However, in unrelated news, I had a shocking day yesterday.
My doorbell started ringing at about 7 a.m., which made the dog bark hysterically. I was certain that no one I knew could possibly be horrible enough to be waking me up the morning after the evening shift outing at 7 a.m. After trying to tell the person that was ringing my bell that they must have the wrong apartment, I went upstairs to explain that they had the wrong apartment.
I found my upstairs neighbor, who told me that my car had been broken into. Driver's side window smashed. In the spot directly in front of the door to the building, in front of windows into four people's homes. Ugh. Having not gotten home until about 1:30 that morning, it hadn't even been six whole hours since I'd been in my car.
Glass everywhere -- and my iPod (which was a gift, a long time ago, and which I'm very sad to be without), FM transmitter cable, and GPS were gone. The worst part? (Other than the broken window, the inconvenience, the fact that crime touched my very lovely condo neighborhood?)
I had actually remembered to put my GPS and iPod away. In the glove box. Which had also been jacked open & damaged. I almost never remember to do that. Ugh.
So -- called the police, who actually came out and fingerprinted my car (very CSI!), called the insurance company, called the auto-glass-repair place that we use at school. They didn't think they'd be able to get a Forester window for a couple days, and suggested that I call the dealership, so I did. Cleaned up what seemed like three windows' worth of glass, and took a bunch of junk out of my car.
One very windy drive to Newark later, I arrived at the dealership and talked to a very nice chick at the service counter, who asked if there was anything she could get me while I was waiting. Hmm. "Maybe I could see what's on the lot, while I'm here?" She was only too happy to get a salesman.
Now -- before I go any further, I want to make it clear that while I l-o-v-e, love my Subaru Forester, it's a 2001 with 155k miles, and burgeoning mechanical problems (check engine light, sunroof motor dead, occasional gear slipping, and a few other minor electrical things). So, I've been car-shopping in my head for a while, and even looked into the Cash for Clunkers thing (it wasn't a clunker).
I met Scott, who was the nicest, least sleazy car salesman I've ever met. We looked at a few things, he asked about what was most important to me (don't laugh: it's the heated seats), and what I was looking to spend. We test drove the most beautiful, brand-new Forester, though we both knew I couldn't afford it.
And then he showed me Lady Chablis.
Yeah, yeah, I'm a geek. But I'm a geek who bought a new car!
She's so pretty. 2008 champagne-colored Outback with ... seat warmers. And some other cool stuff like the Sport-Tronic transmission, and cool display panels with mpg, distance till fill-up, time since started, etc.
I told him that this might work -- if he could work out my trade and take care of the broken window, so I didn't have to deal with it. Smart girl, too -- 'cause the service counter chick came back and said it was going to cost about $1k to fix. It wasn't *just* the window -- it was the window motor and the door frame and the seals and a bunch of other stuff that was expensive.
So, I started the day with a broken window, and ended the day with a new car. Perhaps a bit of an overreaction to a broken window, but definitely better than spending $1k to fix a window on a car with 155k miles.
Definitely a day of turning lemons into lemonade. Or into Chablis, perhaps.
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