Rental cars and car seats

I have a car to drive now. The dealer who’s fixing my car talked to my insurance company and found that I am covered for a rental, under the circumstances. So yesterday I dropped by and picked up a really cute Chevy Cobalt. LOVED that car. Didn’t get to keep it tho.

The windshield washer fluid didn’t work, and with the snow, etc, and my commute, I couldn’t have that. I had a guy here at work look at it for me and he couldn’t get it to work either, so I called the dealer/rental place and they agreed to swap it out for me. So after work last night I picked up an absolutely beautiful Chevy Malibu. VERY nice car. A little too much car for me – the Cobalt was more me, but this’ll be juuuuust fine for a week or so until I get my Jeep back. It is an awesome car. Jaben loves it and would prefer to keep it… ahahahahaha!! Like that’d happen, even if I didn’t owe so much on the Jeep. Malibu’s are super nice cars and waaaay outside my price range.

And that’s another thing. I still owe quite a bit on that Jeep, and I’m certain that being broken into, stolen, and molested like it was, it’s not worth as much now. I’m afraid that, after all the progress I’ve made paying this loan down, I’m back upside down again and that pisses me off to no end. I wish I could come up with the money to just pay it off and not have to worry about it. Soooo not gonna happen, but it’d be nice.

I have moments when I do feel sorry for myself. It’s frustrating, I do everything right, as well as I can, and still can’t get ahead. And I know this theme is universal, it’s not just me, but I have needed a few moments here and there to wallow. As a whole, I know I’m handling this a lot better than anyone expected of me (being the emotionally stable person I am, ha-ha), and that’s good to hear, but I wish I didn’t have to deal with it at all. It sucks. It just sucks. Apparently locking your car, parking close to the store near lights doesn’t help after all. I wish I could afford an alarm system, but then again, what are the chances it’ll get stolen again? Especially in this area, it’s slim to none. Which is good, but that doesn’t help with the paranoia. I’ve got this super nice, rented car, that’s way outside what I could afford to pay for, sitting in the parking lot, and I’m worried about it now. That’s just not right.

On the up side, I got a great deal on a new car seat for Kyan. It was on sale for $34 (yay!) and it will convert to a booster when he’s ready. I discovered he was nearing the height/weight limits on his old seat anyway, so it would have had to be replaced with in the year, so it’s okay. And he really likes his new seat. He got very excited when I carried it in the house last night – he wanted me to open it right away. I made him wait until we had dinner, then we installed it and all went for a ride in the super-nice Malibu with a new car seat for Kyan. I offered the old car seat to Ky’s DCP, and she said she could definitely use it – but she had to promise she won’t put Kyan in it. Fortunately she’s a mom and she gets why I feel that way.

So, we’re getting there. It’s still just weird and rough. I think I’ll be happy when I have my own car back and can put all this behind me. It’s just kind of hard not to think about it when I’m driving a car that is so obviously not mine.