Meet Paula

So, in an EXTREMELY exciting piece of news, my parents bought me a car!!!! Yes, it is time to retire the 1997 Dodge Intrepid (which I -love-, but she's unreliable and starting to break down around my ears). So for the last several weeks, I've been browsing for vehicles.

The first thing I had to do was let go of the idea of getting my dream vehicle, a Dodge Durango. That was hard to do, I've dreamed of having one for oh, more than 10 years. My friend Michelle has one, so I do get to drive one on occasion, which only made me want one more, but when I am perfectly honest with myself, I really don't need a vehicle that big, and the V8 engine is super thirsty, so I wouldn't be able to afford the gas. So with a HUGE sigh (well, a lot of huge sighs), I put away the Durango as a possibility.

Then I was looking at smaller SUVs...the ones that are sometimes referred to as 'cute utes.' In particular, I had my eye on the Honda CRV. Just the right size, great gas mileage, fabulous reputation.

As it turned out, Brenda ended up getting one on Friday!

So now two of my best friends have my dream vehicles. Can you believe it?

Still perusing craigslist and Uncle Henry's (Maine statewide classifieds publication), I first looked at and dismissed a car, but then went back and really checked it out. Researched the hell out of it (like I've been researching any car that takes my fancy...I could probably recite stats and true market value on several years of CRVs), and then called Mom & Dad. We drove down to Portland, took a good look at the car, barely had to test-drive it, and bought it.

Now I'm waiting for the paperwork to get worked out so I can get it insured and registered, but please meet the new markira-mobile. Mark insisted on naming it, and as it is a 2004 Chevy Impala, the name 'Paula' was a natural. Paula had one owner, a disabled older couple who are now both not allowed to drive, and stunningly, has LESS THAN 24,000 miles on her!

She's in absolutely brand-new condition, inside and out, has a trunk large enough to hold multiple bodies (which was my first comment when I saw it, of course, and has been verified...the kids have climbed in the trunk, they thought it was great fun...bwahahahaha), is sooo quiet you can barely tell when she's on. In fact, when I started it the first time, I looked at Mom and said, "The car's ON" and she, surprised, replied, "Are you sure??"

I'm customizing her a little bit, of course, to be more of 'my' vehicle. Yesterday I got these license plate frames. *grins* I'll be moving my stereo from the Intrepid to the Impala, so I can plug in my iPod, and I need new floor mats (seriously looking at these).

It's going to be interesting to be a little anonymous with my ride for a while, until people start to associate my vanity plates with the new car. I will no longer be the one with the purple car! (and most recently, the purple car with black primer paint :P ) Soon enough, though, people will start recognizing Paula. :) mk

p.s. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit. I can't use the license plate frames. State law says:

False identification. A person commits a Class E crime if that person obscures identification number, identification letters, the state name, validation sticker or mark distinguishing the type of plate attached to a vehicle.

Well. I'll just have to find something else awesome. :)