New Car!

Today Roy and I went to Crown Toyota to look for a new car. Since I already have a 2007 Corolla, we thought we might get a Yaris (but in blue with grey interior):



We test drove the Yaris and then looked at some cars that had been bought but returned after financing fell through. There was a 2008 black Corolla with 700 miles on it. We decided to go with the Corolla because the base model Yaris only comes with tan interior. (Call me shallow, but I think tan interior is a deal breaker.)

So now we have a new car that looks like this!



And actually, Roy took my 2007 dark grey Corolla, so I get the newer car. What an awesome guy.

We ended up getting an amazing deal because Roy's co-worker, who deals a lot with Crown Toyota, came with us to help get the price down.

We are officially happy campers - until we start making the payment in February, that is.

A moment of silence, please...

As I anticipated, Roy's car has been totalled, and we are waiting to hear how much money we'll be receiving from the insurance company. I guess we really have to start looking for a new car.

We went out on our first date in that car. We made out in it for hours that night. It was totally awesome. I'm sad about that piece of our history being laid to rest. I know, I'm entirely too sentimental for my own good.

I'm also sick. I left work around lunchtime yesterday and stayed at home today as well. Being sick is one thing, and being bored is another. But being both at the same time (which was how I was at work yesterday) is a new dimension of hell that I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Anyway, I actually have pictures of the banged-up car, which I am too lazy to transfer to my computer right now. So I'll post them sometime later. I'm going back to bed now.

Memory Month: My First Car Accident

Roy's recent car accident has led me down memory lane a bit - specifically to my first car accident, which was full of drama and intrigue. (Really, what else can you expect from the teenage me?)

It was March 1996, and I was 16 years old. I felt quite pathetic because I didn't have my driver's license yet (although I did have my learner's permit). My mom would sometimes let me take her car (a 1993 red Honda Civic - similar to the one pictured) on short drives to the store down the road, etc. One afternoon during Spring Break, I asked her if I could take her car to Country Express to get my new work schedule for the week. She said yes, and off I went. (Country Express was about 5 miles away from my house.)

After I'd gotten my schedule, I stopped at the store next door to Country Express and ran into Roger, a guy who lived in the area and was my on again-off again crush. We had never really dated before, but when he saw me at the store, he asked me if I wanted to go to the street dance downtown later that night. Of course, I said yes, and he said he would come by and pick me up. (A street dance is just what it sounds like, by the way, only the streets are actually closed off.)

And so I drove home. But I didn't take the direct route, which was the highway. Instead, I took back roads. I can't remember why I decided to take this route instead of the highway, but it was probably because I wanted to smoke a cigarette while driving so I could feel really cool. At any rate, at one point in the drive I took my eyes off the road for just a second, and all of a sudden, I was driving into the ditch on the left side of the road. I came really close to hitting a reflector, panicked, and overcorrected myself. I turned the wheel so hard that I ended up in the ditch on the right side of the road, and this time there was no saving me or the car.

I distinctly remember running into several fence posts, and then all of a sudden, the car was laying on its side (the driver's side, to be exact). To my credit, I didn't panic. It felt extremely odd to be sitting sideways instead of upright. I remember the radio was still playing, and the car was still running. There was some hissing noise going on, which of course made me think the car was going to explode any minute. Oddly enough, the thing I was most worried about was the fact that I had brought cigarettes into the car with me and couldn't find them. (I really didn't want to get busted.)

I probably sat there for about 30 seconds taking it all in. Then I just crawled out of the driver's side window, which was against the ground. A truck stopped to help me. The people in it had seen the accident happen, and they took me to the closest house so we could call 911. (This was before the age of cell phones taking over the world.) We drove back to the scene, and an ambulance showed up. I was mostly fine, except the airbag had hit me in the face. But I was taken to the emergency room. I can't remember if my mom rode with me or if she showed up later.

While I was laying there, waiting to be checked out, a cop showed up and wrote me out a ticket for "failure to control speed." I got a warning for driving without a license. My mom got a ticket for letting me drive without a license (which she later challenged, I think). When I was released, who else was waiting for me but Roger. Apparently, when I wasn't home when he showed to pick me up, he and my mom went looking for me and found the scene of the accident. He ended up giving us a ride home that night. He and I finally went out on our date, and we ended up dating until my first semester of college.

The car, of course, was totalled. Apparently I ran down 12(!) fenceposts. And my mom did find my cigarettes in the car. Doh!

Looking back on this experience, I have a few comments:

1) What kind of punk kid was I to think that I should smoke in my mom's smoke-free car?

2) I am really lucky that the couple who gave me a ride to the nearest house after the accident weren't serial killers.

3) Only a really skinny person could've gotten out of the car the way I did.

4) Speeding didn't cause my accident, so I don't know why I got a "failure to control speed" ticket. I should've gotten a "failure to keep eyes on road" ticket.

5) I now understand why my mom told me that I was harder to raise than my brother. I totalled her awesome car and probably made her insurance costs go through the roof. Not to mention the fact that I was smoking cigarettes at 16!

All I can say is I'm glad I've grown up.

A Sense of Balance

As soon as class ended tonight, my phone rang. It was Roy, and he proceeded to tell me that he got into a car accident earlier in the evening on his way to school. He didn't call me before my class because he knew I was giving my presentation tonight and didn't want to worry me. Anyway, he's fine, but his car isn't. He's still able to drive it, but the front of it is pretty smashed. The other guy's truck has minimal damage. Unfortunately, the accident was Roy's fault, so we're looking at an increase in our insurance premium - and we're thinking Roy's car will probably end up being totalled (it's older and not worth much anymore). And just last week we paid $600 toward repairs and new tires for Roy's car.

What also gets me is that we just paid $3000 to a credit card, paying most of it off. We had just begun to make progress on our debt, and now we're going to have to probably add yet another car payment to the load. The last time this happened was when my car was stolen. We didn't know how we were going to be able to afford a car payment, but I got a job offer (for the job I currently have) the day after I bought my new car. So I'm thinking that there has to be some balance due here and that maybe I will get the job I interviewed for 3 weeks ago. Otherwise, I just don't know how we will be able to afford the extra car payment every month.

It's always something, isn't it? For every step forward we take, we take a step backward. However, I have not forgotten for a single moment that the most important thing about all this is that Roy is okay and that the accident wasn't extremely serious. I can handle an insurance increase and a car payment, but I don't ever want to lose Roy.

Double Anniversary!

So today I have a double anniversary. It's been exactly one month since I've been "married"! Time flies when you're pretending to be married. I think everyone should forget that pesky marriage license; who wants to be legally bound to anyone anyway?

Call me crazy, but I do. Maybe it's just because we look so cute together.



Secondly, a year ago today, my lovely car that I had for 8 years was stolen. I am still feeling bitter about this, even though I got a new car out of the deal. No, of course I don't have a hard time letting go of things. It's totally natural to continue to be attached to a huge piece of machinery a year after it's gone.

Here are some pics of my stolen car after it was found:

The front area of the car. Wow, it sure was filthy underneath the seats.


The back area of the car.


View of the car from the open hatchback. I sure am glad they left that empty Dr. Pepper can.


They even stole the Acura emblem! Hopefully they used it to make a nice pair of earrings or maybe even a necklace.


The Great White Car in its final resting place.


To read my feelings on the subject soon after it was found last year, click here.