Crazy Jersey Trip...but we have the car!

Friday night my boyfriend and I decided that we were going to buy the car we had been looking at all week. It is a 2007 E350 Mercedes Benz which has an AMG body and exhaust and sport package. It is black with red sparklies...which I thought I would hate, but it is very subtle, you can only see it in the sun, and it is actually quite pretty. It also has black interior. It needs a serious detail and some deep cleaning inside...we actually found a couple ants in it today! Yikes! That's a weird  one. And it has a decent sized scratch on the hood that will have to be filled and painted. But it is a fairly unique version, the 2007 is supposed to be a great year, and it is pretty darn attractive! It doesn't have blue tooth or MP3 capabilities like the rental we had while this one was being serviced, but I still really like it!

There's the special exhaust. It sounds pretty nice...not nearly as loud and rumbly as the boyfriend's car, which is modified, but more subtle...much better for me. We got some pretty decent gas mileage on the way back up (26 highway?) so hopefully it won't be horrible to keep in gas. But let me tell you...we did some real work for this car. Good thing it's pretty or I would be resenting it right now.

So part of the stressfulness of the weekend was caused because the car hit the end of its factory warranty (50,000 miles, as you can see we hit here somewhere in Rhode Island) before we got home, so we had to stay in New Jersey to get it serviced and take advantage of the warranty. We took the Amtrak from Boston to Newark, NJ  Saturday morning, after just an hour of sleep (note: never plan a trip 4 hours before you need to leave...not a good plan). The 5 hour ride wasn't awful...I got a little breakfast and just tad of sleep. Surprisingly, my back has fared ok this weekend. Achy, a little mad at me when sitting, but bouncing back ok. Once in Newark, we headed to Teterboro to take a look at the car and buy. The place we went was a wholesale dealer, in a big warehouse. The car really needed to be cleaned (thankfully, the MB dealership washed and vacuumed it), and had a funny smell, and we only got one set of keys, but I guess the price was really worth it.

After all the mumbo-jumbo of purchasing, we dropped the car off at the MB service center and got our loaner car. This car did NOT have GPS and let me tell you....google maps does NOT cut it. New Jersey is so confusing! All the roads and highways have 3 different names, google like to tell you to go north when you should be going south...it took us over an hour of driving in the same 3 mile radius to even find our hotel! We finally had to ask a cop after driving in circles...but we made it. A long day with little food was enough to wipe me out, so we got delivery (no way was I leaving the hotel again that day!) and I immediately went to sleep at 8:30. WHEW!

We knew the car wouldn't be ready until Monday. But...what we didn't realize is that Massachusetts is anal retentive about laws and wouldn't accept our temporary paper plate...we needed official MA hard plates. Well...that's where the crazy set in. Another note: do not buy a car out of state if you live in MA or Georgia. Unless of course, it is the car of your dreams and you're willing to go through hell to get it home.

Audi emblem

That's what we did. We almost thought we were going to be stuck in Jersey until the middle of the week, but luckily we figured out a plan to drive the car to Rhode Island and leave it at my bf relatives' house until we get it plated. Luckily, we got to spend Sunday with a good friend from college who I haven't seen in a really long time. We went to breakfast and then spent the day hanging out at her beach house with her parents. It was a great way to try to relax instead of freaking out about getting home. Big hugs to Cari and her parents! You showed us a GREAT time!!!

Mercedes Emblem

Today we were able to pick up the car (with a clean bill of health) and after another day of major driving, got home with the help of another good friend. It's been insane but we made it home and now I have something to drive...well...in about one to two weeks. *Whew!*

On a sad note, I did not get the job I was hoping for. :( I guess one of those other seven candidates had more to offer. But I have two more interviews coming up, and a working interview from the pre-k place. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!