I <3 my new car. :-)

I got my new car yesterday!!! :-D I love it, it is exactly what I wanted. Here's the (long and detailed) story:
A while ago I submitted a CarFinder form on St. J Auto's website; I asked them to e-mail or call me whenever they got a Subaru Baja in. Since then they have gotten a few in, but they all had standard transmission, and I haven't learned to drive standard yet. Well last week I was browsing their website, looking for a car that I might like and I found a sage green 2006 Impreza that had very low mileage (about 12k), was automatic, and affordable (about $17,700). My mom has an Impreza and I really like the way it handles so I decided to take a look at this car and possibly buy it. I had been communicating frequently by e-mail with one of the salesmen at St. J Auto so I let him know that I would like to take a look at this car; I decided that I would take a look at it on Saturday (yesterday, the 15th) at 11am. On Friday during my lunch break I checked my e-mail and saw that he had sent me a message first thing that morning saying that 11am wouldn't be a good time, that noon would be better. I replied that noon was fine, and when I returned to my inbox I saw that he had just barely (while I was writing back to him) sent me another message - the car I wanted to look at had been sold.... I called to talk to him about another Impreza that was the same color and year but with about 64k on it, but that one was a standard. Oh well. "It wasn't meant to be" he said. I told him I would still come and check out their other cars; there was a 2005 Impreza there that I wasn't very interested in, but I decided I'd look at it anyway. That afternoon I looked at The Car Store's website to see what they had for used cars - it's closer than St. J, but because it's in Norwich it's a lot more expensive so I didn't really want to go there, but figured it wouldn't hurt to look anyway. I found about 12 cars that I wanted to look at, but none of the prices were on the website so I wasn't too confident that I could afford any of them - if I found one of them was affordable I would probably get it. So yesterday I called St. J Auto and canceled my appointment to look at the 2005 Impreza since I didn't want it that much; I decided to go to The Car Store instead. I went to The Car Store's website to print out the pages for the cars I wanted to look at so I could remember them all, and then Dad came up and suggested I check out the websites for the Subaru dealers in Berlin, Claremont and Rutland. I was kind of hesitant to look because I had checked Berlin's the week before and hadn't seen anything and the others are pretty far away, but I decided to check to see if anything new had come in anyway. Nothing I wanted in Berlin. Nothing I wanted in Claremont. I didn't see anything that I wanted in Rutland, but then dad said "There's a Baja" - I had missed it in the list, had only noticed the many Forresters listed which I don't care for very much. I put my mouse over the link and the picture came up; it was black! Getting more excited I clicked on the link to check it out - it was a 2006 (which was the last year they made them) black Subaru Baja, automatic, with tinted windows, a sunroof, and low mileage (28k)!!! Now this was basically my dream car (I have daydreamed about getting a black Baja with a sunroof and tinted windows many times lol). And I could afford it (it was about $19,900)!!! I called the store to make sure it was still there - it was! I got my parents to agree to go look at it that day, and I gave the dealer a $200 deposit over the phone so that no one else could buy it while we were on our way there. Of course I loved it, and of course I bought it. :-D I got some pretty good deals too, it's certified so I was able to get an amazing 6 year/100k mile warranty for a one time cost of $550 ($100 deductible for just about anything - even if the motor blows!). And I added into the price a Xzilon treatment which I will have done sometime next month. This is some pretty cool stuff; it is applied to the interior and exterior and will protect my car from just about anything that should get on it; spills, salt, bird shit, etc. They had one of their floor models treated with the stuff and a can of spray paint - you can spray the paint on and it wipes right off. So if you can't already tell I'm pretty excited!! I think I lucked out on the car and everything else, and it has everything I wanted it to have. :-D I love it!

Car issues.... again

So much has happened in the last several weeks... I'm going to separate the three major things into three separate posts. The first is about my car..

On my way up to the apartment several weeks ago my car's exhaust decided to break. Everything was fine until I stopped at a red light. When I hit the gas to go again I could hear very loud exhaust - I thought to myself "Is that me?!" I let off the gas for a second and sure enough it stopped. I looked in my mirror to see if my muffler had fallen off but I couldn't see anything there (however it was dark so even if it had fallen off I may not have been able to see it..). I will also comment at this time that some people had severely irritated me by tailgating me very closely - when we stopped at the red light they were so close to me that I thought they were gone; I couldn't see their headlights at all! When I looked closer I could see them in the car though. I drove the last 5 minutes to the apartment very carefully and made it there fine. When I looked under my car later I saw that the exhaust under the driver's section of the car had come apart and was hanging down, but not touching the ground. Matt had wanted me to use my car a couple times over the weekend and thank God I didn't. When I went to leave on Monday I didn't even get by the next building and I could hear the exhaust pipe scraping on the ground. A couple people came over to look and a guy broke it off for me so I could manage to get home. The piece must have been almost two feet long. He told me to drive with my windows down so carbon monoxide wouldn't build up in the car - that was one COLD drive home... I wore my hood up the whole way! And might I say it was embarrassing too? People would turn to look as I went by. And I tried to be really careful; if a car was coming I would temporarily let my foot off the gas until I was sure it wasn't a cop. :-P But I made it home and my Dad kindly used the credit card to have the parts replaced the very next day.
Now, however, I'm not sure that the water pump we replaced several weeks before my exhaust problem is the right one.. The guy at the parts store said it wasn't the same pump that was in my car before but that it should fit. But now my car will start to get hot when driving in certain conditions; for example when going slow through the stupid ass construction going on right in front of where I work... It hasn't overheated yet, but it gets pretty close. So we will see how that goes. My dad says that he's getting sick of fixing something in it every few weeks - he thinks I should just go for a new car! Which I might. :-) I set up a carfinder thing on St. J Auto's website to e-mail/call me whenever they get in a Subaru Baja that is 2004 or newer with less than 50k miles on it. So we will see!

