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After I turned 25, I decided I should get a car, to make Baltimore more tolerable. I got my 1995 Buick Riviera from a guy who was going off to grad school in Hawaii who thought two grand was a bit much for shipping his beloved car. He had to sell, and I got a good deal.

Three weeks ago I had to make a ton of repairs, and then this week discovered that it needed several more. Maybe it's just the times, but it somehow felt right to declare the car dead (to me at least; I'm sure there's someone out there who can use it) and to take up walking to the Metro, to the bus to work. A feeling of frugality, of humble living, feels more appropriate when money is crashing all around.

It was the last big push of a huge exhale I gave out over the last week or so. I had been feeling tensed up by a million little things, and I let them all go, things that were clouding my vision of the bigger picture. I've felt a lot better since.