Pretty Good Weekend

The past few days, life has been pretty good.  I don’t get to say that very often these days, so it was nice to have that.

 

As many of my readers are probably aware, I got a new car on Thursday.  The high-maintenance bitch I’ve been driving for four years is gone.  Mike and I changed out the radiator on it about two weeks ago, and this past week, the water pump went bad.  When the garage told me it was going to cost $435 or so to replace it, it occurred to me that since I was putting $500 every two months into that car, I may as well be making a car payment on a new one. Toyota had a really nice lease deal going on for brand new Rav4’s, so I walked into the office on Thursday and told the first salesperson I saw that I had a trade-in for which I’d like to get $3,000, and if he could cut me a good deal I might be driving away with a new car.

 

I knew I wasn’t getting 3 grand, but when negotiating you start high.  I ended up getting $2,000 for the Saturn, plus $1,000 for being a recent college grad, and a $500 lease incentive, which put me a good bit ahead of the game for a downpayment, and about 3 hours later I drove off the lot in a brand spanking new Rav4 with really reasonable monthly payments. I was a little concerned that there might be hiccups with my credit check (not my rating, which I know is good, but potentially with my income-debt ratio), but everything went through quick, smooth, and easy. It was a really nice feeling to have that happen for a change. They gave me the financing amount for if I choose to buy it out at the end of the lease, and it’s a pretty low number—low enough that I’m thinking in 3 years, if they’re willing to give me an extended warranty and an affordable loan term, I may well keep the girl.

 

Funny part is, I drove to our friends’ place for gaming right after that, as I do every Thursday, and realized when I got there that my car is identical to theirs in every way—even color.  Theirs is a 2010, but there’s really no difference in the look of the car between 2010 and 2012. It was a funny coincidence because I essentially told him the first one he showed me looked great (which it did). They call the color Pyrite, which is a sort of cross between slate and a dark gold. Not a ton of bells and whistles, but it’s got more than I need. AWD AND 4WD, which is helpful, plus I had fun playing with the USB port and built-in Bluetooth hands free setup.  I get free maintenance for the term of the lease, plus a really nice factory warranty, which means essentially I’ll be paying for tires and brakes, and that’s about it.

 

Of course, I drove everywhere between Thursday and yesterday because everyone wanted to see it (and I wanted to show off my new girl).

 

In short: I think I’m in love, and it’s a love affair I hope will last a long time.

 

Friday night we picked up Mike and took her for a drive, out to Half-Price books to trade some things in, and then to dinner.  Saturday I drove out to my folks’ house to show it off to them, and they took Julie and me out to lunch; later on we met up with Sara, Ian, Taej, Jackie, Mike, and my dad for a few beers at Hough’s (a local bar with an excellent beer selection)—I had only one beer since I was driving, but it’s always nice to spend time with friends and family. Ian also got a new SUV recently, so he and I showed off our cars to each other.

 

Yesterday there was no gaming, as Robert is scheduled to run next and he was out of town; this worked out nicely because it was also our friend George’s birthday, so Julie and I went over to George’s place and hung out with the Thursday gaming group, George’s wife Kim, and their kids.  By then I was a bit tired of driving everywhere so Julie drove.

 

There was a lot of back-and-forth and out-and-about this weekend, but it was all of the relaxing sort. It was nice to have a couple of days to recharge the ol’ batteries, and have nothing weighing on my mind at all.  I’d like to hope this marks a changing in Julie’s and my fortunes for awhile, but I try never to get my hopes up about things like that.

 

I could still really use a library job, however, or at least a job that doesn’t see me acting as someone’s administrative assistant.  That’d be aces.

 

Anyway, it was a good weekend. I got a new car, I got to spend time with friends and family, and I got to relax and just enjoy life for a couple days. Here’s to hoping it stays that way for awhile.