we would spend a lot of time in the hotel room watching him sleep… But we might try to go somewhere in February to get away from the cold. By then he’ll be down to 2 naps a day so it feels a little more manageable to do things with him. But we’ll see. This might just be a season of life when we don’t travel!
Thanks for that perspective, Lisa! I definitely hate that new cars are seen as a status symbol when really, driving an older car is the better financial choice. But man, what I wouldn’t give for Bluetooth and a backup camera. 😉
I am so impressed that you voted even with everything going on that day for you! I… probably would have thrown in the towel because I am so damn lazy sometimes. A good reminder!
This may be a season of no travel for you guys, but I hope you can start traveling again as Paul gets older. I can only imagine how much fun it might be to take him on hikes and exploring new places!
You look great in glasses! I’ve worn glasses since 4th grade, never contacts. I tried so hard to get contacts, but always had such anxiety about touching my eye. I got them for the last time for my wedding. Managed to wear them a couple of times the week before, but couldn’t get them in on the actual day. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I will always wear glasses. At least there are so many styles and options to choose from that it can be kind of fun!
I am really happy to be back in the world of wearing glasses full-time! It’s just so much easier than messing with contacts every morning and having to remember to take them out at night. (Can’t tell you how many nights I’m all comfy in bed and then remember I have to get up and take out my contacts – wah!) And it’s also just SO nice to see clearly 100% of the time, rather then the 30% of the time my contacts were actually locked in the right position. Ah!
Don’t be embarassed about your car! Oh man, mine that I crashed was a 2005 and I wish I still had it. Making a payment is really messing me up… and will for several years. Anyway, stay proud of her!!!
I am glad you have tools to deal with the highway merging anxiety but do hope it goes away!!!
Thank you! I really want this girl to last me for a few more years at least because not having a car payment is so, so nice! Just have to get over myself about having an old car. 😉
Don’t be embarrassed about your car! Mine is a 2010, which isn’t THAT old, but it doesn’t have any of those things, either – nope, not even Bluetooth. But it gets me where I need to go, I paid for it with my own money, & it only has 68k miles on it, so it’ll probably last me forever. Be proud of how thrifty you’re being my A) paying it off, & B) not getting another one as soon as you paid it off. Turn that shame into pride! But, if it would make you feel a little better, maybe spend what WOULD have been the cost of one month’s car payment into, like, getting it professionally cleaned & detailed so that it feels & looks as new as possible. 🙂
It’s so funny that you mentioned getting it professionally detailed because I was talking to my mom about that! She gets hers professionally detailed once or twice a year and she says it’s totally worth the money because of how nice and shiny her car looks afterward. I think I’m going to do that soon!
I’ll echo the comments above – driving an older car is 100% a sign of economic brilliance. I drove a 99 civic FOREVER. I was definitely the only managing director driving a car like that. All I have to say is I am now early retired at 47. I’d take an older car over having to work till I’m 60 any day of the week. Wear your older car as a badge of honor.
And, you will great in glasses. Also Grand Canyon is spectacular.
Haha – economic brilliance. I’ll take it!
Yes, yes, yes, you HAVE TO go to the Grand Canyon! It will blow your mind!
In California, everybody gets the option to send in their ballot my mail now, what I find awesome. You don’t even have to request it beforehand, you just get the ballot and either you mail it (which we did for the first time this summer) or you go and hand it in on election day. Either way, that’s the way to make voting easier for lots of people!
I love that California just sends you a mail-in ballot! I feel like that’s something every state should do because it’s just not easy to get to the polls for everyone. Mailing it in or even just dropping it off somewhere is so, so much easier and I really like being able to fill it out from the comfort of my home.
I do that with my car too – I’ve had it for eight years and every single time I drive a rental (which is monthly), I consider getting a new car because I really want blue tooth and a backup camera and I wish I’d waited a year before buying my car because it would have had all that stuff, but I had no way of knowing that then. But it’s silly. My car is fine. It’s FINE. And I really enjoy not having a car payment.
And the Grand Canyon – SO MANY THINGS. It’s incredible. They have lodging there, right by the Canyon, or you can stay in Flagstaff, which is about an hour away and it’s a pretty lovely little town. Route 66 wound through it back in the day, the train tracks go right through it and it’s delightful. Everyone is also super, super nice and friendly. I know you don’t like hiking, but the Rim Trail is paved and goes along the rim of the canyon and is a great way to see it from different angles without breaking your ankle (again!).
Thank you for all this helpful advice about the Grand Canyon! I like the idea of staying in Flagstaff, so I’m going to check into that. I may invest in some sturdy hiking boots for walking around the Grand Canyon – I’m not taking any chances this time!