My Blue Bandit

I will never forget Monday, Nov. 20th

Why?

It is the day my last check to the finance company cleared for my first new car. My blue 2000 Nissan Sentra (a.k.a. my blue bandit) is officially mine. This was my second car overall (my first was a refurbished 1991 Dodge Shadow which my mother bought for me in 1997) and I’m very proud of this accomplishment. I worked my ass off (sometimes two jobs while in college) and paid this car off by myself.

I’m not sure where this stacks up in the list of accomplishments in my life. There was my high school graduation (which was important). There was my college graduation (which was very important because I was the first in my immediate family to go to college). There was my first full-time journalism job (extremely important since in 2003 the economy was bad and currently journalism jobs are shrinking faster than Nicole Ritchie’s waistline).

I still have a lot on my checklist (in no particular order or rank based on preference).

1) getting married
2) becoming a father
3) owning a home
4) owning a restaurant and/or a nightclub
5) becoming an NBA or college basketball reporter
6) becoming a sports columnist
7) etc...

I believe these are attainable goals and we’ll see what happens in 5, 10 or 15 years.