Buying a Car. Who Woulda Thought?

Whew. This week, cars have taken over my life. And it all started Monday night.

Driving back from bible study, I was with 2 other girls and long story short, the ball joint randomly broke WHILST driving, which in turn made the tire axle just go ahead a BREAK, which in turn made the front right corner of the car make contact with the pavement, which in turn crated sparks, which in turn made loud, loud, loud, screeching noises, which in turn caused girls to scream....deep inhale....noise caused nice man to come out of his house and offer help, then go back into his house, which in turn caused his wife to come out and as though she were our mother, invite us in saying it's too cold and we can't be outside. She then told us she thought we were about 17 years old at first. No, actually, 26. But that's cool.

I'm confused at this point and think I skipped some things so will halt that paragraph. So not to bring in a cheesy crochet-that-gem-onto-a-pillow saying, but here goes. God's fingerprints were COVERING this situation. Reasons why:

*This is the first night in 3 weeks that I had started carpooling again with other gals. Before I had not been, and I am 100% grateful that I had company. I am not grateful that they had to go through it with me, but selfishly it was so good to be with others. I might have freaked out 67% more if I was by myself.

*This is the FIRST time in my, I don't know, 20 times, of going to bible study (lovingly known as CuGru, which comes from its actually "Community Group" name...be jealous....if you are, just come), that I took 97 rather than 95. These numbers only have a difference of 2, I know, so who cares? Well if you're a MA guy or gal, you know 95 is a busy busy bee highway, while 97 is a back road. Are you KIDDING ME!? This was no coincidence that we took 97 this night. I'm pretty sure I would have been in at least one of the middle lanes on 95, going about 30 mph faster, and would probably veer into another car, and possibly die. Extreme, I know, but God certainly wants us around longer. Again, his angels were hangin' out around us. Thankful.

*This little extravaganza happened right outside a VERY nice family's house. The man said he heard the whole thing from inside, and came out immediately. When he went back inside, his wife would not have that and came out, forcing us to stay warm in their house. So nice. A big shout out to Tom and Lisa from Wenham. Thank you note coming your way soon.

So anyway, that sets the scene. I know. Long blog. Strap yourselves in, people, I've only just begun.

So the actual event, fine, okay, didn't freak out too much because I can honestly say I felt at peace about it and was with girls and had the couple of the year invite us into their house.

The aftermath? Different story.

Many phone calls and freaking out later, here I am, FINALLY with a plan in place. But goodness gracious, people, why can't this whole buying-a-car thing be easier? As I told my friend, "why can't buying a car be as easy as buying a bunch of grapes?" We had been eating frozen grapes so that explains the random grapes idea.

So Tuesday was the day of overwhelmtion. Not a word, but I'm making it a word. It's my blog and I'll cry if I want to. WOW what a great segway. Cried while talking with my father as he told me all these things I had to do. I'll try to lay off all the "mature" comments, because if you read my blog ever, you know I have this thing about maturity. It's hard for me, and I'd like to just be there, but it is NOT my middle name. My middle name could be many other things; maturity is NOT one of them. In fact, I think Please Hold My Hand While I Do Anything That Resembles Being An Adult would be a good one. Yep. Perfect.

Call insurance, call mechanic, call a smart friend to help you, call the dealership, visit the dealership, call the RMV, forget living the rest of your life because you'll have no time for anything. Cancel your easy-money tutoring, and the plans you had with some high-class friends that continue to be cancelled for different reasons, and also all the workouts that you have to do for your triathlon? Cancel those, too. Get rides to and from school, focus on the children and not on the car situation, call me when you finish doing all these things, and relay all the information you have found. And in the meantime, try and keep the dishes in your sink to minimum and put your clothes away rather than on the floor. YEAH RIGHT. Come to my apt and you'll see how I've had no time for things. Confession: somehow through this all I've had time to watch the Bachelor and the After the Final Rose special. Priorities, people.

