Skip to main content

Hatched.

When I was looking for cars, there was one undivertible restriction: It had to be a hatchback. Why? Well, over the years, I accumulated various experiences regarding different types of cars--experiences which eventually cornered me into a hatchback love affair.

I remember my father getting a Saturn sedan when I was a young kid. Maybe it was all the waiting around while they haggled, or maybe it was the (then) appalling new car smell, or maybe it was just the look of the car itself, but I took an instant dislike to the car. By extension, I suppose, I've always thought sedans were kind of uggerz.

So no sedans for me.

In high school, I remember some gas hike or another, and all the discussion of gas-guzzling SUVs. I remember the Hummer especially, that ghastly monstrosity, and all the shame thrown at their owners. I recall how an opinionated friend's despised those particularly, and SUVs generally. (He even wrote a short story about a possessed SUV killing its owner or some such.) I "learned" how unnecessary and even unsightly they were.

So no SUVs for me, either.

But what really did it for me was the Mini Cooper. I remember the new generation's launch in the early 2000s. I was an avid anglophile, then, and instantly thought Minis were the greatest thing ever to car. I recall, too, an article in some magazine lauding its safety features and fun driving. (I have since, as an adult, found out the many drawbacks to owning a Mini--they're especially cramped, overly expensive, and difficult to repair on the cheap.)

So no Minis for me (for now at least), but something about tiny cars with personality still enthralled me.

As I began looking at cars last summer and actually learning about different makes and researching pros and cons, there was an ever-present mandate for a small, peppy hatchback. I didn't even look at anything else.

I didn't end up getting a car then because I realized money existed (or didn't, in my case), but I came up with a short list. Initially, the Ford Fiesta topped that list (in fact, it basically was the list), but eventually the Honda Fit became a close second.

Right near the end of my car search, though, I discovered the Chevy Spark. It was instant enchantment. You could even say it ignited something in me. (I'll just show myself out...)

As I said, I ultimately couldn't get a car that summer, but the Spark lingered in my longings, and--eventually--it worked out. And she's every bit as adorable and fun as I'd hoped.

Comments

Other things that might interest you...

On phases and fixations.

My fixations are powerful, but they can also be maddeningly ephemeral and fleeting. And I hate that; about them and, honestly, about myself. But I’ve never really  asked why I feel that way... I'll commit immense amounts of time and energy and even money to a fixation for a few weeks, maybe even a month or two, sometimes rebranding my whole personality around it, then just...move on. I'm not sure when I first noticed this pattern—if it was always there or if it emerged and intensified over time—but it's been part of me for a long while. And every time I do, I feel such guilt and shame. Who even am I if I can't be consistent, dedicated, substantive? How disingenuous is it that nothing I care about lasts? I’ve always just accepted those feelings; I’ve never poked at them in earnest. If you can’t tell from the recent flurry of activity on this blog, I have been fixated on blogging; I mentioned in a recent post about this blog that I had a compulsion to revamp the whole bl...

Oatmeal is tasty.

{slurps up berry-oatmeal-deliciousness} Indeed. I need to work on rebuilding a morning schedule. I can be zombie-like enough that I'll waste a perfectly good morning, and have often slept through many. And, really, it's such a useful time of day.

My new favorite painting.

I, generally speaking, love art. I wish I understood it better; sometimes I can articulate its effects on me and what I think; at other times, that's tough for me. This is an attempt at understanding art, if only by trying to understand my experience of it.¹ The title of this post is a bit funny, tho: "New" is misleading—I first drafted it 6 years ago in Dec 2017, updated it in Aug 2018, and revised it a bit this week (Feb 2024). I'll write more about visual art and my ability to interact with it another time, but here's what I've got for now. So I finally went. There's a show right now at the Phillips Collection on Pierre-Auguste Renoir, my longtime favorite artist, and I went. I got to see more of his work at one time than I ever have before. And I found myself a new favorite painting among them—not just a favorite out of Renoir's work, but perhaps a favorite among all art I will ever see. The exhibit itself explores the story behind one of Renoir...