Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Car rental hijinks

This afternoon, I sent the following text to my husband:

"Ur wife is officially a WIDE LOAD."

Wanna know why?

Today, I arrived at LAX for yet another fun business trip adventure. The big red Avis rental car shuttle dropped me off at the following vehicle, which Avis had so kindly preselected for me:



It's a Nissan 350 Z convertible, which normally would be quite a fun little car for jetting about LA. I actually think Avis was trying to be nice to me with a complimentary upgrade (since I've rented roughly 37 cars from them in the last 6 months), and hey, intially I was pretty fired up.

Until I climbed in. Or tried to climb in. And my tummy was smooshed against the steering wheel. Even when I pushed the seat all the way back. And then I tried to get out and had to basically roll out of the door and onto the parking lot to get out. You see, the Nissan 350 Z sits about 2 inches off the ground. Apparently I have a little more work to do in prenatal yoga on the whole squatting thing.

So, I waddled over to the Avis counter and explained my problem. "Thank you so much, but there's only room for one person behind that steering wheel, and I've got 1 2/3."

So I got this instead:


A Ford Expedition, baby. Which I think could run over a Nissan 350 Z with its front tire and not even alarm the driver. I'm pretty sure I guzzled $20 worth of gas to drive the 10 miles to my office, but it was certainly an improvement over the minivan "upgrade" they gave me last week.

And the guy behind me in line was REALLY excited to get the convertible.

10 comments:

Sue said...

Awwwww! I would have been crushed to have to give that cute little car away! but, it was for good reason:-) And, hey, the Ford Expedition was not half bad either!

Gabby said...

yeah, i travel a lot too, and i often get upgrades that aren't really upgrades to me!

too funny! yeah, i hadn't thought about that, but i bet it will get harder and harder to get in smaller cars soon... hey, that's a good sign!

K said...

That's pretty funny. How much longer do you "get" to travel? You seem to be handling it all so well...that's awesome.

Emily said...

Priceless!

Carrie said...

I love that story! I think all the tires may suddenly flatten if I attempted to get into a car like that. Forget the steering wheel issue!

I am so glad they gave you a nice, gas loving, SUV. I LOVE mine and even though I don't drive ever anymore, even riding in it is very comfy for me and the trips.

:)

zengirl said...

OMG! It would've been cool to see a pregnant lady zipping around in that convertible! That monster of an SUV is a pretty good trade though - you probably felt a lot safer in it!

Valerie said...

I can't believe you're still flying everywhere... let us know how long your Dr is okay with it. I loved your story.. made me laugh and picture myself in a few weeks.

Ali said...

LMAO about 1 2/3.

Michele said...

That's freaking hysterical.

How much longer will you be keeping up your busy work schedule? You are one busy 1 2/3 lady!

Barefoot said...

Valerie, my doctor told me that I can do the quick hop flights to LA from the Bay Area up until 36 weeks. I am so hoping I don't need to do that, though. I'm thinking I've got maybe one or two more trips in me and then I'm DONE.