The Momentous Occasion of Wednesday

My car hit 100,000 miles on Wednesday. What a momentous occasion! I had to pull off the freeway to get pictures with my camera phone. As I drove down a residential street, waiting for it to go from 99,999 to 100,000, I started thinking.

I bought the car about three and a half years ago in December of 2004. When I bought it, it had 56,000-something (almost 57,000) miles. I’ve put about 43,000 miles on it since then. And oh, the things that have happened in those 43,000 miles. I spent the rest of the drive home thinking about it and this is what I came up with—though obviously there’s lots, lots more.

- Trips to California—Christmas with Kaitlin, a twelve hour drive back alone, Joel surprising me. March with Mike and Jackie. “Gambling on the Sabbath.” May for Heather and Kyle. Picking up people along the way for a last minute trip. July for Jackie and Carson.
- Three different jobs—American Family, the law office, and the insurance office here that I was only at for a week. And my interview for the bank that I’ll be starting at later this month.
- All my different apartments (and different roommates)—Orem (Jackie and Kim), Raintree (Tamara, Aubry, Annie, Nicole, Kristin a.k.a. “Helga”, Heidi, Danielle, Chelsey, and Laura—but not all at once), 443 (Tamara again, Tasha briefly but not briefly enough, and Emily), 660 (Emily again), and Emerald Park (Mitchell!).
- Lavish. Measuring Brigham’s Square. Board parties. Chocolate covered strawberries. Surprise orange cream cake. Counting parking spots. Jones soda. Mystery "fire station" houses.
- Classes at UVSC. 7 am classes at UVSC. Last minute studying in the Testing Center parking lot. Trying to drive with cupcakes for my classes.
- Backing into my wall to get hot chocolate. Learning to buy new tires. A new transmission that was (thankfully) covered by my warranty.
- Hospital trips. Mitch at 3:00 in the morning in December. Liz after her car accident. CPM’s sister.
- Things with friends. The Bachelor at Jackie and Carson’s. Talking at Heather’s house. Going to Real games with Erin. Summer Adventures with CPM. Rock climbing and Café Rio with Yellow and Em. The Spanish Fork Bat Cave. The Park City purse endeavor (twice). The opera. The ballet. The theatre. The outdoor movies. The Owls games. The walks along the Provo River Trail.
- Service. Flat Brandon. Starting Krishna's car. Visiting old people.
- Moving Em to Utah. Having a New Best Friend/Roommate to do things with. Driving her to work at 1:30 in the morning. Trips around town. Geocaching.
- Camping. Twice. (Really!) At the sand dunes and at Strawberry Reservoir.
- Friends’ weddings. Heather and Kyle. Jackie and Carson. Kim. Cassie. Joel. Jared. Roger. Kaitlin. Julianne. Etc.
- My wedding. Dress shopping. Meeting with the decorator. Trips to get shoes and jewelry.
- Temples. Provo and Salt Lake for baptisms. St. George just from the outside. Jordan River and Mt. Timpanogos for sessions. Salt Lake for my sealing. Oakland for just about everything.
- Church. Driving to the Clyde Building so that we didn’t have to walk. Different callings. Driving all over town to get the things I needed for a Murder Mystery, an Amazing Race, an ice skating party with 36 dozen donuts, and all sorts of other things.
- Getting Abby. Finding a kitten that looked just like the one down the street. Taking Abs in for the worst day of her life.
- Moving to San Francisco. A new apartment. A new ward. A new temple. New friends, new gym, new shopping.

And then there have been the little things. The grocery store. The dentist. Trips to the gym. Taking flowers to a friend that just had surgery. Surprise hot cholating. Shopping. (Oh the shopping.) All those little things that put together make me who I am. And for all of them, my car was there. I know it sounds silly but, my car was there for it all.