Gotta Have the Girl in the Mercedes Benz

After 17 years of driving a pick up truck I’m enjoying having something nicer and all the celebrations that go along with it showing it to my friends. I’ve spent the last month just celebrating with small groups of friends as they see my shiny new blue Mercedes SLK hard top retractable sports car. This fun alone has made the car purchase a great idea and I’m hoping for many more fun experiences in the years to come. Here are some of my celebrations to date:

-I showed up at my boyfriend’s parents’ house with the car straight from the dealer’s lot. I wasn’t sure they would be up to celebrating but they came running out of the house with the dogs and bells and lots of happiness and laughing.

-I surprised my friend who has a matching burgundy SLK by just showing up for our weekly skate without telling her first. We took pictures and compared cars. We decided to form a club. The former roller derby skaters SLK club…we don’t expect to get many members with such tight guidelines.

-After a social event, several girls came out to see my car and we put the stereo on loud with some dance music. All the girls started dancing on the car and it was like something out of an MTV video as these girls could really move it. It was so much fun just dancing in a parking lot and something I hadn’t done in years.

-I showed it off to a few coworkers who started asking about the motor size. To which I responded “it’s blue”. That’s my way of saying I have no clue but I’m just a girl so who cares. Unfortunately these were my engineering coworkers so they said that wouldn’t work and as an engineer I needed to know about the mechanics.

-I showed it to a bunch of my mountain biker friends at a party. I wanted to let them hear the loud stereo which was playing The Little Mermaid music at this point. So we sang and danced along while hanging out in the street.

-My boyfriend who helped tremendously in my car buying decision also joined the celebrations. I’m not sure if he is happy about the car or happy that he no longer has to spend time looking with me and hearing me complain. He gave me a huge list of Mercedes songs. It was funny and sweat but quickly deleted most of them since they were gangster rap and not really the image I was hoping for in my new car. His second favorite was Gold Digger by Kanye West which says "She gonna make it into a Benz out of that Datson". This seemed appropriate since my last car was a Nissan (Formerly known as Datsun). But his absolute favorite song was Mercedes Benz by Say Yes which says "I gotta have the girl in the Mercedes Benz". This was so sweet and romantic to me but I guess I have a silly idea of romance.

Wow and I thought I made a big deal out of birthdays but they pale in comparison to my car celebrations. I’m ok with that since it will be a long time before I get another chance for ‘new car’ celebrations. I think we should all take time to celebrate all the good things in life!

Cat “Happy to be Blue” Cathy

End of an Era

Bill Clinton becomes president.

A powerful bomb explodes in an underground parking garage beneath the World Trade Center, killing six and injuring over 1,000.

Cheers ends its 11-year run and Catastrophe Cathy buys a 1991 Nissan Pickup truck.

What do all these things have in common? They all occurred in 1993. It’s hard to believe but 1993 was the last time I purchased an automobile…until now!

I can’t really say why I waited so long. I guess since my truck kept running there was no pressing need to get a new one. I’ve called my truck a ‘disposable’ pickup for over 5 years. I kept thinking something major would break and I’d be forced to get something newer. But it never happened so I just kept on truckin’. I also liked saving money and not having to worry about something new getting dented or even washed for that matter. Is it wrong to only wash your automobile biannually??? Not if it’s a beat up old truck! .

But finally my boyfriend, father, mother and total strangers on the street convinced me I needed something newer and safer. So after many many hours and much analysis (I am an engineer after all) I narrowed down the numerous options to a small range of years for one make/model. Then I had to wait to find it at a price I could live with. This was no easy task and took over six months of hard work with Edmunds, Kelly Blue Book and Carfax quickly becoming my best friends.

In this supposedly bad economy it seemed surprisingly hard to get what I considered a reasonable deal and I was about to give up. But I got it! A pretty blue 2002 Mercedes SLK hardtop convertible!

When you only do something once every 17 years it’s a big deal and you need to celebrate. I’ve done a few celebratory chest bumps with my boyfriend and a cute little ‘I’ve got a new automobile’ dance. I’m thinking of putting a bow on it for Christmas and of course I will be singing some of the many Mercedes songs. Also, if I’m feeling down I just say ‘hey I have a new Mercedes convertible’ and my world is happy again.

Life is good! I know the car is just a small part of it but I’m thankful for a cute, fun new car that is also safer. I know there are tradeoffs since I spent a lot of money and I will have to wash it more often but it will be fun to cruise with the top down singing for all to hear. Anyone want to buy a well used but well loved Nissan pickup?


Cat “Got my hard top down so my hair can blow” Cathy