I sold my car! And bought a new one! All within a few hours!

Friday morning, I met with the buyer at her mechanic’s shop. He looked at the car and declared it a “great car” and the woman said it had great karma (hey, this is LA) and made me an offer immediately so we made plans to meet at AAA at 4:00. As soon as I got to my office, I called the Honda guy (the one I made cupcakes for a few weeks ago) and said I’m ready to buy! Of course, he had none in stock in the color and trim I wanted (black EX-L), but he went majorly out of his way to help me locate the three available in southern California and totally prepped me on what to say. (Thank you Dave!) I called the closest dealership Internet person, asked if she’d meet his quote (she did), and got the out-the-door price and told her I’d be in later than night to pick up the car. This was pretty much done by lunchtime.

Closer to 4:00, everything seemed to be going so well that I assumed the buyer would flake out or the saleswoman would try to up the price when I got to the dealership. But no! I met the buyer and her husband and son at AAA, she gave me the money, we switched over the title, I showed them how to work some stuff in the car, and then we hugged. Yes, we hugged. The woman was so nice, and after the transaction was completed, she pulled out Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins) from her purse and said we must celebrate. I said yum, I love gelt and we did that whole oh, you’re Jewish? so am I! thing and that was it! She and her husband offered me a ride home, thanked me for making it so simple, and I thanked them. I was so relieved the whole selling process wasn’t a nightmare.

DG picked me up from AAA and drove me out to Pasadena to pick up my new car. As soon as we left Hollywood, I called the saleswoman and told her I was on my way so she had the paperwork and the car (almost) ready. When it was finally done, they even put a bow on it! (I jokingly asked the guy if I got a bow like the ones on the sales floor.) About 30 minutes after arriving at the dealership, I took DG (in my new car!) for sushi as a thank you for taking me to Pasadena in horrible Friday night traffic. Anyway, the car is awesome–it has leather, seat warmers, an ipod hookup, dual things in the front so the passenger and driver can each have the temperature the way they want, and all sorts of other fun stuff!
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In other news, I forgot to mention some super cool Hanukkah gifts. My parents gave me an awesome knife set and block which is something I have wanted forever as well as the world’s softest pajama pants from Banana. My sister gave me cake pans (which were on my 101 list) and a cookbook called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth which I cannot wait to use (is that not the most awesome name for a cookbook?). In other 101 news, this weekend marks the completion of wearing my hair curly for two weeks straight. It wasn’t so bad and I got lots of compliments on it. Go figure.

Yesterday, I had a long overdue meal at Tender Greens with Jen and her husband and finally got to catch up with them. Then I returned the second pair of tall black boots and bought two new pair (for the price of one pair that I returned to Macys)–one from Banana for $71 (I know, quite the deal!) and another for $54 from a random shoe store at Westside Pavilion. And I braved Best Buy in order to get the cable needed to hook my iPod up in my car. Also, I got three calls about my car that afternoon; of course I did.

Finally, I spent about an hour sitting in my car with the book learning how things work, and today I am trying to find more errands to run so I can drive my car some more. I really do love it.