So my friend DeLuca, who is just plain good at life (how am I not like that?..) was my knight in shining armor. I called her Tuesday afternoon after I wiped the I'm-5-years-old tears away and 10 minutes later she had picked me up from work and we were en route to my apartment. She took out her computer, I drowned my sorrows in about 687 frozen grapes (have at it, acid...), then she did magic. She crunched numbers in search of a budget and how much I'd be able to pay per month. She, in my mind, was the Mary Poppins of Budget. She was literally all glittery and I think she had fairy wings and oh also an umbrella and a big bag. She said some things, numbers happened, a budget was made. In alike 3 minutes. If I was by myself? I'd look at a spread sheet like this and sob and eat another 319 frozen grapes and get nowhere. Dangit, me.

Then we got in the car and went to my mechanic to ask him if he wanted to buy my car (success! $200. Take it off my hands and give my $200. I'd love for it to be $2,000, but if I knew the ball joint just decided to break and the axle broke and sparks happened, I would give $200 too. But anyway, she was such a teacher and told me what I should say, then had me rehearse it to her. Such a teacher. Good job, her. It was so so helpful. Again, knight in shining armor.

Then we went to the dealership, I wasn't impressed, then went to another one. This is where we met Chad, the car salesman. He was pretty young, and hip, and we got along and he kept referring to his not being like other car salesmen and the whole time I was wondering if that was just one of his I'm Actually A Manipulative Salesmen ploys. It would be a good one. Anyway, I test drove a Honda Accord after he convinced me to lease, it was okay. The inside was not pretty, and really, that's what's important here. He showed me a Honda CRV and then we sat down and because Honda North is hoity-toity he offered a beverage. I just wanted to get OUTTA there. He talked about how seemingly great it would be to lease, and did some things on the computer, then told us another guy would come over to negotiate and try to get me to commit that day. DeLuca, because she is good at life, told me the plan of standing up as he came over to show some awesome we-don't-care-what-you-have-to-say body language. He came over, we stood up, and Chad, the I'm-Your-Friend-Although-I-Seem-Like-I-Could-Easily-Just-Be-Tricking-You, Sucker! guy whispered to us, "I liked the standing up move, that was good." It was then that I realized that yes, Chad was truly on our team. Thank you, Chad.

So I left convinced that leasing was the thing to do. Then my friends Sarah and Chris came over to pick up the guinea pigs I had been watching for them while they spent the weekend on a cruise around the Bahamas, no big deal. Setting the stage, she was a manager at Wells Fargo, and he is some salesman who does sales. No idea for what but what's important is he's a sales guy. He's good at convincing. After he told me reasons that I was an idiot for even considering it, I said, "okay you're right" then he said he wished his clients were as easy as me. THIS is why I'm not in that field. Could you imagine? I'd say yes right away. This is why I'm a teacher, where the only negotiation I experience is if a student can go to the bathroom during class if he goes and comes back quickly. So then Sarah used her wicked awesome knowledge to tell me that leasing was NOT a good idea. Gave me all these reasons, etc.

Whew. So at this point I'm not leasing. Still not leasing. Because the salesman that is Chris said it was stupid. And Sarah, who is my car expert, said NO. Okay.

I'm skipping parts of this now because YOU are a doll for reading this far and I should really wrap this up. You probably have kids to dress or ham sandwiches to eat or walks to take or songs to record.

My dad is being a stand-up guy and is co-signing with me (I'm a little bit more mature for the experience alone, but com'n. Getting a car with n0-co-signer? That's a little much, no?). I'm taking a personal day Monday and am getting a car in VT. The end.

Then I will be able to tutor, and drive to and from work, and re-schedule a dinner date with friends and not cancel, and I won't eat as many frozen grapes and all of that is so so good.

Also shout out to my sister for driving 3 hours here to pick me up and 3 hours to go back to VT. I have a 6-hour spin marathon this weekend and I don't know if you've heard, but the ball joint broke which in turn.....you know the rest.

Thanks for reading my novel. You are peachy.