I've been talking about summer a lot lately, and the best part is the reason I'll be working 65 hours a week. I'll be buying a new car at the beginning of summer and working like a madman to pay off the money I'll have to borrow from my Dad (thanks Dad) to purchase an pre-owned automobile. (When did "used" items become "pre-owned," and does this seem ridiculous to anyone other than me?)

Anyway, I'm looking forward to having a car, especially a new one. I love driving and not being able to have a car as a first year student is killing me. I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to buy, but I plan to start looking when I go home for Memorial Day weekend. The basic wants are what you would expect: low miles, newer, and hopefully an imported car. (I've had major problems with my Pontiac Grand Am and I'm swearing off GM cars for a long time.)

But the major requirement, and the one that is significantly curtailing my selection, is that the car cannot be an automatic. It's not about the car being faster (although that's nice), it's not about getting better gas mileage (although that's really nice), it's not about laughing at other people's lack of coordination and inability to use both feet and both hands to do different things to operate the car (although that's really funny), it's simply about having control over the car. As I said, I love to drive.

I've been looking at the online inventory of dealers near home, and I can't wait to test drive some cars and eventually buy one. I'll have my first chance in less than a week; hopefully I'll find something good. And after that, I have the insurance payments to look forward to.