Happy New Year! & I want a new car!

First off let me say Happy New Year to all of you!  I'm going to be pushing to network more in 2013 and get me & my business out there. Selling online is great, but making connections is great too!

I'm not one to go out on NYE.  The last time we did, we encountered too many drunks in our short drive home.  I don't understand the mentality of drinking and then thinking you can handle a car, but that's a topic for another day.

So instead TheJerseyShoreDad & I went car shopping.

While technically there is nothing wrong with my 2009 Dodge Journey, I never really liked it.  Plus it had a major flaw in the design. It's what they call a cross over, I call it a small station wagon.  Anyway, they built it on a truck chasis but gave is car brakes, so I had to replace the brake pads & rotors at 20,000 miles.  That sucked big time.  And it's never been right since.  Now it's approaching 60,000 miles and it's out of warranty and it's at the point where we're going to have to put money into it.

I don't want to.

I'm not one to pay off a car & drive it into the ground.  If I felt more secure about the economy I might consider leasing a car.

So on NYE afternoon we packed up the kids (ok they're 14 & 11, they pack themselves) and wandered down to Route 37 in Toms River to see what we could see.

First off, the Kia dealership.  Cute place, no stock.  All the stock in at another lot.  Ok that's fine, but they didn't even have an "example" of each new car on the lot.  Nevermind...

Then to the Hyundai Dealership which is also the Chevy dealership. The lots are huge & no one ever really came out to talk to us (it was very busy) so we wandered from one dealership to another & ended up really liking the Chevy Equinox.  After waiting a bit and almost leaving, we got to test drive it.

I have just 2 demands. well, it's 1 but broken up into two areas. It had to have space.  Our 14 year old son is already 5ft 8 and with TJSD being 6ft 2, I suspect that both kids will be at or near 6ft by the time I'm done with this car, so it needs room for their legs in the back.  And I need enough cargo space for a craft table a few totes.

Oh and the price should be around $25,000 for us to keep our payments under $350.

While I like the crossovers, it doesn't have to be one, but it can not be a van of any sort.

The Equinox fit both requirements for space, but we could not come to an agreement on price. And in a little retrospect, they were not very forward with the price of the car, just the payments.  Never even really discussed the rate of the loan either.

I hate car shopping, and was done at this point, plus it was 5pm and we needed food.

We stopped for dinner on the way home.  We were going to go to Outback because we have some gift cards,but they had a 3 HOUR WAIT.  Oh Hell No.

We happen to be passing Rivolis in Toms River so we stopped in there and they had a table for us!  Rivolis is REALLY good.  A bit on the expensive side, BUT you get a ton of food.  Think platter size dishes.  Did I mention the food is REALLY good?

We are there for a few minutes when my 14 yo son says to me "mom, the cast of the Jersey Shore is here."  I don't even look up from the menu and reply "no they're not"

He goes on "No mom, I mean it, look"

I look up and see this:

I nearly choked on my diet coke. There are no words, just no words.

Gee Thanks for that

*warning I use a bad word or two*

I'm a little annoyed today. Well it started last night when a bitch cut me off and then glared at me like I did something.


Let me tell you the story.  Last night I'm driving home and I'm on Route 37 in Toms River. I'm in the far right lane because that's how you make a left in NJ.  No, you don't jerk your wheel to the left and cut across traffic, we have things called Jug Handles. Basically instead of making a left, you make a right and loop around back to the light & then cross the road you were just on.  These are only at traffic lights and are mean to reduce traffic. 


Whatever, all you really need to know is I'm slowly stopping in the right lane when this bitch comes from like 2 lanes over and nearly hits me to get in front of me.  So I beeped at her. 


Then as we get around the jug handle (which here is really around a block, don't ask) we get to the light and I pull into the center lane to go straight, she stays in the right lane and slows down to glare at me. 


She cuts me off, but I'm the bad guy.  OK whatever...


Fast forward to this morning.  


Just like every school day, my 10 year old son turns off his kids shows & turns on the Pix11 news, (out of NY) for me, at 7:30 and goes to make his breakfast (yes my kids make their own breakfast & lunch, that's another post for another day).  He puts his waffles in the toaster and comes sit back on the couch while they toast. 


I'm half asleep checking Facebook, working on my first cup of coffee, half listening to the news when a story comes on that they're discussing some new curriculum for the Sex Ed classes in NY.  


Then dear Suki on the news starts using words like "oral sex" and "anal sex"


So I want to play it cool, and honestly by now the story is basically over, so I don't want to jump to change the channel and make a big deal out of it, but OMG, really at 7:30 in the morning?????


But what was the point of that?  The story is about parents being upset over the new possible curriculum, so you make things worse by using that kind of language when kids are around having breakfast, getting ready for school


Had they just said something along the lines of "parents you may want to change the channel if you have little ones around."  That's all, nothing big.   Then the next story was about TSA agents finding a vibrator in someone's suitcase. 


I'm not a prude, far from it, but this is at 7:30 in the freaking morning.  I was actually moved to contact the station to complain.  I emailed, called & left a message on the station's Facebook page, no response.  The only response I got was from the Newscaster Suki on Twitter.  


I wrote:

@SukanyaNYC this & your discussion of anal & oral sex without a heads up to parents watching with kids is why I turned u off.

 "this" in my tweet refers to the vibrator story.  


She replied:

SukanyaNYC Sukanya Krishnan @beachwritings. Yes I understand that! We should have said warning. Will bring it up to producers. It bothered me too.

@ 

But yet she laughed through it and the vibrator story.  I think she's just trying to make nice.    I won't watch the PIX news in the morning again. And I'm telling everyone about it too.  So pass it along.  As someone else said on the stations' facebook page, as their ratings stink the more raunchier they get.