Growing Up

Sometimes it's hard to be the only grown up in this family. Sometimes there are events that call for grown up decisions. It's harder in many ways but admittedly easier in some to make big decisions solo. Last Thursday night, my car broke down... in front of my house, as we were coming home from our day. Smoke started pouring out and it smelled terrible. When I took it to the shop the next day they said not to drive it any more, so V and I headed out to daycare via the bus. Two broken down buses and 2 hours later I was almost home in time for my first conference call. One hour after that, the shop called to tell me that my car would cost a minimum of $2000to fix, perhaps more like $3-4k. ARRR! I had just poured $700 into it 2 weeks before and another $3k was probably more than it was worth. I really didn't want to get a new car yet as that one was still really nice to drive with it's sun roof and heated seats. I can be pretty change adverse and perhaps loyal to a fault and this car had been with me for the past 10 years. Finally, I decided I do really want something more reliable right now and the thought of Violet being stuck in a car with smoke pouring out was just really, really bad.

So after much angst and a couple of calls to my rock of Gibraltar parents who I can always count on for good advice, I decided to start looking for a new car. It was daunting to think about trying to find a car in basically one weekend without wheels to go look for one and with Violet in tow. I started feeling sorry for myself for about 2 seconds before I realized that I was incredibly lucky that I could even afford a new car and then my awesome friends kicked in. Friend one lent me a car for a week because he just happened to be going away that day, friend two agreed to spend a summer Saturday going to car dealerships with me and friend three came over with dinner and wine after a very stressful day of car shopping!

After much Internet research, I ended up finding a car I liked that had been traded in at a Mercedes dealership only 1 mile from my house. The sales guy told me that he had 6 children, but then he didn't help me install the car seat for the test drive...fishy. The dealership tactic seemed to be to keep us waiting for as long as possible to wear us down and keep us from looking at other cars. I was prepared though with an arsenal of toys, food, and diapers. At one point we were negotiating in an un-air conditioned waiting room where I had brought V to feed her her spinach yogurt away from the $300,000 Mercedes on the showroom floor. I was in shorts and they were in full suits with jackets. That's when they offered me $1500 for my broken Jetta site unseen and I agreed to the deal provided I could go drive a newer model for comparison.

Thank god my friend was with me to help me sort through some of the decisions and to stay with Violet in the car while she napped and I test drove more cars. After another 2 hours at a second dealership, we were all so tired that we had to call it quits for the day. After a sleepless night worrying if I was doing the right thing and buying the right car, Sunday, V and I returned to the Mercedes dealer to buy the first car that I'd driven. After another TWO AND A HALF hours of negotiating with V on my lap, eating Cheerios off the show room floor and getting a couple hand prints on the $300,000 Mercedes, I bought a used 2009 Prius. I was proud of myself for remaining cool and collected but not giving into any of their attempts to renege on our agreement from the previous day. I was proud of Violet for hanging in there with me, making me smile by constantly testing out her new 3-tooth giggles and to both of us for not crying a single tear the entire time!