La Belleza de Plastico/ The Beauty of Plastic

Meet the Libster

Please meet the Libster, my new car.

She's a 2009 Nissan Versa Hatchback and I like her a lot!

Here's the funny thing. I named her the Libster short for the Liberator. I was thinking that the car is an external symbol of all the changes I've made in my life in the last five years.

Having a car will give me more freedom and flexibility to do some of the things I want to do without worrying about bus and train schedules or what time to return the car rental. Already this past week I've been down to Kirkland to visit a friend, enjoyed grocery shopping without worrying about how dark it was, how rainy it was, or how much I could carry, I've made it out to Blaine to learn some Muay Thai from my Jiu Jitsu teacher, and enjoyed not having to walk home from work in the dark at 1 a.m.

All of that feels liberating. But that's not what the Libster means to me. The Libster is an external symbol that I've focused on making the internal changes I've needed to make in my life. And over time those internal changes have spread outward and now can be seen externally.

Gone are the days when I let someone else tell me where to go or what to do or influence me with fear or guilt or manipulation. I'm calling the shots and I'm in the drivers seat. I've set a ton of goals and accomplished a lot of them in the last five years and I'm working towards others that I hope to achieve in the future.

The Libster is an external expression to myself that I am worth it. I'm worth every penny I'll end up paying on my car loan, I'm worth all the miles I've walked or bused to save the money I've got in the bank, I'm worth all the fun I've had and tears I've cried and sweat I've sweated to get where I am and I'm worth where all that inner determination will take me in the future.

There is no price tag that can be put on life. (For everything else, there's Mastercard ;) ) But just like we choose what stuff ends up on our credit card bill, we choose and create our life. I know I've always followed my heart and followed the road less travelled in many ways, but in the past five years I feel I've become more centered and grounded in myself than ever before.

I've created my life. And I've liberated myself from some sticky webs I've gotten stuck in in the past. Everyday I wake up and create my life. I have no control over a lot of what gets thrown at me, but I do control how I respond to it and and I definitely have control over how I engage in my life and experience it.

Somehow the Libster aka the Liberator sums all that up for me.

So here's the extra funny part. Don, my friend, coworker and Jiu Jitsu teacher was kind enough to point out to me (while laughing hysterically at the same time) that the Liberator is also the name of some type of sex furniture. I'll let you google that on your own but if you're really interested you'll probably have success if you go straight to liberator.com. They are, after all, "the best choice for bedroom adventure gear." Some of it looks kind of cool. Maybe I'll even buy some after I pay off my car loan. Hell, I could even drive to their headquarters wherever it is and load the Libster up to the roof with all kinds of fun stuff. I could even strap stuff on top if I wanted. ha ha ha ;)

I'm sort of attached to the Libster's name now and don't want to change it. So I'm just going to embrace the fact that I will probably be teased at every jiu jitsu class from here on out by Don and whoever else decides that it's funny.

But it's all okay. Afterall, a girl's gotta have a way to get around and have some fun, you know what I mean?