Introducing Lucy

A while back we decided to sell our truck. Superman was a great vehicle. He served us well. (Cindy even cried when we told her he was gone.) But he was not the best commuting car for Jacob, and to be honest, we only needed him for all of our dance equipment every few months. So we sold him before the miles got too high and his price went down. We knew exactly what we wanted to replace him, though. A hatchback! But it had to look cool, so we were all about finding a Mazda3 because that is pretty much the only hatch that looks nice. Sorry to the Focus, Matrix, Vibe and Versa :) We tried to like you, but we just couldn't do it. Anyway, we ended up selling the truck within a week of lising it and it kinda caught us off guard. But we have a friend who works in the auto auction in Tampa and Orlando so we called him up and gave him our order. We thought this was a no-brainer. How hard could it be to find 2004-2006 Mazda3 Hatchback with low miles and a stick shift? Apparently, like trying to find the Holy Grail in Iceland. Using only a twig to dig in the ice. While blindfolded. With one arm. And one finger. It was impossible! And trying to find something local was ridiculously difficult! We were driving around DeAnne's truck in the meantime and we were feeling terrible about how long the search was taking. Plus that truck was guzzling the gas even faster than Superman! So after daily and almost hourly searches of the auctions, craiglist in every city up to Boise, ID, autotrader.com, autoshopper.com, cars.com, classified ads, etc. we finally saw a car on Monday in Tampa. The price was way too high, but it was in great shape and had all the features on our optional wish list too (leather seats, sunroof, etc.) So Jacob made an offer just to see what would happen and the seller took it! She was moving to California and just needed to rid herself of the car in a hurry. So yesterday DeAnne drove me over to Tampa where I met her in the parking lot of her bank to buy the car. She then took out all her luggage, called a cab and waited at the bank for a ride to the airport. And I was then left to drive home a stick shift car in the middle of Tampa. Let's just say it has been a while since I drove a stick :) I was just a tad bit intimidated, but it came right back to me and I have to say, this car is FUN to drive! I guess now when I get the responsible mommy car doldrums, I can just take Lucy for a spin and feel much spunkier. Credit goes to DeAnne for the idea of the car's name. The girl who sold us the car was asian and she thought of Lucy Lui, the actress. So when DeAnne called her "Lucy" I knew that was a winner. And this also proves that we are just silver car kinda people. Don't try and fight it, Jacob. Silver is our density! I mean, destiny....