My birthday is in 5 days! Where has time gone?? Here is my shameless link to my wishlist at Amazon.com.

I have a big charity event at work on Sunday, so this week involves a lot of prep for that on top of my normal tasks. I have a lot of baking to do for the bake sale portion of the event. Because the event is the day before my birthday, I’m having my birthday party the following weekend. At least I’m nearly ready for that. I knew in advance my time would be short, so I’ve been gathering my supplies. I just need to get a folding table and the party food (and cupcake ingredients).

Humidity and allergies are wearing me down. I feel tired regardless of how much sleep I get. Suck. Even Benny seems tired! I haven’t played Rock Band in forever because of that (and the fact that Danny is sudden;y anti-Rock Band). I’ve lost the lung capacity I had built up from practicing singing so much. On of these days I’ll feel more like myself.

I never wrote about our adventures getting me a new car…

We went into searching not really knowing what kind of car I’d end up with, but having very specific requirements in mind. The Nissan Murano ended up filling those nicely. The salesman who was helping us when we first looked at one was young and friendly – it was his second day on the job. We were happy with the features of the car, but Danny didn’t want to start talking deals until we had compared the car to a Honda he had in mind. We promised to come back and headed to Honda to check it out. We quickly saw things that were deal-breakers with that car, so we called the salesman to let him know we’d be back soon and we stopped off at home to get everything that went with my Outback so we’d be ready to trade it in (They had agreed to match Car Max’s great appraisal.)

So, we get back to the dealership and start talking price. The Murano we were looking at was a little high in price. The salesman had already gotten the lowest price he could from his sales manager, so he looked at his computer to see what other used Muranos he had on-hand. There was one that was cheaper that had an added feature (DVD in the back) but slightly more mileage. We asked to take that one for a quick test drive since the price was more realistic.

When we were backing that car out of it’s spot, the car locked up. The key fob was broken, so the security kicked in and stopped the car. We had to get out of the car with it halfway of of it’s spot which caused the sales manager to come hurrying out to yell at our salesman. He then turned to Danny and I and said, “Go inside and wait. I need to talk to you about this.” His tone of voice was, ‘You just earned yourself detention! Go to the principal’s office right now!’

I felt shaken by his attitude towards us (even the sales guy looked shocked) and Danny was pissed. When the sales manager came in, he started calmly, but maliciously tearing into us for daring to look at another Murano (on his lot – wtf??) when he had already given us a price on the first one we saw. Danny talked money with him, explaining that the first one was too expensive and the second was a better value for the money. The ass manager made it clear that he felt the two Muranos were as different as night and day and we could only like one or the other. Even *I* piped up and tried to explain that there was very little difference between the two cars to us and that we wanted to make the right decision. That just made the manager more belligerent. Danny told him he was making us feel uncomfortable. He said he didn’t intend to do that, but his eyes said ‘Fuck you.’ The salesman looked like he wanted the earth to swallow him up so he could disappear. I was feeling so hurt by then that I just stared at my hands and tried not to cry. I was relieved when Danny told him he had lost a sale and that we were leaving. I only made it out the door before I started crying. I think the family standing outside were a little confused as to why someone would leave a car dealership crying.

I felt completely shat on by that point. He made me feel like I didn’t deserve a car unless his highness the sales manager granted me the privilege. We decided to go to a Starbucks so we could get on the internet and look for other used Muranos in the area. We found one in the color I had liked (from the first one we saw) and the extra features of the second car we saw. It had a little more mileage but a great sale price. We didn’t get there until 30 minutes till they closed, but we test drove the car and were happy with it. They couldn’t go lower on the price, as it was already listed a couple thousand lower than normal as an internet special, but they agreed to match the Car Max price of my trade in (they appraised it $1,000 less before seeing the Car Max price). Everyone was super nice there (though they were clueless about the fact that the car was satellite radio ready but it wasn’t installed) and we kept quite a few employees there until 11 pm buying the car.

The car is a 2005, so it can’t do fancy things like play mp3 cds and it’s navigation maps are really out of date. But, Danny plans to buy the newest map disk when it comes out this fall and get satellite installed (I am having serious XM withdrawls!) It is matching the mileage my Outback was getting, which is what I hoped. It’s a little annoying to have to adjust the seat and mirrors all the time since Danny likes to drive it too. Once we get a second key fob, that shouldn’t be a problem. It will take a few weeks before I really feel at home in it. I have a hard time switching cars. Benny seems really comfortable in the back seat and even has his own a/c vents now.

Well, that is my car buying saga. I highly recommend Oscar at Brown’s Fairfax Nissan. I would suggest you avoid Brown’s Sterling Nissan, unless you’d like the sales manager to treat you like a smelly dog turd.