car

New (to me) car.

| cheriarmour

If you are in the Southeast, I feel for you.  We are dealing with a ridiculous amount of snow and ice juuuust enough to screw up our day.

So Wednesday, Austin and I took off of work to buy a new car since I totaled the Lancer in a stupid accident about a month ago.

Broken LancerThe whole process of losing that car, totaling it, dealing with the insurance company, and all that fun stuff that comes with totaling a car has been a little emotional.  I was a very new blogger about two years ago, working for Fleet Feet when I bought this car with 0 knowledge of how to buy a car or how all of that worked.  My husband was a boyfriend at the time, and I cried bitter tears when the transmission in my Taurus crapped out.  But the car saw me through my mother’s illness, a new marriage, the poodle, and so much more.  So when the collision shop called me and told me that the car was a total loss, and when the insurance company confirmed it, it hurt.  I know a car is just a thing, and not something that I should get attached to, but I was genuinely sad when the first investment I ever made was totaled in the span if just a moment.

We took off on Wednesday, and this time, I was armed with a lot more knowledge than I was the first time.  I’ll get into the process of buying a car in a completely separate post.  But I’d like to welcome to the family my favorite car I’ve ever owned, and this time, I own it outright, no bank and no parents helping me…

Kia Soul

This is my new (to me) Kia Soul, which I bought after many a night spent poring over Consumer Reports, texting a friend’s husband who is big into cars, and after reminiscing over a test drive which spanned over North Carolina to Philly a few summers ago.  (I rented this car, and begged Austin to buy it for me, not knowing a few years later I’d total my car, and revisit this.)

I’ve never written a check so big in my life, so I was feeling some shock immediately after, but after that, and after getting the chance to drive it a little, even driving it a bit in the snow, I decided that this was one of my favorite cars I’ve ever owned.  It’s cute, it’s totally me, and I totally don’t have a car payment anymore.  Woo!

Promise, I will update you on the process of buying a car soon.

Now, with a traumatic few snow days behind us tell me….

What’s your favorite car you’ve ever owned?

Well hello there!

| cheriarmour

I took a few days off from blogging because of how crazy things have been over the past few days.  But don’t worry, I will fill you in on everything going in.

For one, remember how I said I would never drive a minivan? This is why you never say never.  After I managed to total my car (the Lancer is a total loss) I’ve had a lot of trouble with Metlife getting any answers on my car.  Which is a completely separate issue, which we can talk about later.  But the car that I’m being given in the meantime is a minivan.  And everything about it screams “mom”.  It’s a Maroon mom color.  There are like 6 seats in the back.  But the one really nice thing about the minivan is that it’s got mom features – it’s got the hands-free bluetooth thing, which is nice because I can work in the short amount of time that I spend in my car.

Second, I’m having huge issues with trying to get the issues with my car resolved, which I may have to address in a separate post.  But suffice it to say that I’m not satisfied in any way with my experience with the insurance company.  My understanding is that provided that you pay your insurance, that your insurance company is supposed to have your back, no?  That has not at all been my experience, and I’m getting extremely frustrated – I spent hours on the phone yesterday to try and get some of this resolved.  How do people do this?

My husband is back from China!  I am really excited, and he definitely had some stories for me. He talked about the flight (17 hours from Dallas), the air (very smoggy), and showed me pictures of the food, which looks good on him.  He said that the food was not super calorie-dense, and it showed – not that he needed to lose an ounce, but without the chance to work out while he was in China, he manged to slim down somewhat – very interesting!

What has your last week been like?  

She was right…

| cheriarmour

I had a post allll scheduled and planned out for today.  Lala let’s talk about running/me eating vegan burritios!  Let’s talk about my first trip ever to the chiropractor!

But yesterday took the absolute cake.

I was actually coming from my first chiropractor’s appointment (which I’ll go into, but it was all good), and I’d almost made it over to work…

Spoiler alert:

Broken Lancer

I’m going to be an adult here, and completely admit that I was at fault here. 100%. I honestly was a little distracted – I was preoccupied with my blood pressure, which registered a little high at the chiro earlier. I was obsessing, and not paying 100% attention. There was one car in front of me at the light, which I saw sort of in my mind’s eye, and when it turned green, I just started to accelerate. Right into the back of the Rubicon in front of me. I hopped out of the car, and immediately made sure the super nice guy in the Jeep was okay. He was fine, his car was beyond fine, and he was just sorry that I’d managed to destroy my car’s hood so well.

Of course at that time, it started sleeting, and the police officer, who was so kind when he finally got there, probably took 30 minutes to get there.

