Car-ma (Get it?!)

As of tomorrow afternoon, all of our car problems will be completely resolved and everything will be back to normal. Can you believe that? I think that we had such a long stroke of bad luck that we got a good dose of good luck to help balance things out (car-ma :)

Monday morning started the intense car search, since now we were in the market for two cars and needed them pronto. We decided on a Honda Civic for me since they are so reliable, easy to fix and maintain, and probably won't die on me. Anthony still wanted a small truck, but he decided to be less picky on some of his requirements so that he could get something soon. I knew that finding something for me would be no problem since I am really not picky as long as the car is an automatic and runs when you start it (I know, high maintenance right?) but I was concerned about finding a truck for Anthony. He is particular. Like, really particular. You wouldn't think that he is since he is such a laid back guy, but all of this car shopping brought me back to when we were shopping for our condo when we were engaged. At least back then I had that new love glow to get me through this personality trait of his. These past few weeks I really had to exercise a lot of patience and even then, I wasn't very successful a lot of the time. When we did find a truck Anthony liked, I told him he better get so that we can stay married :)

So, Monday afternoon I found an 03 Honda Civic for sale by a private seller about an hour south of Tampa. It was a really good deal and we wanted to avoid sketchy used car salesmen as much as possible so we called the guy to set up a time to look at it. Tuesday Anthony was able to drive down with a friend to look at it, everything checked out on it, and he went ahead and bought it. He drove it back home, came and picked me up from work, and as soon as we got home we got on the computer and started looking around for trucks. Almost immediately we saw a truck that had the main specifications that Anthony wanted for a REALLY low price on craigslist. We almost blew it off, assuming that there must be something wrong with it but decided to call just in case. The truck was at a dealership an hour north of Tampa, but according to the salesman the carfax was clean and we decided it was worth looking at. He told us that quite a few people had called and said they were planning on coming to look at it so we jumped in the car and raced there. (I never know if the salesmen are just giving you a line when they say that, but I always fall for it anyway).

As soon as we got there the dealership was closing soon so we immediately jumped in the truck to take it for a test drive. While we were pulling out, a burly tatooed guy pulled in, angrily beeped his horn, rolled down his window and shouted, "What are you doing with the truck!?". When we told him we were test driving it, I thought he was going to jump out of his car and attack us! It turns out he had missed the turn to the dealership and because of it, we got to the truck before him. I felt kind of sorry for him, but at the same time I felt like it was our turn for a little bit of good luck. The truck was great, the price was great, so we wrote them a check. On the way home I couldn't quite wrap my head around how much money we had spent in one day! It made me a little sick to think about it, so I tried to put it out of mind and remember that we won't be poor students for forever...

Today I got out of work early and we drove to Wildwood to sign the title of my car over to the junkyard and to get my tags so I can transfer it to my new car. After that, we drove up to Ocala to meet up with my mom and to return her mini-van. Tomorrow on my lunch break I am going to go the tax collector office to transfer my registration and title and that will be that. Whew! I can breath normally again, yea!

To prove that we have learned from our experiences: we got a car alarm installed in my car the morning after we got it, we added comprehensive theft and collision insurance on both vehicles, and are now card carrying members of AAA. Expensive life lessons, but at least they were learned, right?