The Surprise

It turns out that having a kid who is old enough to drive herself places is great, but the greatness is limited by her access to a car. And not my car.

Look, I definitely have moments of generosity and trust and all of the things it would take to let Alexis drive my car all over the place, but those moments tend to happen when we're not talking about Alexis driving my car. I love my car. I love it in one piece. As much as I really to trust Alexis, I don't trust her THAT much. I kinda don't want anyone ever being the wheel of my preshus. Besides, Mila usually needs to be places at most of the same times that Alexis needs to be places.

Basically, the kid needed her own car in order for us to all be happy.

And that is where things got complicated.

It is absolutely the worst time to try to find a cheap used car. It's also a terrible time to buy a new car, but there was no way I was going there. Which, have I ever mentioned that some of Alexis' friends drive brand new cars? One drives a brand new $80k BMW, even. I do not comprehend this phenomenon, especially right now when there are no good deals on cars.

ANYWAY. Alexis is not that lucky.

Nor does she mind. That child has had her heart set on one thing for about three years. A Mini Cooper. Don't ask why because I don't understand the allure, but Alexis has been obsessed with the barely-bigger-than-a-toy-car things for so long.  She has spent hours and hours researching Mini Coopers, building her dream car online, all of the things. Most annoyingly, she yells, "MINI COOPER!" every time she sees one in the wild, which has led to me nearly smooshing my SUV into the size of a Mini Cooper because it startles me all.the.time.

Given there are no great deals to be found, I started looking for an old Mini Cooper a while ago. I finally found one with relatively low miles and no major issues recently, which led to this most excellent moment.

Y'all, she had no clue. NO CLUE. In fact, one day before I parked a Mini Cooper in our driveway, Alexis went on a whole tirade about how she was going to have to wait until she's 40 and financially independent to get one.

Needless to say, Alexis is having the best week ever. And so am I because I haven't had to drive the kid anywhere this week.