driving miss emily

emily's boyfriend was exhausted when we dragged him out of bed saturday morning so i offered to drive.

i haven't driven a car in about two years. new york is the only city i can think of where it's nearly impossible to keep a car. everyone in l.a. drives as public transportation there is sorely lacking. the el/buses in chicago are decent but there's plenty of room for street parking and lots of people even have garages or parking spaces behind their houses.

in new york, it is just not feasible. they clean each side of the street twice each week which means you could have to move it 4 times a week. street space is non-existent. parking garages start at some $500 a month. it's all a mess.

but i've found that driving is a bit like riding a bike. you can't really forget how to do it. i've found that my foot is still as leaden as ever. but i was so focused on the driving and afraid i'd mess up somewhere i wouldn't even glance off the road to adjust the air conditioning. it didn't help that the steering wheel was so sensitive that if you moved the thing a hair you found yourself switching lanes.

in high school, i used to eat while driving. i had opera season tickets in high school and was always running late so as i drove downtown i'd put on makeup (curled eyelashes and all), change clothes and even change shoes (rock on cruise control) while on my way to the lyric.

looking back i'm realizing how completely crazy/reckless/stupid that was and how lucky i was to have never gotten into an accident but seriously, it's such bad taste to show up late to the opera!

otherwise the beach was fab. the weekend weather was amazing and i didn't put nearly enough sunscreen on yesterday and am so burned that my bra straps are punishing me with every turn.