As a recent transplant from New York City to the sprawling mecca of Los Angeles, I have undergone several changes including my preferred method of transportation. In New York it was all about walking, taxi cabs and subways and here in LA it’s so all about your car. It’s true, people here spend as much time on their cars as they do on themselves, so in order to fit in you gotta look good and have the right ride. I somehow wound up through a very odd series of events with a 2009 charcoal gray Ford Mustang. It’s cool, its fast, it’s fun to drive, and my friends all seem to dig it. I feel good getting into it, I feel good getting out of it, it does everything a car is supposed to do and then some. But there’s something special about my Mustang that very few people in LA can top. It has hand controls. “What are hand controls,” you ask? Basically the car is equipped with a steering ball and a hand brake that allows you to start, stop and maneuver the car without using your feet. I recently had a stuntman friend of mine take my Mustang for a spin and he came back with a look on his face that bordered on sheer ecstasy. “How is it you got a Mustang with hand controls?” he asked me, his hair completely blown out from the impact of riding at top speed with the windows down. I thought about giving him an embellished over-the- top Hollywood answer that would make me look even cooler, but I decided to tell him the truth. “I rent it with a paraplegic,” I answer slightly embarrassed and ashamed that I have officially “worked the system.” “I paid him $200 to sign me up as an additional driver on his car rental account. We get gold star treatment and additional discounts for his disability. He’s happy, I’m happy, the rental car company is happy. It’s a win, win, win all the way around.” My friend laughs out loud at the ridiculousness of my situation but shrugs it off as a typical new-to-LA story. I continue to confess to him that at first the hand controls were a bit annoying, but I have grown so accustomed to them that whenever I get into a car without them, I feel like something is missing. It pains me slightly to know that eventually I’ll have to give up this car and get something a little more practical, but for now I’m going to enjoy every last minute of my hand control situation. In this mad city called Los Angeles with all its games, power struggles, and one-upmanship, I know I have to take each day as it comes and use all my secret abilities and talents. I won’t be told no, I won’t let the big guys intimidate me, and when I pull up to power meetings with executives and Hollywood types in my beautiful Ford Mustang I know that inside, I’ll have just a little more control than everybody else.
