You’d never have guessed that it was a holiday weekend watching our place this weekend. We didn’t do anything typically associated with Independence Day.
Our 4th actually ended up looking like this: We packed up the books and office closet until about 2:30. After that we ran from the house and drove down Hwy 17 until we managed to spot the Red Cross Bloodmobile Bus. We donated blood and sat around for a while until we were both not so dizzy anymore. And then we sat around the house for the rest of the afternoon doing not much of anything. We were in bed and asleep before 10:00. The closest we got to fireworks was listening people firing them off in the apartment parking lot.
Saturday we spent more time looking at cars. I’m awful at car shopping. Justin reassures me that everybody hates car shopping, so it’s not just me having a difficult time. Plus, we’re reconciling our two very different experiences and attitudes about car shopping.
Justin already knows exactly what he would like for his next car, when that time comes. He knows the exact brand and style and all the extras he wants in the car. He can list off for you the details of the car and the reasons why this car is the best possible option. He probably even knows what color he’s going to get.
I know what I like and different things that I would appreciate being in the car, but I don’t have an exact brand and style that I would prefer over all the others. I liked the Smart fortwo, but I’ve moved away from that. I like the Mini Cooper. It turns out I like subcompact cars with a hatchback—little snubbed nosed, flat butted cars that look like what would happen if golf-carts and mini-vans had children. In a perfect world, I’d have a sunroof and a CD player.
But when it comes down to it, I’d just like a car that would run and wouldn’t stretch our budget too far.
So when I thought about shopping for a car, I expected to find a good car dealership, look at their used car options, see if one would work for us, and then get that. On the other hand, Justin, who’s heard me talk about the cars I think are cute (the Mini Cooper, specifically), expected me to find out who sold that car and then we’d go there, drive it, and get that. He doesn’t want me to just pick any old car—he wants me to pick a car that I’ll love for the next 10 years or so. Pick one specifically that I’ve researched and compared and decided that I’d prefer it over all the others.
Now, because it’s me, I’ll love any car that I end up getting just because it’s mine and it runs well. But his way makes a lot of sense. So after a few frustrating hours, during which we drove through most of the car dealerships in Savannah, at the end of which we had ice cream to make everything better, we went home with a better understanding of each other and how we shop for cars. And I’ve been looking at cars every time I’m on the road since then, trying to find out what I like. Specifically. I think I’ve got a good idea now, and Justin and I are both doing some research into it. We’ll see if we can find this car in town (pretty likely) and then I’ll let you know more.
Anyway, that was our Saturday. Sunday was more packing. We’ve got all the books from the office boxed up now. Lots and lots of boxes of books! And we’ve got the office closet cleaned out except for a few pictures and dresses that we’ll pack up when we get to other similar items. All the boxes are piled up in the living room because we weren’t up to dragging them all down to the garage, but we’ll get there eventually. It looks exciting, though, seeing the empty office closet and all those empty bookshelves and all those boxes piled up in the living room. We made progress! This coming weekend, we’ll tackle another area—probably the porch closet and the bathrooms.
Thursday evening we went out on a date. We had to go to Target so we went to Ruby Tuesdays in the mall for dinner, too. We had the most delicious meal! I had ribs and shrimp and Justin had chicken and it was unbelievably yummy! Our waitress was awful, but the food was absolutely amazing. We had planned to go to a movie afterwards, but we stuffed ourselves so full eating all our food that we decided to hold off for another day.
So we went to see Wall-E on Sunday. Cute movie!!! Loved it so much! Of course, I love Pixar and they’re always doing wonderful things, and they’re always trying *new* things. You know how much dialog there is in this movie? Not much! Know how much expression you can get into a face with none of the normal facial characteristics? LOTS. I don’t know how, but between the little robot noises and the limited movable parts on the faces and bodies of these robots, they expressed a huge amount of expression! So often, Wall-e was just saying the name of either himself or Eve, and it’s amazing how much can be said in two syllables. I highly recommend this movie. Great for all ages!
I’m going to try to keep on posting a handful of times during the week, but with the move coming and chaos taking over the house, please understand that I might be a little too busy to keep up. I’ve been writing from work mostly, but I don’t always have time to write while I’m here, either. And I don’t always handle chaos well. I’ve been gearing myself up for this one, knowing that the house isn’t going to look clean from now until . . . September-ish. Maybe. I’m just a little OCD sometimes, so if you hear stress in my tone, it’s probably because there’s this voice in my head going absolutely bonkers because I can’t clear off the dining room table.