In 1999, a good friend told me that my car personality was a Jeep. A top-down, cruising on the beach, Jeep. We were both living in St. Louis at the time. Not a beach in sight. What exactly was he trying to tell me?

I wasn’t sure what to make of It. While I totally related to the fun-loving and free-spirited part of the analogy, my more sophisticated self was slightly hurt. Was I not the alluring, mysterious young woman that I thought? How dare this man discount my potential for posessing a more sleek and sexy ride. A Jaguire perhaps. Yes, I wanted to be Tawny Kitaen, damn it! Not Major Houlihan.

Little did I know that the very same year I was struggling to face the reality that I was far more transparent than I wanted to be, my future husband would take one step closer to securing our “it was meant to be status” by buying…you guessed it…a Jeep.

Fast forward to present day as this “Chariot of Gold,” as Daryl calls it in episode 2 of our marriage podcast, Never Said We Were Perfect, still sits in our driveway. And, I cannot tell a lie – it’s seen better days. Although, I’m happy to report that it runs! When we sat down to record the podcast, that was not the case, as you’ll hear.