appreciation

December 14 – Appreciate

What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

(Author: Victoria Klein)

I've seen a few responses that others have for this prompt, and they left me feeling pretty shallow.  Things like their freedom, peace, love -- very conceptual things.  It's not that I don't appreciate these things.  I do.  It's just that they are not the first things that come to mind for me.  Actually, my item is so much more tangible. 

About three years ago, I'd put my car out to pasture.  By this time the hubs (who was not the hubs quite yet) and I were living together, I was working in DC, and I was alright with only having one vehicle.  Because, really, I just was not ready to have a car payment again.  There were so many other things to worry about.  So while I was deciding what to do next, I caught public transportation to work and we spent lots of time running errands together.

Fast forward about 5 months.  I was still stalling on a new car note, when his car began having problems.  So, one crazy weekend, I went to Let's Dish, and he went to the car dealer to pick out our pick up.  We parked his Nissan for a few months, paid two car notes (he was upside down in his) and pondered our next move.

We finally, we got the Nissan into what we thought was good running shape.  We were set.  And then summer set in.  And air conditioning and the Nissan began to disagree.  A lot.  We we just a couple of payments shy of paying off the Nissan, so clearly not upside down in the process anymore.  And, in a second crazy weekend, we brought home a new-to-us crossover for me to drive.

After two really solid years of being a de facto one-car household, it has been absolutely wonderful to have a vehicle for each working adult.  While public tranportation is still an option for me, at a 2 and 1/2 hour commute one way, let's say I like it to be one option among several.

So, as shallow as this may sound (and it's actually not really), the one thing in 2010 that I most appreciate is having a car for every driver in our home.