below is a journal entry written a couple of weeks back. i'm a little slow :)

on saturday, the newbug carolinas crew is travelling up to asheville to hang out and tour biltmore. we'll have three bugs in the caravan from durham, and we'll be meeting up with two more in asheville. should be fun.

written sunday, 2/12/2001

yesterday was quite a day.

i actually had a busy day planned-- helping one friend paint in a new house, another move. i was halfway through a tape of my favorite new tv show, "trading spaces" and about ready to leave to go paint when i got an unexpected phonecall.

it was my boyfriend, craig. his ten year old vw cabriolet had left him stranded by a roadside, and could i please come rescue him? so i quickly rearranged my schedule and took off to find him.

poor little cabriolet. we'd had our first date in that car. i was a little sad when i asked him what he wanted to do and he said, "well, i guess i want to buy a new car."

i took him home, we called a towtruck, and we discussed the possibilities. he'd mentioned wanting to buy a beetle in a few months; this wasn't the ideal timing but he said he was ready to have a car he knew was reliable so he was ready to look for a beetle now. we discussed engine types; of course, i hoped he'd want a TDI, and he did say he'd be willing to test drive one if we could find an automatic, but the first engine he asked me about was the 1.8T.

so back out to the cabriolet to meet the towtruck, which didn't show; after 45 minutes we went back to craig's house and called them again. i then called my favorite area VW dealership, which is a bit of a drive away from craig's place, but the folks there are very nice and and not sleazy. My favorite salesman, who worked so hard to find spacepod for me, has left the dealership so I just talked to the person who happened to answer the phone, a guy named mike.

i asked him what engine types he had on the lot with an automatic transmission. happily, they had all three, and even more happily their 2001 models were all marked down to invoice. the towtruck finally arrived with the cabriolet, and after a lengthy explanation of what was wrong with it from the towtruck driver, we took off for maxwell vw in burlington.

we arrived just fifteen minutes before closing time, but i was pretty sure they were going to get a sale out of this visit, so i didn't feel too bad. we found mike and started looking around the lot. up in front was an isotope; craig had said that he might be interested in a "really obnoxious" color, and i pointed out that isotope was fairly obnoxious, but unfortunately it was a five-speed.

as we headed along the lot i spied a snap orange up by the road. "Oh look, they have a snap orange!"

craig said, "oh, wow."

the snap orange was an automatic.

craig seemed somewhat reluctant to leave the snap orange and head down to the "lower forty" to see what else was on the lot. mike showed us several bugs, including two auto TDI's, and a platinum (sadly, a five-speed). finally i said, "so, do you want to drive something?" and craig said, "can i drive the orange one?"

"oh, wow." is what craig said when he sat in the snap orange for the first time. he continuted to repeat that phrase for the rest of the day. the car of course performed beautifully in the test drive; the 1.8T seemed whisper quiet compared to spacepod and the old cabriolet, the firmness of the brakes took craig by surprise, as did the excellent handling when he took a sharp turn rather suddenly. there was a beautiful sunset and it was all pretty perfect.

back at the dealership, mike demonstrated the monsoon stereo, which evoked a few more "oh, wow" comments from craig, and finally craig said, "ok-- let's talk."

a short while later arrangements had been made for craig to pick the car up on monday evening. we left the dealership in a haze of shock; craig has never bought a new car before, and i never imagined that he'd walk away with a top of the line limited edition bug when it came time for him to buy one.

as we were driving home, trying to come up with a name for the new bug, craig pointed out that the moon was one of those strange moons you don't see often, very low in the sky, very large, and very orange. we've actually seen one together once before, on the way to the beach for a nice weekend vacation, our first vacation together. i said, "i think a moon like that means good things for us!"

that discussion inspired that name that i think craig is going to dub his new, car "moon maiden". we determined that MOONMAID will fit on a NC license plate so... although the name will require some explanation for the uninitiated, well, there's nothing wrong with having a good story behind your beetle's name.

craig has asked me to keep all of this quiet for a few days at least, so he can see the look of surprised his new car will evoke amongst the folks who know us. so although i am writing this now i won't be posting it to the web site just yet.

(btw, craig decided to call the car mrs. peel, after the character of emma peel in the old 'avengers' tv series. mrspeel.org will be live soon!)

Posted by lisa @ 12:22 AM EST [Perma-link]