Some days, you just know.

Earlier this week, in what has been a beautiful, pre-autumn wonderland with sunshine and chilly breezes, I walked downtown three times in less than 24 hours. The girls and I got ice cream. We went to breakfast. The whole family had lunch.

Lord help us when the sandwich shop (which, incidentally, is getting a liqu-or lic-ense, said sing-songily), Cozi, opens later this fall. I'm going to need a job to support my downtown eating habits.

So Steve leaves for Montana and I have this car, to do with what I will. I have an errand at the mall I want to run, so the girls and I get this parking spot, get all of our crap out of the car, go inside, walk through the entire building, realize they don't have what I want, go to the food court (promised Carolyn french fries. I know. Bad mommy), become annoyed with busy food court, return to car, put all of my crap back inside car, get annoyed by other drivers and, finally, leave.

Driving sucks.

It's just not that great, this whole I-have-a-car-that-I-can-use-whenever-I-want. Sure, it's nice to have the option of driving downtown, which I almost did today until I thought about what a huge pain it would be. Even with a mile between our house and downtown, walking is still easier, most of the time.

Now, we'll see how I feel at the end of February.

Failing again.

I had the most annoying bus experience. EVER. Take 300 college sophomores, many from the suburbs with an inherent, very vocal disdain for public transit. Add Wal-Mart and six shopping bags per student.

Now, in the midst of calming a cranky baby and trying to reassure a suddenly people-phobic toddler, make sure to forget to ask for one of the five transfers needed to get to the store (Meijer, not Wal-Mart, for the record) to buy a mouse for a late-90s model Mac because your new computer is still in the shop, especially if it's the last transfer and that route only runs once an hour and you have a baby, now very cranky, a toddler, no stroller and a mile separating you from home.

I mentioned the college students, right?

Da-dan-da-dannnn. Steve to the rescue, yet again. Seriously, if I was alone with the girls and didn't have a car, I would so totally be shopping at the gas station. They sell pizza. How bad could it be?

And FYI, nothing feels quite as ghetto as waiting on the street corner with your two kids for your husband to come drive you home. I swear, I'm never going out again. NEVER.

OK, maybe some day, but not tomorrow.

How many times can I fail before I finally give it up and realize I need a car. Ten? Twenty? A hundred?

Did I mention that my computer is pre-Turn of the Century? Awesome.

Back To My Real Life

Now that I've returned to loading groceries into a car, things in Normal are becoming more, well, normal. The girls and I have returned to afternoons spent taking therapeutic walks to the park or wandering the library.

It's nice, this ability to stop shopping every minute of the day. Yesterday we were able to examine a spider's web and watch a bulldozer in action without my worrying that I'll need to piece together a dinner with only white rice and apple sauce.

Some of you might have been brought here from Weekend America . While I'd love for you to read every word of my long, often bitchy, blog, I'll just give you the highlights.

From the first bus trip, to the annoyance of ordinary shopping trips, to the romance of walking to the movies in the rain after a disastrous trip to Springfield, the month in July proved a car isn't always necessary, but life without it can be the tiniest bit difficult, especially when your 2-year-old has learned that protestor tactics work really, really well. Don't get me wrong, we had fun but there were things I missed, A LOT (I'm thinking of you, yoga girl).

Wow. That's it in a nutshell. The month felt a lot longer than that.