She was right…

When I started driving, despite my lanky frame, I would scoot the seat RIGHT up on the steering wheel.  My dear mother would often joke that I drove IN the steering wheel, and would often admonish me not to scoot my seat so far, and I’d always wave it off.  She was totally right.  When I hit Mr. Rubicon, the first thing that happened was that my knees went straight into the dash.  They will be bruised tomorrow, which isn’t the worst outcome, but when I told my mom that she was, and always had been right, she brought up a good point.

“What if you’d broken a bone in your knees?”

She’s right – I would be devastated.  Injuries happen, but to injure myself horribly in a car accident in a way that would prevent me from moving around like the clinically-diagnosed ADHD person I am would be really hard for me.

My mother was right.

But seriously. 

I was driving distractedly.  I wasn’t horribly injured, and the only thing that’s really going to hurt is my bank account, but I could have hurt someone, and I’m not okay with that.  Stop worrying.  Put down your phone (DON’T DO IT), and DRIVE.

Ever get into a silly fender-bender?

When it rains…

| cheriarmour

Firstly, my trashy television watching has hit an all-time new low. As I write this, I am watching this horrible, terrible show called ‘Party Down South’, which is like the country version of ‘Jersey Shore’. The clothes are much worse, the accents are much harder to understand, and one episode featured the girls taking their credit cards and going on a shopping spree…at Plato’s Closet. [Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with Plato’s Closet, mind you, but generally when you think “shopping spree” Plato’s isn’t typically what comes to mind, right?]

Dead BatteryI told you guys last week that I rolled out of work one day, only to have to beg a jump off my boss, because my poor car wouldn’t start.

So we replaced the battery blah blah, and I went on my way.

Wellll isn’t it the case with cars, I scheduled an oil change on Saturday morning, and $669 later, yes, you read that correctly, I have spent the weekend without the car, and I will drive off with new brakes, new rotors, and god knows what else.  Also, one of the techs either drove my car around or accidentally dropped something on my hood because I am sporting a nice new dent on the front.

Blah.  I hate car stuff, and I’m really thankful to have Austin to tell me when it’s time to go in, or when he can just fix something himself, but I already am really trying to be a budget person, and it’s really freaking hard when something always seems to crop up and wipe you.

But oh well.  It’s certainly not the worst thing in the world to be without a car on the weekend of the 4th, right?  I swear, in our travels this past weekend, we saw no less than a million people pulled over for goodness knows what, so I’m taking this weekend as a time to save on gas, see what it might be like to share a car, should we ever be in a place where we need to do that, and hang out around the house, where lord KNOWS I have things to be getting done.

And at LEAST it’s not the transmission like it was with my poor old Taurus, right! $669 is WAY better than dealing with a whole new car 🙂

Anyone else having car troubles?  I hope not! 

I got my car towed.

| cheriarmour

This weekend is nuts.  Absolutely nuts.  And I know that you missed me a lot, I could tell.

So let’s recap Friday.

I was super tired from the week, but I got home after work on Friday, and, inspired by another blogger who’s a mom, I straightened up, went for a run, and headed out to a birthday party late, because Selena was on telly.  Woops. That movie is good as hell though.

So we headed to Trophy Brewing Company in Raleigh for beer, pizza, and a shot of Fireball to celebrate the birthday of Adele Gregory, a good friend (who’s also really crafty and excellent at baking).

DSC_0184Trophy (for those of you local folks) is down on Morgan Street and features a lot of beer, pizzas, and good times.

DSC_0171DSC_0174The birthday girl was the only one who didn’t  stuff her face to its capacity – she stuck to a salad.  She was better than I was!
DSC_0172

Pizza!

DSC_0181
Birthday shots!

Then my car got towed. 

So when we left the brewery, I walked out to where I was pretty sure I’d parked my car, in a lot that was designated as okay to park in after 5:30 pm.  Or so I thought.  When I came out, the car was gone, and we figured it’d been towed.  As it turns out, I was completely in the wrong, there was another sign that stated that the late was for folks in an apartment complex across the street.  That was totally cool, I’d screwed up, and I was willing to pay the consequences for my mistake.  But when we called the tow yard to get the car, a woman rudely told us that no one was there and I couldn’t get my car until after 11:00 pm.  Which is fine, but we knew for a fact that it was mandated that someone is supposed to be there, and that cars had to be released within 45 minutes of you getting there.  Which wasn’t happening.

Long story short, we called the cops, the cops called the towing company, and magically, they were really really apologetic and released my car, all to the tune of $100 cash.

So if you’re wondering where my favorite lady was, instead of writing I was in a creepy part of town waiting to get my car out of a creepy yard.  How was your weekend?  

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