Red Phones (& Other Things)

Wednesday night found me in Pasadena at the military commissioning banquet for Western, where I sang for my supper--one 3-part "Star Spangled Banner" in exchange for one 3-course meal. Of course, the highlight was dessert: wee round yellow cake layers, between which were layers of creme freche and strawberries, collared by crisp white chocolate. WIN. It was inspiring to listen to all the speakers and be a part of their fraternity for a night. It made me want to join the Navy. But then I remembered two things:

1. I wouldn't pass the PE test in a gazillion years.
2. I kind of don't like other people to be the boss of me.

So...I guess I'll remain a civilian. I did score a pirate gold coin though from the president of Western's military group (AMOPS), for my singing service. I am required to produce said coin at any given moment should any member of AMOPS demand it. If I fail in this mission, I owe them a beverage of their choice. I also found out that the flight surgeon for the Blue Angels is a Western grad. That's kind of bad-ass. Then I learned that there is always at least one flight surgeon on every space shuttle expedition. How would you like to be that guy? You go into a bar and some chick asks you what you do for a living and what do you say? "Well, really, what don't I do? I'm a surgeon. AND an astronaut." It was then that fellow choir-pal Julia remarked, "You know, I have a red phone at home." I excitedly asked why, and she shrugged, rolling her eyes dramatically, "Well, because I'm kind of a big deal, you know." Not quite as big as surgeon/astronaut guy, but still. Red phone big.

And then what? When someone calls, what do you say? "Yes, hello, I'm very busy and imporant. State your business."

In other news, I am equal parts defeated and jubilant to report that Matt and I failed in our 7 year mission to be a single car household. All the same, it was a rad-ass fail:

Oh, Mini Cooper, how I love thee...

Matt has wanted one of these suckers for years, and we knew that we'd have to buy a second car within the next 5 months to a year. I personally was thinking more like "October" or "next June", but Matt was thinking more like "now." I was primed to score a late 90s Honda Civic or let Toyota pay me to take one of their cars off their hands, but Matt about went into orbit after test driving this. I pushed for the white roof and bonnet stripes, but sadly lost out.

And you know what? I'm kinda fine with it.

I have thus named it, simply, Mini. Having this car illustrates just how ridiculous it is to have a monstrous SUV when you have no kids and no pesky outdoorsy, kayak-y habits. We like our cars like we like our dogs: stubby. And this corgi-sized car is more loaded than humans deserve: we got sunroofs. We got the ipod jack. We got leg room. We got a sweet stereo. And we can circle the globe 3.87 times before refueling. Mini has yet to fail us in our day-to-day capacities, and it's way easy to park.

It's no red phone, but...does Mini kind of make me a big deal now?