Ya know…When I tell people that my husband an I share one car and that we car-pool to work, I usually get blank stares followed by responses like:
You only have one car?!
How do you function?!
I’m so sorry!
That must suck!
I usually shrug my shoulders and say, really, it’s not that big of a deal. We don’t NEED two cars. For those people who know us well, know that my husband and I are recycling freaks, and we’re environmentally-friendly, so we see it as one less car on the road creating pollution. Also, we both work within 10 miles of our house, and we only work about 5 miles away from each other. (This is also convenient when we bike to work in the warmer months.)
Not to mention, we save boatloads of money. Instead of two car payments, we only have one. Instead of two car insurance bills, we only have one. Instead of having to maintain and clean two cars, we only have to worry about one. (You get the picture.)
More often than not, even after I rattle off all of these points about how carpooling isn’t that bad, the person I’m speaking with still ends up looking at me incredulously.
“I don’t know how you do that,” they say.
At this point, I smile because I’m thinking of all of the other good things that come out of carpooling to work with your husband–Things like…
- Spending extra time together in the mornings and evenings. (Some of our best conversations happen during our work commutes.)
- Singing obnoxiously loud together to songs on the radio.
- Arguing aloud with Maxwell, Stansbury and Chunk on WMMS on the way home from work (although both of us are too chicken-shit to call in and actually voice our opinions).
-Laughing together when we listen to the phone taps on Elvis Duran’s Morning Show (96.5 KISS FM).
-Deciding what we’re going to have for dinner that night. (Trust me, when it comes to food, it is absolutely necessary that I know when and what we’re eating because I’m hungry all the time!).
-And the #1 Best Thing About Carpooling with Your Husband: Grooving to the music!
Yeah, we’re infamous for our coordinated goofy dancing. So the next time you pull up to a blue Mazda3 at a red light, and the couple inside is flailing their arms and bobbing their heads, you can guarantee it’s the Clueless Newlywed and her husband spending quality time together.
I swear, it really is the little things in life that count the most.
VOGUE. STRIKE A POSE! (And in case you’re wondering, I did a box-like hand gesture around my head while simultaneously pretending that I was Madonna. Not that that’s something I do on a regular basis or anything…)
