Riding in Cars with Boys

Mark and I recently had quite the experience. I have always thought that when people describe something by saying, "It was an experience," it was just a loaded, catch-all, cop-out word for people who didn't have a very extensive descriptive vocabulary.

But sometimes, that is simply the only way to describe something. And let me tell you, buying a new car, is an experience.

Another similar type of word is to say that something has character, which Mark's old car had to boot. A 1993 Saturn with manual windows, no air conditioning and rusted paint that Mark lovingly referred to as "two-toned," that car has been the bane of my existence for the last three years. I tried many a time to threaten him that it was me or the car and I simply wouldn't walk down the aisle knowing that particular thing would be included in the "what's yours is mine" part of the nuptials, but he knew I was bluffing and just cranked the subwoofer louder to drown me out.

But finally a few weeks ago the Saturn met its doom, needing a repair that just wasn't worth fixing. So we starting our adventures shopping around for a new car. Mark had been looking at the Nissan Xterra, so we made that our starting point. After meeting an oddly stoic young salesman named Issiah, we took a test drive in awkward silence, then heard a 30-minute spiel from his boss who stepped in when Issiah didn't know the answer to any of our questions.

The visit culminated in us saying that we would think over all of the numbers they threw our way, and we left.

The next morning (which happened to be Saturday), Mark got a call at 8 a.m. He groggily stumbled over to his cell phone, and a look of disbelief washed over his face as he told the caller, "No, I haven't really had a chance to think about it...We were just in last night..."

And that was the beginning of Issiah the Car Salesman stalking us by calling every single day without fail to ask if we had come to any decisions. On the one day that he managed to call twice AND send an e-mail to Mark (how he got the address is beyond me), I snarkily said to Mark, "Oh, Issiah! You are smothering us. You're not even giving us a chance to miss you!"

Funny enough, we ended up getting a Toyota after being completely turned off by Issiah's intensity. Even though we were completely clueless about how financing worked, we finally got to a point where it made sense and took the plunge. Turns out I had the stronger credit history even though Mark had the money, so after several lame attempts at joking how I brought the cred and Mark brought the dough, I signed on the dotted lines and we drove off the lot with a Corolla that had five miles on it.

And let me tell you, that air conditioning is a beautiful thing. Too bad it is the first of October and starting to get chilly, rendering the air conditioning unnecessary...