Eleanor

Hallowe'en is, hands down, the best holiday EVER. Granted, it's a pagan holiday (like my dad would say...which includes Thanksgiving, CHristmas, and Valentine's Day)...but I can handle being an infidel for one night in order to give out candy.

After we bought the house I vowed that I would give out lots of candy, and I'm talkin' about the good stuff (noneo f this "filler" crap). Hallowe'en was always very good to me, and it's time I give back to the people. The circle of life must complete!

In other news, I bought a new car. Toyota Rav4. And before you say it's ugly, it was redesigned in 2006 so suck it. I would have bought an '06 if it they hadn't made so few, so I had to get an '07, and it's like the Tickle Me Elmo of cars...there's so few made and tons of demand. WTF. Anyway, the V4 and V6 both topped Consumers Reports SUV ratings, and after test driving the CRV and the Murano, that was the way to go.

I'm kicking myself for not having Gap Insurance, but, whatever...

And now my anxiety is through the roof with another car payment so my sole purpose in life is to pay that sucker off, or at least, down to $10K.

Some of the key features that *I* think are kinda cool:
1. You know when you do the long drive to no man's land and you get the cow smell in your car when you pass by a field of cows? There's a button that filters out the odor in your car to remove that. That's effing AWESOME for trips to San Jose.

2. Bluetooth...you can press a button on the steering wheel and talk through that, so you don't have to pick up your phone while driving.

3. And additional "glove compartment" on the console to store more crap.

4. 6 CD changer (all in-dash, none of this "put yer CDs in the trunk" nonsense) that plays MP3s, and all the tuning/changing can be done from the steering wheel

5. All sorts of digital stuff that I don't fully understand...like it "senses" the driver's driving and changes the acceleration/drive style accordingly.

It had 85 whole miles on it when I got it.

The best part: my big negotiation tactic was that I made them give me 15 months worth of air freshners. I know. I drive a hard bargain. (Ha ha get the pun?)

You know what though? I felt super sad leaving my old car...it just looked so....lonely when I drove off....it served me well, and held up through ALOT of crap...I was tempted to keep it for nostalgia's sake, but well I needed the trade-in cash so that wasn't an option. I still kinda miss it...that was my first real purchase when I moved to the US 6 years ago.

This new car better last me effing 15 years at LEAST.

Oh, and I named it Eleanor.....