i love it when my car breaks down.

my engine light has been flashing intermittently for the better part of the year. i finally started officially car shopping after it started steadily glowing orange on my dashboard two months ago. this has been a long-awaited event; my car initially started making shrill, awful break sounds two summers ago, which have been followed by a cacophonous chorus of other metallic clanging sounds ever since. i am that girl on the road.

but who has several thousand dollars laying around for a new car? so i've been nursing it along, committed both to drive my baby to the ground AND not to put a dime more into it than i had to. in the meantime, i've been watching the price on a sliver honda fit slowly drop into my price range. i even called the dealer last week.

two days ago, the engine light mysteriously went off. a good sign, probably. or so i thought until yesterday afternoon during rush hour traffic, when the orange words abruptly started blinking again, and my car completely died while entering the on ramp to a huge, traffic-packed bridge.

ouch.

i panicked for a few seconds, then called my husband several times without answer. i thought about calling AAA but had forgotten my wallet with the phone number. my cell battery was low. finally, on a whim, i called a friend whose husband often travels the same route home, and within 90 seconds he was pulling over in front of me. i was saved.

in the end, andy drove me home, my husband finally called back (and was astonished to find that i'd left the car on the highway :), and then a nice man from AAA towed my car to a scrap metal yard. i made $75 dollars, which will go toward the honda which has already been carefully shopped for and is waiting for me in ohio.

while breaking down during rush hour is never enjoyable, it was the best thing that could have happened. sometimes i feel like i'm just narrowly getting by, and then God reminds me that He has carefully orchestrated so many things that i never notice. even the bad parts are part of a bigger, better story. while i'm sad to see the little clunker go, i will soon be driving a car that doesn't shriek, or rumble, or require a kick to the side to get the air conditioning going.