i can has car!

We've been talking about buying a second car for a while now.  First, it was because our roommate was wanting to move away, so I wouldn't be able to borrow her car during the day anymore (obviously).  She never did move, and it's starting to look like she never will, but that's a whole other thing.

Then, we wanted another car because Ben and teh roommate, who work together and thus carpool, might either get different shifts or different jobs altogether, again removing my borrowing ability. 

Finally, I wanted my own car because swapping car-seats every weekend is a pain, as is having to get permission to drive any farther than 10 miles from home.  Just going to school 15 minutes away was pushing the outer boundaries.

So this past weekend, after I kinda lost it due to wanting to visit my mom and not being able to due to aforesaid car borrowing stuff (I ended up going anyway, Dad got me; we got snowed in and stayed much longer than planned) and it was messy, in a sloppy tears kind of way.  Ben's response to the whole mess was to start researching cars and local dealerships online.  He also brought it up with his stepdad, who is teh awesome with cars and the family's de facto emergency mechanic.  HE pointed us to a whole-in-the-wall dealership up the road, where evidently pretty everyone in the Gabbert clan who owns used cars goes to shop. 

We went, with Ben's parents, to the dealership and inspected several cars.  We'd come to look at one specifically because its specs and MPG and everything were right, but we at least thought about a few others.  However, at the end of the day, we walked out with the one my FIL reccomended.

It's a 2006 maroon Chevy Malibu, with pretty much every little luxury you could want in a car.  Like power everything, sunroof, tinted windows, the works.  The radio has a small problem (the SRCE button is busted, so we can only play the radio; CDs don't work, despite the silly thing have a 10 disk changer in the trunk) and the battery was dead, but the dealer replaced the battery for us while we were at the bank signing paperwork.  Yeah, we had to finance it, but we got the car for way less than most dealerships would charge and the payment is pretty low.  So yay!

I'm 23, nearly 24, and this is the first car that has ever been "mine".  I must say, for a first car it's pretty sweet.

Also!  The snowed-in thing.  Thursday morning, I decided that I needed to go see my mommy.  When informed of my plans, Ben got all weird on me cuz of the car-borrowing thing.  I couldn't actually contact the roommate because I've lost her phone number (and she's a little annoying, so I didn't care to find it again) so I ended up sitting at home sulking. Mom called, found out about the whole thing, and immediately Dad sallied forth to pick up me and the kids.  It was really sweet, actually.  We rode down to their place, Mom and my kid sister and I went shopping, and did scrapbooking stuff.  Dad spends like, half his life driving my siblings around, so by the time I was ready to go home and he was ready to take me it was 9:30 at night.  At that point, it was snowing, and the roads were dreadful, so Ben and I decided it was safer for me to just crash there and come back the next day. 

I spent that day bossing around my siblings, shopping with Mom, scrapbooking, and swiping Mom's jewelry stuff to make myself a pair of earrings. Sadly, the earrings turned out a little weird (I may disassemble them into multiple pairs; the idea was great, the execution not so much) but that's neither here nor there.  So instead of going to school on Friday, I was at my parents' being a bum. :)  So my dad didn't have to drive the whole way, he dropped us off with Ben (whose work is a convenient halfway point) when he got off work. 

I have my own car! Hooray!!!