Had to have my oil changed today, so the dealership gave me a rental for the day. Don’t get me wrong — that program is so nice when I need to get from A to B, but today’s loaner totally mystified me. It was this itty bitty scrap of metal that reminded me of a wind-up toy. It’s like the manufacturer had some leftover material from a real car and didn’t want to pitch it out. Clowns wouldn’t even bother trying to see how many of themselves they could shove in there. And it was so basic that it didn’t have auto-anything. Heck, I’d forgotten what a window crank looked like until today.

Manual locks, manual windows, no temperature gauge to tell me how unbelievably cold it was outside. This car had nothing. Oh, except it had a subscription to Sirius satellite radio. Whuh? I wasn’t in the car long enough for it to bother me, but the car’s priorities seemed strange to me.

And I had the weirdest thing happen at church tonight. We went to Advent service and the boys sat with the youth group. So I was on my own. Typically, my antisocial side (okay, just really shy) would have me sit in the back. But I made myself sit in one of the center sections towards the front so I would have to interact with people. If the kids can do it, so can I. At the edge of the pew, I waited for the service to begin, all the while watching as the pews all around me filled with people. But my pew was empty — and remained so throughout the service. I don’t think anyone did it on purpose — they probably assumed I was holding the space for family or something. In fact, no one else probably even noticed. But in a church that was reasonably full, it felt really strange. Especially when I’d made the effort to sit where I did so I wouldn’t be alone. I’m sure there’s a message in there somewhere, but I haven’t figured it out.