Why didn't I just break a mirror and call it good?

I was reminded this week that I've been cursed. 22 years ago at the tender, STU-PID age of 12 I made a decision that may have followed me until this very week. You may not have been an idiot when you were twelve, but I was. If there was one thing that I was sure of at that age, it was that I was cool. Very cool. And just like a prideful Nephite, I've been given ample opportunity since then to realize the folly of my narcissistic opinion of myself back in '87...'88 and maybe a touch in '89.

I called my mom this week to tell her that we finally bought a minivan. She, along with everyone else that heard this news was SO excited for us. You may wonder why someone would be thrilled about a minivan? Isn't this the car that everyone dreads? I mean, minivans aren't that cool, right? That may be true when you go from driving this:

To driving this:

But when your fine luxury transportation device looks like this:

then that minivan feels like upward mobility for sure. It's actually been a good car. And while innocent by standers can hear the car coming WELL before they see it, and AFTER they see it they feel like they've been insulted in some way, it's done it's job and we are very grateful it stuck it out. Actually, those who have besmirched the car should see what it would look like if I hadn't been spray painting portions of it over the years. An activity that would have positively mortified me in middle school when not only would I not go into the D.I. (thrift store, for those of you who might feel out of the loop), but I laid on the floor of the car so that if any of my friends would happen to drive by they wouldn't know I was there. What a FREAK!

So this week, my mom joked that I may finally have lived my pride of past years down. Whew!

BUT my uncoolness doesn't end there! Nay, my well of dorkiness is deep. I've needed new glasses for years now but I was in denial/stingy so I dealt with cheapy reading glasses instead. But cheap reading glasses weren't even cheap enough for me, so I bought the cheapest and probably the ugliest reading glasses out there. But at $7.84 for THREE pair, who could say "no?" NOT ME! One by one my reading glasses broke. Can you believe it?! Shoddy workmanship.

I finally gave in and got the real deal. And wouldn't you know that they came in the same day that we got the van? So here are my before and after shots taken with the help of my kids. While the rubber band earpieces may not have been original to the glasses, they did their job after the first ones broke off.

So perhaps now the curse is lifted and I no longer have to hang my head in embarrassment when I pull up to the NICEST thrift store in town.