158. {LC's Journey 23} Gigi {with Tom}

Welcome to 100 Ways. This is your daily exploration of Self and Soul. I'm your host and fellow explorer, Laura Christine, let's dive in and find our way home.

Yay. I'm so excited that you're still in Hawaii'cause I love it there. And um, that you got to drive my car around for a while.

I'm glad that I got to drive for as long as I did and I would've liked to do it longer, honestly. But, having Gigi for that time actually got me to have Now car. So I would not have made the scary step to get a car if I hadn't had your car first.

Yay.

so you kind of propelled me forward in that way. So I appreciate it.

Awesome. Isn't a having a car freedom, it's freedom.

Oh, it's wild. I didn't realize how much I missed having a car until I had a car again, and then I was like, I just can't go back after that.

No, you can't.

Especially for business, I can stick the table in the back and just go wherever.

speaking of business, that's how it came about, that you were gonna take her, I think I've already prefaced this on the show, but I had everything lined up. I had my things with friends or sold not, I didn't really sell anything, but I had my friends take my things. The only thing I wasn't sure of was my car. I didn't know if I'd be back, so I didn't know if I should store it somewhere, try to rent it to somebody, try to, I didn't know what to do with it because I didn't know if I'd want it or not, or if I would be coming back to it or not. So I was in a bit of a conundrum, but I really wanted to massage and I got one from you because you're awesome. Do you remember this? Do you remember how

course I do. Of course I do, You came along right at the right time too, right after I got the car, I actually started having like things like opportunities that came to me specifically where I would need to have a car. And it wasn't just with the massage, it was like for acting or even just to do like jobs, like elsewhere to, uh, help other people out. But it was pretty much like, The universe was like, you need a car and you needed somebody to watch your car. And they already knew that we were homies, so it worked out really well.

Do you remember how it came about that we even made that sort of realization?

Well, I remember that as you were leaving my, a little dorm box, you said, where's your car? I was like, I don't have one because I haven't had a car in the entire, uh, almost eight years that I've been here. And, uh, I never thought in a million years that seeing you again, which is a treat in itself, would've been an opportunity to, uh, get a car. Never would've thought that's what would've happened. I just thought we were just hanging out.

Well, I thought I was getting a massage, which I did, and it was amazing. So, yeah, I, I remember that as I was leaving, I was like, do you need to drive a Prius for a couple of months or so? I remember you saying, I can't even tell you how funny that is right now. And then we just worked it out where you picked her up and we haven't mentioned her name because she didn't have a name at that time.

Yeah,

She just had a, a beautiful body engine and all other things.

she had a nice face.

she had a beautiful face but no name

Yeah.

and I told you that. I said I don't know her name yet. If one comes up, let me know. So I don't know if you wanna share that story. I can share it from my side because I remember you texted me and all you texted me was, so we ran over a big pothole.

like the biggest one that I've ever probably hit. I. I felt so bad and we were go, we were going like close to like 65 miles an hour too. So I was like, it was really just bad timing. However, well, I guess the full story is, I don't remember if I was driving back from something, but I had, um, a certain Japanese girl in my car that I was very interested in and then turned out not to be very interested in me, but, I think I was distracted by that. We hit this pothole going about 60 miles an hour and it was rough. And we were both like, and then immediately after it was like, your car just kind of spoke to me and it spoke to her and we ended up thinking of this name Gigi. I have no idea where it came from and I have no idea where it will go, but that's exactly how it happened. And since then, it was Gigi and I told you immediately it was Gigi.

Yes.

was Gigi.

and she still is.

Yeah.

She is driven many, many, many, many miles now as Gigi. So thank you.

No thank you. She wouldn't have got it without you.

Well, she wouldn't have got it without you either, so

I wouldn't have got her without you.

No, you wouldn't have, that's true. And you wouldn't have gotten her if you weren't such an awesome massage therapist. So

I don't know. I, I would, I would like to think that you would've come over to hang out anyway.

I would've Yeah. totally.

But, but I appreciate it.

But yeah, you're right.

I'm actually at a client's house right now.

you are.

Yeah. I mean they're, they're more like, they're more like family. Like I work on this lady and um, and the auntie here and I teach their kids how to box and, I take care of their dogs and stuff sometimes,

Oh, that's cool. Very, very good to have a car so you can get to them.

Oh yeah. Well, usually they'll come pick me up and then as soon as I got Gigi too, I would just come up here.

Perfect. Okay, here's a question because this is the other part and it's a part of the story that I don't know'cause I wasn't there. But I'm curious to know how much of a hassle or not it was to actually get her on the ship. I do remember cutting your time with her short because I needed it before May, and it would've gotten there after that. On the original date that I told you, so I had to call the shipping company and be like, when do I need to have it on the boat? I need it here before May because I was driving to, um, a cat sitting gig in Utah on May 1st. So that happened. But what was it like shipping a car? I've never done it.

