a story about a man who went to see about a horse somewhere far away or something like that

hey!! it’s friday!!!

in honor of this here friday, let me share a funny story from, oh i don’t know… four weeks back. four weeks exactly, actually! about a man who went to see about a horse in arizona.

that man was steven. the horse was a car. and arizona was arkansas. i just get those A states mixed up every now and then.

ANYWAY! backing up a little… more than a year ago, my husband and i made the very practical decision to swap cars… even though i loved my car. however! i had an older 4runner with no third row, a little girl starting kindergarten, a third baby on the way, a dearest girlfriend who was going to have a third baby aaany minute, and ultimately… the need to hold more kiddos in a car. steven had a silver infiniti jx that we bought off of his parents and it had a third row. so, it made the most sense for us to just quickly switch cars. this was under the assumption, i think, that we would eventually sell the my car [waa!], steven would get his car back, and we’d nail down the perfect brittany-and-babies vehicle, that i could never possibly love as much as i loved my 4runner.

so swap, we did! fast forward a year later, though, and we’d ended up selling my 4runner and getting steven another car, because a good opportunity arose to purchase a vehicle that he really liked… ironically, a land cruiser the same year as my 4runner [both toyota suvs]. we were all really excited for him to get it! it’s fun to drive and ride in, and i didn’t have a good new-car plan, myself. i still honestly wanted another 4runner with a third row, even though i knew it would be too small. but i’m a picky person [what? how about selective individual] and i only liked my 4runner. the silver car was still a smidge too tight for all of our daily needs, and my back ached when i drove it for long [i was also pregnant for a lot of that], and i was just in a car funk! let’s just say… i believe my husband was growing tired of my car funk.

sidenote! i really like black suvs. it’s just a thing i have. i don’t know! my first car was a was white, though, a white chevy blazer, and i loved it. so, i like white, too! and yes, my 16 year old dream car was a blazer. i like to keep my goals attainable, and i drove that thing oh so happily until it wasn’t the best choice to commute 5 hours from college. and then, after the flood that totaled my black nissan pathfinder [good times!], all i wanted was a black suv with 4 wheel drive. i just like to know that i can drive over things, if necessary. haul things, even! this is how you’re wired when you grow up with horses. anyway, i remember steven showing me the listing for a silver volvo suv that was for sale that summer. it looked like a terrifically decent car! but no, no. it just wasn’t my terrifically decent car. so i waited… and eventually, i found my rugged, unfancy 4runner! it didn’t have buttons on the steering wheel, it definitely didn’t have a big fancy screen, and it was literally the best car ever. i mean, by the time i was having baby number 3, it was getting up there in age and did have a few fixable things starting to go awry… but still. best car ever.

also… i feel like car memories are so fun and important! don’t we all have those sentimental memories of road trips with the fam? or the sound of the blinker as you fell asleep in the back seat while your dad drove everyone home from an evening out… or who you drove around with in high school! and what music you listened to. steven had a “poop brown” lexus [his words!] with two 10s in the back that made his postal service jams really come out booming. there was mary’s 4runner as we blasted third eye blind and went way too fast over the train tracks! or this one night parking my blazer out in the field in the summertime playing kenny chesney and making clover chains with some of my neighbor friends. oh! and doing donuts in the snow with my dad in the winter. awww. anyway. i’m all about the mems. maybe not the ones involving citations. i digress!

and so, we talked and we talked about what could be the next potential vehicle for me and the kiddos! a suburban wouldn’t fit in our garage. so that’s out. a yukon or tahoe? i kind of wanted to stick with japanese. so, a sequoia? i’d never driven one, but they also kind of seemed a haaair too big?? maybe a nissan armada? i had driven an older model and liked it. and the newer ones are so pretty! but they’re also made by infiniti, so i was worried about a few things i didn’t love about the car i was already driving. anyway, i was absolutely positive i couldn’t quite enjoy anything like i enjoyed my silly 4runner. untiiiiiil………

until steven sent me listings of the perfect brittany car… located in arkansas? ughhh, fine. fine!!!!! i had to admit it… i was pretty positive this was my dream. car. all black. and shiny. kinda rugged. but kinda fancy? it was none other than a newer version of steven’s car! a land cruiser. and, SURE, there was also a white version available here in town… i was open to it? it would match my purse! but it would not match my dog. see, there are lots of aspects to consider. 😉 [KIDDING. mostly.] either way, white wasn’t my number 1, only because it wasn’t black, and steven adamantly didn’t want to waste energy on not-my-favorite.

regardless, i let all of this go, because i had a really good vehicle to utilize, aside from my own personal incompatibility. also, only a crazy person would buy a car in arkansas when they live in tennessee. and only an even crazier person would instruct their husband to go buy and retrieve them a car in arkansas. we should wait, i said! we should wait for the *right* one to pop up around here. i also don’t like people going out of their way on my behalf. i also do not like spending money, except for when i do like it. i literally had no capacity left to discuss car options, and i swore i would not say another word about my car funk. but he did not believe me. no, he did not. and he had good reason to believe that selective brittany’s dream car was probably not going to just pop up nearby soon enough to appease us all.

so! that friday, as usual, i texted that husband of mine the details on our friday happy hour with our friends. he said he would not make it. i said, mostly kidding, “are you in arkansas?” and he responded with, “not yet…” along with a photo from the airport. haha. he was just straight up going for it. he walked into that airport and just asked for a one way ticket like he was on some tv show from the 90s. i became simultaneously very excited and completely anxiety ridden [standard], and i just praaaayed nothing would go wrong! buuut then he spent like 6 hours at the airport with his flight getting delayed and ultimately… canceled. hahaha. ohhh man. the good news is he ran into some friends at the airport, and they had a few drinks as his afternoon of spontaneity went entirely wrong. yay, manfriends!

he came home that night having rescheduled for a sunday flight out, wondered all weekend if he was possibly making a terrible decision?! and then headed off again sunday on a flight that lead to success! he stayed in a hotel, hit up the dealership the next morning, liked what he saw [i liked what he texted me], and he rode aaaaaaall the way home on that dark horse, rolling in a solid 7 or so hours later.

and ummm… i love it. i love it so much. i love the smell and putting kids in the way way back and seeing what buttons do and reminding everyone to keep their fingerprints off of the windows and i love the satellite radio that expires in december and also the cold box in the center console. who knew cars even had those?! it feels like my 4runner grew up and got its life all sorts of figured out, and it’s totally a pleasure to spend 2+ hours a day in. just cruising the lands… as one does.

wow. i can’t wait for the great-grandchildren to one day discover this cherished and flattering photo! but basically, we all lived happily ever after. and obviously, steven gets the husband award. thanks, babe! thanks for getting that i’m not a minivan person and for going off in the western direction to sort things out and for also enabling us to have matching vehicles.

and that’s that! the story of a man who went to see about a horse in arizona.

ps. would you just look at this sweet welcome home car greeting by maddalena!!! i still haven’t taken it down.