Goodbye College Years...

Those were my thoughts a couple Sundays ago, when I was looking at my "Ruby" red 3-door saturn that I've had since my college days and gawking over the pearly white CT200h Lexus sitting next to it. Yes folks, that Sunday was a big day. I turned in the keys for my saturn, which served me well, and signed myself away for a 5 year loan on a new Lexus hybrid hatchback.

I have to admit...it was hard. I know it's just a car, but it's only the second car I've had in my entire life of driving; and I drove it for the past 10 years. And, the little red saturn was a very generous gift from my parents, which I'm so grateful for (both the Parents and Ruby).

Ruby, as she was named quite appropriately by my friend Angela, took me a lot of places and has filled me with a lot of memories......

Back and forth 180 miles (roundtrip) approximately every other weekend in college (go dawgs!) to either visit my parents or the Techie boyfriend (now husband)

Several parking tickets...Ruby was red. What can I say. She wasn't hard to miss.

My first solo vacation with a boy (now husband)

Road trips galore:
~Texas, New Orleans, Florida (this was all one trip)
~Montreal, CANADA! for Jazz Fest, which included stops in Hershey, PA; the Adirondacks; Montreal - of course; Toronto; Niagra Falls (both sides); and Ohio, where I saw the prettiest sunset I've ever seen, believe it or not, on Lake Erie.

~Florida several times more
~Cinncinatti, OH with Angela for Gena's 30th, which included repeat stops, coming and going, at McAlister's Deli for oversized, stuff-your-face, loaded baked potatoes

Singing and dancing in the car with girlfriends.

Riding around, just to listen and not miss the monumental sports cast when the dawgs beat the gators for the first time, in who knows how long.

My first real "moving" accident: being rear-ended by a Blazer with Juno ending up in the front seat with me. Luckily no injuries. (Side note and reference to the "moving" accident: the car before Ruby unfortunately had to experience the inexperienced driver's utmost assurance that she wouldn't hit the lawnmower in the garage; I never said depth of field was my forte.)

And so on....{sigh}

But, most importantly, I always got to where I was going.

109k miles strong, Ruby's waiting for new adventures. And new adventures await me with the CT200 Hybrid, which gets 43 City and 40 Highway. It actually charges the battery when you brake!

Luxury combined with being green. It doesn't get much better than that. And, I'm kind of a hippy at heart. I love planet earth.

So here's saying my goodbyes to Ruby and hello to [insert name] Lexus...we'll see how you hold up to her.