Um. it was very painful at first'cause I remember the, both of us were trying to get in contact with the shipping company and I, not only did I try to go over there, but I called maybe like eight or nine times on separate occasions. And the times I did get through,'cause sometimes I wouldn't even get through, and the times I did get through it was the rainiest horrible connection I've ever had. I thought it was my phone. So I would like switch my earphones and switch to speaker and it's just nothing, nothing worked. Um, but they never answered me. I emailed them, they didn't get back to me. and so I was just thinking like, how are we gonna set this up? But I had it in my mind that I had to do it. But I remember in order to get it on the ship, I had to get it below like a quarter tank of gas or something like that. and I had to take out certain things, like I couldn't put your stuff in the car because they don't wanna use it as like a shipping container. But I still snuck some stuff in the car anyway. when I had to get the gas low, that was probably the hardest part because. Right before, I don't think I told you this right before, like the day before, I think I was supposed to get it over there. I had it really low and I was like, this is enough to get it over there. But I needed like a little bit of gas because I needed to go to Hawaii, cut and then come back to town and I was really low. I was afraid I wasn't gonna make it. So I put a little bit in at one station. I think I put like$20 worth or less than$20 probably. And I started getting on the road and she didn't actually show me that she had any more gas, like it stayed at the bottom. So then I was like, oh, no. Is she broken? Or maybe it didn't pump the gas, like maybe I just was,'cause it's not something I really think about. So maybe I was just oblivious and there was just no gas that came out of the thing. So I pulled over to another gas station and I filled up a little bit more. And then when I got back in the car, she was like almost a full tank. And I was like, well, shit, like what do I do? So, because I had to get her below that point again before the next day, and I don't know if this is common knowledge, it should be a Prius is really good on gas mileage. So I had to, I had to come up with creative ways. So I actually ended up Googling the best way and I learned that if. Above a certain speed. I think it was like, 45 or something. Then in certain cars it will burn more gas than if it were lowered because of the RPMs. And then, uh, I was opening the windows to increase the drag so it goes a little bit slower. And I was like bumping music and I, I was doing all kinds of stuff and I think I had like an hour. Before I had to get it over to that place and get it shipped, and I was still at like half a tank and I was just kind of like ripping from, uh, Anaheim to Hawaii, Kai back and forth because there's those long stretches, and it was during a time of day where there was nobody there. So I was just going and going and going. And I remember, I, I think I was listening to like Chuck Berry or something, but I was blasting music. I had the windows open, and as soon as it got to this little tick. It was like a quarter tank. I was like, yes, yes. And I was yelling out the window and I was going nuts'cause I had finally done it. And then I got really sad because I was like, oh, but now I have to go get rid of the car.

Aw.

So, I drove it over there and they were really nice. And, then I was just kind of stuck around 7:00 PM in a really, uh, questionable part of Kalihi waiting for somebody to come pick me up. So, it was fun. Certainly. It was definitely interesting. I don't think I would wanna do that whole process again. the actual getting it there was not so bad, but everything leading up to it was kind of a pain.

Yeah, I can see that.

But I, think that was also like, uh, maybe Gigi didn't want me to let her go either,

oh no, she definitely wanted to come back to me.

Well, if you say so,

Oh, she definitely wanted to come back

if you're not hitting as many potholes as I am,

No, I do my best with her. Uh, it was so wonderful to have her back

Yeah,

because again, car's freedom and I was ready. I was just really ready to, Go to the next thing and go on this epic adventure that I was on over the year and a half, and it was really cool. So, well, thank you for sharing that experience. I,

of course.

I didn't know all of that, but it is quite funny that other thing is when you fill a Prius, it's digital, so it takes a while for it to show you that it has more gas in it. So,$20 would've filled that thing, but actually probably not, because at the time it was when gas was super high.

it was like five 20 or something. Yeah, it was a.

but still like it would've gotten almost full of

Yeah, and I think I only got gas twice in the whole time I had her maybe.

Yeah, the most I spent on gas was right before I, I don't know why I thought this was a good idea, but right before I crossed the border into Nevada from California, I got gas and it was probably about a quarter tank that I had left. I filled it up and I spent$38 to fill it. The. Price of gas was, I think six 40,

I never seen that.

but even still, it was only$38 to fill out my car.

It lasted a while. Yeah,

That

because that gas lasted so much. I actually became a little concerned because I thought like, maybe I don't know, something about this, like I have to charge it or something, because she would just go and it wouldn't change. So It's a perfect car to be here, honestly. Yeah.

really perfect car for Hawaii but yeah, so that's really all I was curious about was your experience with Gigi and wanting to thank you personally and, um, invite you to Vermont. Come visit me in Vermont. We'll

Absolutely. I actually, I'm friends with, I'm friends with the son of a higher up dude in the Ben and Jerry's company. so like whenever he said, whenever I go over there, I'll be able to go get. Ice cream. So that's kind of cool. And I still have it gone.

We'll have to go north. I don't know where Ben and Jerry's is, but it's north of here. Most things are pretty much, I mean, everything is except Massachusetts, which is south of here, but you're always welcome. So thank you, Tom.

Of course. Thank you.

Thank you for exploring with me today. I would love to continue this conversation with you. We can do that at Laura Christine, us. You'll find contact in the menu, or you can go to Laura Christine us slash contact, and you'll be taken right to it. Let's dive in a little deeper and see how fully we can flow with the duh.