I’m getting a new car today *fingers crossed*. The bank still has to approve the vehicle I picked out, but I’m thinking my chances are good. A few years after we moved back to Utah, we went through a strange streak of car buying. We had a new one every year. Well, new to us. Three years in a row we traded up.

Even at the time, it seemed like an odd thing to be doing, especially since I’m not a huge car freak. So on trade #3, we actually kept it until the end of the lease. The first and last time we leased a vehicle. But it made sure we stopped trading upsidedown on cars. And when the lease was up, we ditched the car (because at under 36,000 miles it had needed more maintence than all of the other cars I’d ever owned put together – never buy a Chrysler Pacifica). And paid cash for the next cheap vehicle.

Which has seen its final days about a year and a half later. At least for us. It’s not that I’m a fan of buying cars, like I said. I actually really despise car dealerships and outside of the first car I ever owned, have yet to feel like I didn’t get screwed by a car purchase. Last car would have been the saving grace, if it hadn’t fallen apart for the reasons it did.

So I’m really nervous about this one. Because it’s all worked out so perfectly so far. They had the car I wanted, the financing (so far) has gone smoothly, and the timing was spot on. So yes, I’m nervous because it’s all going well. It’s the pessimist realist in me.

I’m just going to have to wait it out, though. Worrying about it won’t get me there any faster. Kind of like sending out submissions. I have two different short stories. I sent one to a place that used to have a very fast turn around time. Very fast as in, the first time I submitted to them I got an answer in five hours. The second time…a month passed. And then two. And right as it was creeping up on three…acceptance!

The other is at a place where they actually say on their website that they’re more than a year out on some responses. It’s a story that I love that hasn’t had any luck anywhere else, and it’s a publication I love and would celebrate to see the two in the same place. So I submitted knowing I maybe waiting twelve months or more. So now when I look at the number of days it’s been out, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. Submit and forget.

It’s been a hard lesson to learn, but after two years of submitting and fretting, and checking my mail every day, I’m almost getting the hang of it. Or at least, getting better at pretending I don’t care ^_^

How do you handle the anxiety of waiting? Distraction? Fretting? Something else?