Buying a Car & Feeling Behind

I got to see a bunch of my friends for the first time in a while last week! We went to Forno for happy hour, and everything was lovely. It was great to catch up with them, and the food and drinks were awesome.

I had the Strawberry Rose (vodka, elderflower liqueur, strawberries) to drink, and it was perfect. Not sweet at all and completely delicious. And for dinner I had half of the gluten-free Forno Chicken pizza, with mozzarella, grilled chicken, asparagus, roasted red peppers, red onions, and goat cheese. It was excellent, and I loved having the rest of it (cold) for snacks over the next few days.

And then we all headed back to my house so they could meet Ben. Also lovely. And then as they were leaving, they were like, “Ellen! What happened to your car?”

Um… I don’t know.

It hit me about five minutes later. As I was heading down the ramp in the parking garage, another car was heading up – fast. I tightened my turn in reaction and heard a thump. Frankly, there are multiple yoga mats, a dog carrier, and other assorted things in the back of my car that slide around and make weird noises all the time. I didn’t think anything of it. Aaand apparently I turned a little bit into the wall. Cool.

Except not cool at all, because my back door was dented in and scraped up.

Guys, I was so stressed out about this. Going back to the fact that I’m spending all the money now, I didn’t really want to have to fix my car. Then, my dad pointed out that it’s old enough with enough miles on it that I might just be better off with a new one.

That’s what happened. The cost of fixing the damage was ~$500 more than the car was worth. So. New car shopping time!

To be honest, I knew what I wanted: a newer version of my car. If you need a good small SUV, I’m a big fan of Toyota RAV4s. I had a 2006 one. My mom has a 2017 one. And now I have a 2014 one. Big fan, I tell ya. I quickly found a used one online that had about 26,000 miles on it, and my dad and I went out and got it on Saturday.

He negotiated for me, and I told him that I would like to be married by the next time I need a car so my husband can negotiate for me then. I hate feeling taken advantage of, but I also hate the constant back-and-forth of, “Hm, that’s a tough one. Let me go check with my manager.” I just want the whole process to be over, so I’d probably cave really fast.

I also discovered upon looking at my rough future budget outline that I had planned to save x amount of money each month specifically for a car. I knew I would eventually need a new car – mine was no spring chicken – and my car payment isn’t much bigger than that amount. Knowing that made the purchase a little easier.

Ben Update

He’s a good dog, guys. I love him. He barks more than I’d like, but I ignore ignore ignore. He’s really good at “Sit!” and “Come!” commands, and pretty good at walking on a leash for such a little dude. He does well at house training when I do everything right (but hey, I’m still learning, too). Pippa still doesn’t really love him, but usually handles him okay.

Our new morning thing is for me to scoop him up in my arms when I’m wearing my bath robe and carry him around the house like a baby. It’s the cutest, and I love it.

Feeling behind

I may have gotten majorly stressed out on Monday when I was looking for my job offer letter (yes, I know it should be saved on my computer, and maybe it is, but my computer is impossibly slow to search through) for my apartment application, and I happened to find a couple emails from my recruiting office with small things I was supposed to do 1-3 weeks ago. Oops.

There was late-afternoon stress-snacking, feeling like a hot mess all evening, and a delayed panic attack at midnight involved.

I also realized I missed my background check appointment, despite being 100% sure I wrote it on the calendar right when I scheduled it. So, I gotta call about that. And also find my offer letter. It’s all good. Yesterday was a tad hectic and last night I went to my TT coach’s yoga class with my other teachers in training, so it’s a today thing. It’ll be okay, right?

Assorted life notes

Whenever I get my hair cut, I get the ends dusted off and a TON of hair thinned out. My hair is so thick, y’all. In the week or two before I get it cut, I barely do anything with it because it’s so much effort.

Beneath a Scarlet Sky and Girl, Wash Your Face are really good books. I listened to them as audiobooks, but I’m sure they’re good reads, too.

I am once again immensely dissatisfied with my eyeliner. I use Tarteist by Tarte and it slides right off in the humidity. Lame.

The fact that my new car has bluetooth and I therefore do not have to mess with an auxiliary jack that is too old to work properly makes my day every time I drive. Also, my key remote works, so I don’t have to actually stick a key in my door to open my car when it’s raining. I really do like my new car.

A teacher I admire a lot said the way I ended our class on Sunday made his practice, and that made my day.

I have the week off from yoga teacher training, so I’m hoping to make it to a few more classes than usual this week, as well as get extra prepared for the following week of class. I think I’m teaching nearly half the class that week because two of the five trainees won’t be there! Madness.

Your turn:

Do you like cold pizza? Um, yeah. So much yes. I actually like a lot of leftovers cold, though.

What are your must-haves in a car? Power driver seat (I need to be able to adjust quickly if I’m not comfy) & bluetooth. Heated seats are a bonus.

What are you reading lately? I’ve just started a book called Suicide of the West, and I’m already envious of the writing. I’ve read the author’s work before, but I put it down after one page and was like, “Seriously? How is one person so good at writing?” And then Ben started being ornery and I had to go take care of that.