Saturday, October 14, 2006
Joyridin'
I found the car. It was, of all places, in the parking lot at the train station, on the side headed to New York City. When I came in on Thursday night, it should have been on the New Haven-bound side. That said, I probably walked right by it on Thursday morning as I waited for the train, but didn't even notice it. After all, every third person in this town has silver Beamer. It blended right in with the rest of nature.
A car should never just be left in a driveway on a sunny day, so I scrubbed up and hopped in this afternoon and headed over to Target (Tar-jhay if you're nasty) to pick up some supplies. After about an hour of rummaging around the aisles and trying on some Isaac Mizrahi stuff, I decided to head home. My driving has improved a lot, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. I find that listening to Herbie Hancock's "Headhunters" helps relax me while driving, particurally track number two, "Watermelon Man." I suggest you try it at home. Is he playing a pan flute in the beginning of the song? Someone please advise.
It was too nice of a day to head home after Target, so I kept driving along the post road, stopping once for an eyebrow wax. I got to the center of town and thought I would park and walk up and down Greenwich Avenue. I thought better of it and instead took a few random turns until I was deep in back Greenwich.
I know the area around Old Greenwich, Riverside and Cos Cob pretty well, but the rest of Greenwich is an enormous place that I've never spent a lot of time in. It gets really woodsy, really fast and you can't see all the houses from the street. Nevertheless, on a clear day it's great for joyriding, and I did just that for an hour, taking every random road I could find. I blared the radio and sang along, happy that I not only found the car, but I actually seemed to be good at driving it.
I think that for someone like me, whose driving skills are not what they should be, the Beamer is the perfect car. I know that sounds like a contradiction, since why should a crappy driver have a nice car, but let's look at it logically. Beamers have unmatched handling (yes, even better than a Mercedes) and can stop on a dime. If I have to swerve or stop or just get out of the way, I think a Beamer would keep me out of trouble long before, say, a Nissan or a Buick would. That was epiphany today, and I am pretty sure I'm right.
After driving around for over an hour, I realized I had no idea where I was. I was still in Connecticut, since all the cars in the driveways still had Connecticut plates, but I may as well have been on another planet. I ended up having to go back the way I came on North Street and soon I was on the Post Road.
Tonight I am staying in, watching the house while Doug is off in Denver and beyond, fly fishing. I realized today how huge Greenwich is and I would like to know more people in it. Given that I don't have children and I'm not a member of the Junior League, how does one go about it? There are so many stereotypes about this town, about the hedge find guys and the bored, semi-anorexic housewives and the celebrities who secretly live in the big houses in the woods. What's it all about? I want to know.
