Being Carless is the new awesome

After 21/2 years of owning a car in San Francisco, I decided that it was time to give going carless a try. Although to my Berkeley friends I might try to play this off as my desire to get a little more exercise and save the environment, it actually has a lot to do with the fact that my car smelled like it was going to explode every time I drove it, and that I paid more than its value in parking ticket and towing fees last year alone. Plus, have you guys seen the price of gas these days? Sheesh.

I decided to donate the Mercury Mystique. Initially, I wanted to give her to some self-sufficiency program, where she would be donated to homeless (or financially compromised persons) in a rehabilitation program in need of a vehicle. But those guys never got back to me about taking my car, so I ended up donating it to a program for “underprivileged youth” (which conveniently gives you a 3 day hotel stay at a location of your choice in the bargain. Ah, charity).

I had this car for 10 years. Here she is, in her natural San Francisco habitat:

My car has not had an easy life. She had to live on the street the entire time I owned her, had many a torrid affair with a tow truck, had her bumper tried and tested here in the city, and has been affectionately dubbed the "Mercury Mistake" by my auto mechanic. She even had to endure the bumper stickers that have been on there since college:


Cleaning the Mystique out was kind of like unearthing a time capsule. I found mix tapes and cds from old boyfriends, every pen I have ever lost, and stickers, photos and other mementos from the last 10 years.


So what do you do when you are donating your car to charity the next day?
Well. First, you bake a cake:


Then you get all your friends to pile in the back seat of the Mystique...:


... and drive up to Twin Peaks to use the last of the gas in the tank and sit on the hood eating cake while overlooking the city!



It was pretty good cake, but too cold for forks.

right paul?

this is us pretending we are at EFY.


I would like to point out that betsy ignored all counsel to bring a jacket to the car party because she said that "her outfit really wouldn't accommodate any bulky outerwear." But, once we got to the top of Twin Peaks, it was so cold that she had to wrap herself in this stylish blanket, and you can't see her perfectly preserved ensemble anyway!


You were a good car, Mercury Mystique. Look how happy I am to drive you.


This morning she ran off with another tow truck. And if I know her, it won't be her last.