1) Zipcar introduces a new way to be rude; and 2) my first Zipcar disappointment

1."HeythanksforeverythingwishIcouldstayandchatbutmycarisduebackintwentyminutesbyyyyye!!!!"

2. I had an appointment this afternoon and wanted to drive, mostly because it's very freaking hot outside. So I figured I'd get a car and run some other errands as well. Last night I reserved a convenient car ("Doris," who lives at 27th and Hawthorne) for today from one to four. There were lots of other cars available but that one was closest to my day job.

My appointment took a little longer than expected and I started thinking of all the other things I could get done if I had the car for another hour. So I called the automated line ("If you'd like to extend your reservation, press 1") -- and it said I couldn't extend my reservation because someone else was waiting for Doris. I knew this was always possible, but it had never happened before. Nobody wanted my car last night. Sometimes spontaneity in other people sucks.

So I got on the Crackberry and looked for another car that would be free when I turned this one in -- but the closest one was at 28th and Burnside! Yes, I could have ridden my bike over there and picked it up, but . . . Instead, I rethought what I could get done vs. what I should get done. In the end, I decided I should hit Trader Joe's and get some things we really needed (eg, vegan chocolate chip cookies), and then I could take the bus later to REI to pick up Isabel's new sleeping bag and liner. We still need some gear for Glacier so I wanted to spend some time looking around REI rather than executing a hair-raising kamikaze drive-by shopping mission, and it just wasn't worth trying to squeeze that trip into the time I had left.

I suppose this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If it had been easy enough, I would have spent another hour or two driving around, but instead I had to stay within my original time budget and then fill in with public transport . . . which is as it should be.

It is certainly true that I have learned to group my errands more efficiently to make the most of my limited car time. Driving used to be such a natural, mindless thing, I almost didn't realize I was even doing it -- one minute I was here, the next I was somewhere else . . . whatever. Now driving is more like a condiment than the continuous TPN (total parenteral nutrition, "the practice of feeding a person intravenously, bypassing the usual process of eating and digestion") it used to be. I am aware every minute that I'm driving, and it's both weird and totally awesome . . .