seriously?

Once upon a time it was 2:17 a.m. on Saturday, and my phone rang.

Typically this would not be so dramatic an affair, excepting that a.) it was 2:17 a.m. and me and the rest of my friends in the AARP had been asleep since 10 p.m.; and b.) because of the volume of the box fan in my bedroom I've had to take my phone off of vibrate in the night lest the alarm not wake me up in the morning, and what that means in THIS particular situation is that at 2:17 a.m. on Saturday I was awakened by Robert Plant screaming "HEY HEY MAMA SAID THE WAY YOU MOVE GON' MAKE YOU SWEAT GON' MAKE YOU GROOVE" all kinds of right up in my dead asleep face.

It can be slightly upsetting to one's blood pressure.

Turns out, though, the phone call was from friend and upstairs neighbor Megan, who wanted to let me know that the light inside my car was, in fact, sending out a beacon of light into the darkness.

I immediately pulled my pants on and headed outside, at which time I shared with her what I very much knew to be true -- that light had been on since 9 p.m. Thursday. THURSDAY. Did you forget that this story takes place on Saturday? At 2:17 a.m.? You doing the math? Yeah, the only proper response there is whooooopsie!

So I turned the light off and headed back in the house where I had an absolute bitch of a time getting back to sleep, but y'all -- at 10 o'clock Saturday morning when I put the key in the ignition to head down to the library and do some farmer's market hopping, it turned over like a champ. Not even one single ounce of opposition to the idea. And that light had been on for almost 30 hours.

Let me tell you about my car. The Green Bean. She's a little Mazda from a year long, long ago, and she's about old enough for a learner's permit and pierced ears and a glass of wine with dinner. But by god, I don't know what it is. And I won't say it out loud, and don't YOU even say it out loud as you read this -- there is a distinct possibility that the Green Bean is I-N-V-I-N-C-I-B-L-E.

I swear to GAWD if you just said that out loud. Knock on wood or something, and do it quick.

cheers,
elizabeth