So I decided to get my car washed this morning…

My car, I must confess, hasn’t been cleaned professionally… well… ever! I may live in Cali, but I’m a country girl at heart. I don’t need someone to clean my stinkin’ car, I’ll clean it myself. However, it was getting to the point where I just couldn’t stand the dirt and gravel that I got in it 3 years ago at my niece’s 13th birthday party when I took her and her friends out to toilet paper the neighborhood.

No, that’s not vandalism… it’s Arizona, so they don’t mind. Especially since one of her friends wanted us to toilet paper his own house… That’s kind of like something we’d do when we were younger…

Anyway, to get back to the story, my mom and I were getting ready for a concert out in Norco – Horse Town USA – that afternoon, so I thought it might be the best time to pay someone else my hard earned money to clean my car. I took it up to the corner shop by our house and paid some extra pennies to have it waxed and smell good… I had the choice of Strawberry, Jasmine, some other flower smell, froo froo something, etc… I also had the choice of New Car Smell, but who am I kidding? My car isn’t new, so why give the illusion that it is? I’m just lying to myself and everyone else, right? Well, it’s only 3 years old this June and it was brand new when I bought it so maybe… I asked him if they had Coconut or anything that smelled like that – or islandy – and he said they had a new smell in – Black Ice… It pretty much smelled like old tire… Yeah, not coconut, but I laughed and said something along the lines of “yeah, that’s a bit strong”… Had a good laugh out of it. I decided on Vanilla… a safe choice, but a good one. I handed over my keys and went on my way.

As I was walking around the neighborhood, something that I’ve never done in the 27 1/2 years I’ve lived here (aka my whole life), because I’ve always been driven or drove myself, I realized just how close  a lot of restaurants and shops were to my house. I needed to go to Kinkos anyway to print off some things, so I walked down the street and enjoyed the wonderful Cali sun for a while… I even had a Kinkos prepaid card with me… Extra bonus! As I walked back to check on my car, I realized I didn’t have my ATM on me… I’m sure there was no chance of having them take the rest of my Kinkos prepaid card either. Well, no matter how old you get, if you still have your mommy, be thankful for her! My mom jumped in the car and came to my rescue! I paid for the service and then waited for my car…I won’t get into how long it took (2 hours instead of the 30 minutes promised) and that my car wasn’t completely done (they tried to hand me back my keys before scraping the scum outta my rims), but all in all, I probably could’ve done it myself, but I have to say, the rest of it was a great job. My car was shiny, looked like new, smelled like Vanilla, and drove like a dream… that last one is of course because of me… I take care of my car.

So back to the original point… If you have something important to do that same night, don’t get your car washed that same day. Be smarter than me, yes smarter than me, and get it done another day. I ended up rushing home, popping a few curls in my hair, threw on my clothes, and tossed my make-up in the car. Not exactly the way you wanna start off to a concert, but I was proud when people pointed out my car, and I could be cool and say, “Yeah, I just had it washed”… and I didn’t do it myself.