Car Shopping

So I went car shopping yesterday. Looked at three different kinds of car, all of which were the same car essentially. It wasn't has bad as I feared. It seems most car dealers have toned down the rhetoric and aren't as full court press on people who just want to look. I took my Dad with me, and most of the salesguys were courteous. Only the Nissan dealer tried to pressure me into purchasing today, but only after my Dad had gone to the restroom for a minute. But I held strong :) which is always a fear of mine, cracking under pressure. The Toyota saleman was 100% uninterested in selling me a car, so much so that even if I had liked the new Corollas (which I ended up NOT likely, surprisingly since I drive one now) I wouldn't have gone back to that particular dealership. My Dad was really pressing me to get a Honda, which I agreed to test drive, despite feeling they were out of my price range. I was pleasntly surprised and enjoyed driving the new Civic, but the Civic Hybrid doesn't handle as well. He (my Dad) didn't even understand why I wanted a Nissan Sentra so badly, but when I convinced him that I would consider the Hondas if we could test drive the Nissans, he agreed to give them a shot. I knew he would come around once we test drove and I was right! Although he explained, he really didn't know much about Nissan, only that they were orginally Datsuns, a car he has had horrible expierences with. But the new Nissan Sentras were a much smoother ride and quieter engine then even the Civic. So I'm pretty sure that I have found my new car!

PS~ My Dad's favorite salesman was the Honda sales guy who when seeing my current car (a 1996 Geo Prizm) which has close to 200K miles on it and looks like it's been in a fight and barely survived....remarked "You aren't trading that in......are you?"

Puppy Fever

I have a bad case of puppy fever! I want a new dog so badly, and now with school coming to a close, I thought that I might get myself one as a graduation present. I had an opportunity to get a puppy (cavalier king charles) last November. These puppies are normally priced very high because they are a really great all around dog, (and before I get a whole bunch of comments on the tragedies of paying for a dog, when I could rescue one, I know I could do this, but I prefer to get one of these dogs, so please spare me the comments...I am aware of puppy mills, the unwanted pet population, etc. I am a responsible pet owner and get my dogs fixed as soon as they are old enough)

anyway....I am not able to keep dogs in my apartment. So I tried to work out an arrangement for my parents (who live down the road) but my mother didn't want the responsibility, especially since I don't live there. My dad then tells me later that it would have been fine with him and I should have jumped at the opportunity....

So fast forward 6 months......I am going to be moving in with my parents for the next 15 monthes to save up money so that I can pay off bills and move back to California. I have a line on getting a puppy, exactly the one I want, and my mother says it's fine with her....Now my Dad is the one who doesn't think he wants another dog in his housse (they have one) because he doesn't want his dog to start marking his territory in the house.....I mean I understand their point of view and I will respect it since I'm getting a year of free rent, but it still makes me sad....

I was given a puppy back when I was 13 (1990) as a Valentine's Day gift, a brittany spaniel. I had him from the time he was 8 weeks old until he passed away at the old age of 13. He had moved to 3 different states with me, and I had even gotten an apartment that accepted pets when I went away to school because I didn't want to leave him at home.....It was so hard on me when he died because he was my constant companion and it's taken me about 6 years to really feel like I could have another pet......So now I guess I will wait another year and a half.....BUt by then I'm sure something else will come up......

Minor rant about Oblique Advertising!

Okay....Today was a day I had been looking forward to for a while, ever since I saw a billboard up on Memorial advertising this event. There was a wellness expo at the State Fairgrounds today and it's theme this year was "Living Green and Efficient"! I love things like this, learning about recycling, bio-friendly cleaning products, how to de-mold your house, etc. Since this is specifically what was advertised, I thought for sure it would be an interesting time and since I am working on both a web-page and research paper on these types of things, it was a perfect research opportunity.......but I have just one thing to say about it.......

WHAT A LOAD OF HORSE MANURE!!!!!!!

In the whole expo hall, there was one small booth with cleaning products and a small, un-manned table from the OKC-DEQ with some free stickers that said "USE LESS STUFF". Everything else was home repair products, with NO emphasis on what made the eco-logically friendly, or "green". A bunch of chiropracters (I think like 5 different totals), someone who made wooden fish carvings, displays that sold the latest in "ion revitalization" which is supposed to soak all the metobolic wastes out of your body through your feet (like, whatever) and my personal favorite was the women who stopped my mother and I by walking right in front of us and holding up her hands and asking us how did we eat our produce and trying to sell us pills that contain all the vitamens and minerals that our body requires from fruits and vegatables, so we would have to eat the real ones....it would have seemed plausible, except for all of her assistants that walked around pretending they were on the phone, only the "phone" was a banana. Then another woman saw me talking on my cell phone and rushed up to me with a flyer on how cell phones cause brain cancer, and I should buy this magnet that she was selling to reduce those harmful cell phone waves attacking my brain....

It was like the Twilight Zone and if this is what passes for a "green living" expo then we are in trouble. No wonder, most people think that environmentalists are crazy, because if this expo was their first encounter with "environmentalists" I have to say they would be correct in their assumptions.

Saving the environment, and working towards a more bio-friendly household are noble causes and should not be presented as the latest "snake-oil" fixes. Nice advertising job! Because it wasn't even close to what it was presented to be!

The Food Circus is rolling into town!

In ring #1 the ringleader is telling me the history....First it was okay to drink soda, then sugar was bad for you, so along came diet soda, but wait...artifical sweetners caused cancer, so then it was back to the regular sodas, then it was no, no wait....just kidding here is a new improved diet soda, no calories....but it'll make you fat?! Ring #2 is showcasing how fat free foods have too much sugar and sugar free foods have too much fat and in Ring #3 we have the Advertising clowns chucking free candy, both sugar and fat free varieties into the crowd and the vendors are calling up and down the stands, Free diet pills! Weight Loss Surgery! Electroshock Ab Belts! and on and on and on until you are ready to rip your own arm off (with it's attractive heart monitor/pedometer) and use it to karate chop your way to the exit! So, as you leave the circus, you stop at the farmstand where you buy all the ingrediants to switch to an all natural, 100% whole grain food diet, all organics, no preservatives, etc....then your doc tells you, you've been feeling sick because you can't eat wheat or any other gluten containing products because your body can't digest it, but don't worry there are plenty of new gluten-free products that are available at the market, located back inside the main tent, just be sure to read the labels carefully, because most of these products are highly processed.......it never ends and it never fails....can't I just take vitamins and minerals tablets? Because this whole food circus is really no fun at all!