I am currently, thanks to my company, the driver of a very nice Honda Accord. However, I am also a woman in my late twenties who has never had a car... I have a driver's license, and I did drive the summer of 2003, but since then - nothing! So this is interesting on two levels. First, the very practical aspects of the whole thing: I am just not a very experienced driver, so I am a little nervous about the highway and all that. I have tried to be proactive, though, and I have taken a couple of lessons with a driving school, which helped me get more confident on the major highways (95, 295, 495). I want to be able to go down to DC by myself on the weekends!
On a more philosophical level, having a car makes me feel a little bit like I live in a bubble. For instance, this past week was very cold but since I drove back and forth to work, it didn't bother me much. Usually I would be all bundled up, but now I would just pop out to my car and drive wherever I was going. I am also trying to decide on a gym to join. One is close to work and has easy parking, one is closer to home and has a parking garage where you have to pay. I kind of want to join the one closer to home, so that I can walk - it just seems wrong to drive to the gym! This is another thing I have been thinking about - just because a place is walkable, it doesn't mean that people actually walk a lot. For instance, the few times I have walked around, I haven't really seen many other people walking. DC was a lot more walk-friendly, I think. Then again, I should probably get to know my neighborhood a little better before I start walking around after dark.
