Cars, Loans, Pharoahs & New Shirts

I am back from my absence. I had set myself a little goal to post something everyday. At least through the summer, but I fell short. I apologize to all my many faithful readers (haha, are there any?) and my 2 amazing followers! I had a good reason...I was car shopping. And while that is fun and exciting for some, it is a chore for me.

These sort of chores require me summon the logical, practical side of my person that I usually let sleep and rest undisciplined and lethargic. It's always unprepared for these tedious situations.

I did well, though, I went through the process basically by myself asking Steave the odd mechanical question every now and then. Steave and I operate on 2 opposing wavelengths, opposite hemispheres, opposing teams, however you want to put it - it's difficult for us to work on a common decision like this. He is the ulitmate king of logic and practicality and I am the queen of intuition and feeling. So, it's hard for us to agree. We did agree, however, that I had better handle this decision since I would be the one driving the car the most. He would let me know if he saw my divining rod leading me to a financial cliff.

When I have to accomplish this sort of chore, I am usually embarrassed. The reason is that I am asked practical questions like: "How much money do you make?" "What kind of engine do you have?" And I don't keep that kind of information in my head. Go ahead and laugh. If they asked me, "What does the car smell like?" or "How many kids does the bank teller have?" I can answer that!

But I slapped the groggy practical side of myself awake and bravely entered the car showroom and the office of the loan officer. I kept myself in check. I didn't ask the car salesman what part of Africa he was from. I strained really, really hard to actually pay attention to the meanings of the words he spoke and not just drift away on the beautiful lyrical sound of them. I did not ask the loan officer about his family heritage even though he had caramel skin, blue eyes and the head shape of an Egyptian pharoah. I gritted my teeth and actually read what I was signing. To quote Pride & Prejudice, "that's a small sort of accomplishment, I suppose."

I did it. I got a loan. I bought a car, though it's not actually mine, it belongs to the Pharoah. (He said it belongs to "us" meaning him and the bank until I pay it off.) It was not fun. I did not learn anything interesting except.... one of the bank tellers does hair at night, one of the car salesman just started 3 months ago and needs more shirts and the loan officer has a german shepherd that's not mean, just vicious looking. Don't ask me anything technical about my new car. It's pretty, rides smooth, smells good and I like it.