Behind the Wheel

Matt and I have embarked on another first as a married couple. We picked up our "new" car from West Herr Toyota a week ago.

Here's the new member of our family, our 2001 Toyota Corolla:

Matt is besides himself over this car and the awesome warranty that we got with it. I, on the other hand, was more concerned with establishing this car as "our" car. Part of this involves indoctrinating it into our lives. We travel a lot, so a road trip was in order. This was easy because we had to go to Buffalo to buy the car, so a NYS Thruway trip was built in.



The second part was making sure the car became accustomed to our music. I immediately switched on CFNY out of Toronto to give the Corolla its first taste of "modern rock" under our ownership. I then put my iPod on with a carefully chosen list of songs:

The Smiths - Sheila Take A Bow
Coldplay - Talk
The Smiths - Shoplifters Of the World
Morrissey - I Am Hated For Loving
Depeche Mode - Never Let Me Down Again
The Cure - Mint Car
ABC - The Look of Love
Depeche Mode - A Question of Time
The Bravery - An Honest Mistake
Archers of Loaf - Harnessed in Slums
Avril Lavigne - My Happy Ending
Jill Sobule - I Kissed A Girl
ABC - Be Near Me
The Cars - Let's Go
Incubus - Megalomaniac
Cake - The Distance
Cranes - Jewel
The Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Joseph Arthur - Redemption's Son
AC/DC - Shook Me All Night Long
Love Spit Love - Am I Wrong
The Smiths - Sweet and Tender Hooligan
MC Lars - Download This Song

This might seem over the top, but when I got my first car back in July 1997, I made sure the first thing I popped in the cassette desk was a copy of Morrissey's Viva Hate. After that, the first station I programmed was WBER. The first road trip came days after we got the car, when I drove it to the former-Finger Lakes Performing Art Center for the first Lilith Faire. That car is still in our family and has over 185,000 miles. Coincidence? I like to think not!