Love is what makes a Subaru, a Subaru
5 Years of Writing in the Subaru Service Center Waiting Room
I write this to you from the Subaru dealership and service center on Brand Boulevard of Cars in Glendale, California. As I packed my computer before leaving to bring my Subaru Forester to its’ yearly service appointment (only one year late), I realized that I’ve worked both on my feature film and my solo show from the waiting room at the Subaru service center at the number one Subaru dealership in the country. And that it may actually be one of my favorite places to write.
It’s good evidence that actually leaving my apartment is good for writing. It’s also a testament to the fact that many people with ADHD do well working when there are distractions to actively ignore, like other people or a TV set to HGTV. Though the fact that Jimmy and Susie need a durable kitchen island because they like to entertain has not escaped my notice. Nor has the commercial for a prescription Eczema medication that I recently started taking. While home renovation shows don’t make me feel seen, an advertisement for a medication that I needed pre-approval for, have to get from a speciality pharmacy, and have successfully taken at the same time everyday (8:03 am), feats I’ve accomplished despite my ADHD, does make me feel seen 🥰
I’ve only ever driven a Subaru Forester. I got my first one, a 2001 silver Subaru Forrester, in 2003. My friends and I took it to Vegas a couple of months later, and I can still remember what it was like to drive down the neon lit strip for the first time. Once driving from Denver, Colorado to Boulder, Colorado we used the compass find our way back to the 36 West. (This was in the time of flip phones).
After college, I moved to New York, and my Mom sold her Volvo and took over my car. In 2019, I moved to LA. My parents bought a red 2018 Subaru Forrester, and I brought my 2001 model to the city of Angels. Unforantely, I got in accident that fall, and it made more sense to put the repair money (thank you, USAA car insurance!) towards a 2015 white Subaru Forester.
In December of 2021, my (thankfully parked) Subaru was totaled by a drunk driver about half an hour after my boyfriend and I arrived at our Airbnb in Sedona, Arizona. We’d been dating for 8-months and this was our first vacation together longer than one night. It was a true, road trip, spanning four states, two national parks, one national monument, and the Navajo Tribal Nation before arriving in the vortex of Sedona.
We’d spent the morning hiking in the truly frigid, 12 degree air at the Grand Canyon. We’d actually gotten in a fight driving from our hotel to the Bright Angel trailhead. When we arrived in the parking lot, no one had admitted they were wrong, but we both certainly thought we were right. But what were we going to do? Not hike the Grand Canyon?
So we put on our ice spikes and ventured down into the vastness of stratified rock. On this descent, I discovered that you might really annoyed with the person you love, but you’re in this together and you don’t need to solve anything right away to still be present with them, the beauty of nature, and the freezing temperatures. Strangers kept stopping us and asking to buy the ice spikes off our feet, and this made us feel very smug and prepared.
Later that night, we had just started watching Die Hard when we heard a loud crash. It took a moment to register that the shattering of metal was coming from outside and not from the TV. We rushed out the door to discover my car had been pushed over 20 feet and into a water main but not fast enough to read the license plate of the white Dodge Ram as it sped away. (Our Airbnb was right downhill from a bar, and I called the bar immediately but apparently their patrons aint no snitches.)
As we watched the car being towed away, it was hard not to imagine what could’ve happened if the drunken, hit and run had occurred just 30 minutes earlier as we’d unpacked. It doesn’t make sense to dwell for too long on such but by the grace of G-d go I moments (especially if you don’t think things happen for a reason), but it’s very sobering when you realize things almost got much, much worse than our morning disagreement.
When we’d settled into watch Die Hard, we hadn’t revisted our argument, but after we didn’t die hard in a car accident, our argument seemed really unimportant. Especially as we watched my crushed and completely totaled car being towed away into the dark night.
We both thought I was going to be the first person to forget that we only had one flush due to the broken water main, but he flushed the toilet within 30 minutes of the property owner leaving the apartment. I burst out laughing, and then we held each other close all night.
We spent another 36 hours in Sedona, and it’s one our favorite places we’ve ever visited. In fact if the tourism board of Sedona would like me to be in advertisement, I’ll happily stand on a hiking trail set against the dramatic red spires and deliver: My car was totaled by a drunk driver within 30 minutes of arriving in Sedona, and I still loved our vacation and can’t wait to come back delivered with a smile. I’ll even throw in a thumbs up for free.
Luckily my cousin was then in law school in Phoenix and was already driving up to see us the next morning. We spent a lovely day hiking (we hike a lot) and had a lively dinner near the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village. My boyfriend often recalls how my cousin and I did a Cheers with packets of lactaid after we ordered Spinach and Artichoke dip. The next morning we headed to Phoenix with her as here were no cars to be rented in Sedona. This was also the period of 2021 when there almost no rental cars to begin with anywhere, but we managed to get one of the last available rental vehicles Enterprise had in the Phoenix area. It was a Dodge Ram, the make and model truck that had smashed into my car and caused this mess. As I mentioned, I don’t think things happen for a reason, but I strongly believe life has a twisted sense of humor and a penchant for irony.
My total loss check ended up being more than I’d bought my car for because USAA pays out your vehicle’s current market rate, and this was when used cars where in just as short supply as rental ones. I was not being sarcastic when I wrote thank you, USAA car insurance! earlier in this essay,
I bought a pearl white, 2017 Subaru Forrester. Yes, I love Subarus, and my brand loyalty is not just strong, it is a core part of my identity. When my parents made the diabolic suggestion I test drive some other types of vehicles, I tried to picture myself in any other type of car, and the image proved abhorrent to my psyche. Yes, I’ve been all over the country in a Subaru Forester, but it’s also where I’ve spent so many moments of my life, especially now that I live in a car city and crying on the L train has been replaced by crying in my car.
Up until I lost my job this fall, I worked in marketing. In short, I should be able to see through brand marketing, but when it comes to Subaru, I either don’t care or I buy into it, literally. If love makes a Subaru a Subaru, certainly making love in a Subaru takes it to the next level. And no, this isn’t from some college story despite the fact that my 2001 car had been to many, many music festivals. A couple of years ago on the way home from a beach day in Malibu, my boyfriend and I decided to make a pit stop on the border of the Pacific Palisades and Brentwood.
But while I love my Subaru that wouldn’t automatically translate to loving the waiting room at a dealer service center. But then I realized, I’ve worked on my feature film and my solo show in this waiting room. These pieces of writing mean the world to me and I worked my ass off on both of them. For whatever reason, this is not one of those spaces where I scroll mindlessly, it’s a place where I’ve made some actual memories. (Yes, as a writer, simply writing counts as a cherished memory even if it’s a slog while it happens.)
I could tell you Subarus are safe, which they are. I could tell you they are reliable, and I could tell you Subaru was marketing to the queer community long before other brands.
I could tell you that this is one of my (and my Mom’s) favorite ads.
Or maybe I'm telling you all these things because in addition to loving my car, I’m an unemployed copywriter with extensive experience in the automobile space, and I’d really love to write print ads and TV commercials for Subaru.
And maybe I’m just feeling grateful that while writing is hard, writing in this room somehow isn’t. Coming here reminds me that I’ve worked really, really hard on my writing and writing projects, and it’s okay to be proud of myself every now and then. I know it sounds borderline unhinged to say I enjoy coming to the waiting room at the service center at Subaru of Glendale, but I honestly was excited to get some writing done. I wasn’t planning on writing about being a Subaru owner, but I did know that I would write. Writing professionally is an uncertain and often daunting road, but I could do much worse than to find myself writing from the Brand Boulevard of Cars on this December afternoon.