Cars, cars, cars

It turns out that my car is fixed and back to working fine now. My dad and Dan (his mechanic friend) worked on it some more yesterday and finally got the fluid to circulate through the motor. Dad took it on several "test" runs, and says it is now fine for me to use again. Yay! But I still want to go car shopping next weekend (or at least sometime soon). I want to get a Baja most of all, but a newer nicer Subaru would be fine too (mine is a '98 Subaru Outback Wagon). Mine still looks very nice and was well taken care of and I love it, but it needs several parts replaced and the motor knocks. It has about 120k miles which isn't a lot for Subaru, but a car with lower mileage would be nice. So now I'm really excited to go car shopping!
On the way back up here to my apartment last night another deer almost ran out in front of me on the interstate but stopped on the bank, maybe because I was coming? I don't know why it stopped, but I was sure glad it did - my heart just about went up my throat when I saw it running towards the road. I also saw some animal in a pull over area, but it was dark so I couldn't tell what it was. It kind of looked like it was a fox. The rest of my ride was uneventful.
And now I've got a bunch of cleaning and packing that I need/want to do, but my computer keeps distracting me. :-P

Thursday night I took my mom's car back to my apartment so I could make it to my last day of work. When I got there yesterday I discovered that one of my co-workers (who is also a pastry chef) had baked a beautiful cake for me and another girl who was also there for her last day. It was the most amazing cake I've had in a long time, possibly ever. So delicious. And another friend crocheted a beautiful blue and white blanket for me, and made me a turquoise necklace. I'm going to miss everyone.. I met so many nice people while working there. Aside from that it was a crappy day - I was stuck on express and carts the entire time (both of which I dislike). It seemed like it was "Torture Molly Because She's Leaving Day". After work I quickly grabbed some stuff and came back here to my parents' house so Mom could go shopping today with her car (well.. she said I didn't have to come down, that she could wait to go grocery shopping, but I wanted to). I felt sad because I ran over a little (baby?) skunk on the way there... I tried not to hit it but it ran back into the road.. :-(
While I was at work yesterday Dad and his mechanic friend Dan worked on my car, but even with the new water pump they couldn't get fluid to circulate through the motor. It looks like I may have no other choice but to get a new car..
So after shopping today I am going to take my mom's car back to my apartment again tonight and spend the night, hopefully getting to do something with Matt, and then I will clean tomorrow, etc., pack up the stuff I need for the week, and then head back down here. Ugh. I'll be glad when I finally have a routine going.

Stresssssss

Let's just say the last 24+ hours have been a little stressful. It started last night on my way to my parents' house: I had a bag of bagel chips open and sitting on the passenger seat so I could eat them on the way and a thought passed through my mind. I thought "If a deer or something ran out into the road in front of me and I had to slam on my brakes, these chips would spill everywhere..", and then a few minutes later what do you know, a deer bolts out across the road right in front of me. I came so close to hitting that deer - I heard my tires squealing or something (I don't know though because my car has ABS), and I had to swerve the tiniest bit, but that deer was mere feet from my car. That just about gave me a heart attack... However, because of the slight downhill slope at the end of the road where I live, I have a habit of putting my arm out when I hit the brakes to keep whatever is on the passenger seat from falling on the floor, and so none of my chips spilled.
And then what came was worse. When I got to my parent's house and shut off my car, I could see steam just rolling out from under the hood of my car. At first I thought it was smoke, but I got out and smelled it and it just smelled like hot car. I was concerned though because it was hissing and didn't stop steaming, so I called my dad outside to look at it. After some examination we discovered that water/antifreeze was pouring out of the motor (not the radiator). Not good... Especially for a person prone to anxiety. Especially when this anxiety-prone person has to drive to Veremedy the next day, and then back to her apartment an hour away, plus the weekly commutes that will soon begin. There was nothing we could do then so Dad said he'd look closer in the morning. So this left me worried about my car and what I was going to do if it couldn't be fixed, and worried about Veremedy the next day... Ugh.
But in the end my day at Veremedy went well, and Dad thinks that a new water pump may fix my car problem. If not then this weekend I will be car shopping. I'd almost rather do that anyway because my car is old (a '98), and needs several new parts. What's holding me back is that it's my first car, the interior/exterior are in beautiful condition, and it only has like 120k miles on it. But we will see what happens.