{Car Shop}

I did a grown up thing today. I went to the car shop all by myself. Yup. This is a big deal [whether you believe it is or not]. I have an irrational fear of car shops....well, used to I guess.

The week before we left for Chicago the husband thought it would be a good idea to take the car in and give it a "check up" before we took it across the country. He suggested I do that since I was not working at the time and therefore it would be more economically beneficial for me to do it. I may or may not have put up a massive fit...and I don't mean fit as in I was crying and screaming while pounding my fists on the ground, but more of a in a very grown up and not whiny at all voice said "No, I don't think that will happen" while explaining all of my fears of going to the car shop. Some of those thoughts included:

I know nothing about cars.

What if they rip me off?

What if they laugh at me?

What if they ask me hard questions that I don't know the answer to?

What if there's a sign that says 'Boys Only' and they kick me out?

What if they steal all my stuff out of the car?

Will they make me make the funny noise the car makes? (see video from :43 - 1:40ish)


What if I say the wrong thing?

What if I accidentally pay a bajillion dollars to fix absolutely nothing?

What if they won't give me the car back?

What if it takes them weeks to fix the car and I have no way to get home?


See how troubling this was to me? Now, some of you might think that none of those make logical sense, well, I did say it was an irrational fear, didn't I?

So after running through this list of worries and many more with the husband and his hopeless attempts at reasoning with me, he decided to take his lunch break at that very moment, drive me over to the car shop, and show me that it wasn't scary.

We got there, filled out some paper work yada yada yada... no one laughed at me, no one kicked me out....nothing terrible happened. I sat for about 30 minutes reading those fashion magazines I never buy and eating popcorn. POPCORN! The husband says that that's quite normal for car shops. Cool. Well, after they checked it out, they asked the husband some tricky questions which was good that he was there because I woulda just said "Ummmmm............" and that's it. So, overall experience - not terrible. I was not laughed at, they had magazines and food, but there were some tricky questions asked that I'm glad I did not have to answer alone.


WELL, last night the husband suggested that I take the car in this morning because funny noises were coming from the tires..... I thew a tiny fit this time... knowing that many of my fears are ridiculous, but still there all the same.
Long story short - I went. I made the husband send me an email with all the things I was supposed to say, all the information I would need about the car, price ranges for services, basically everything. After an encouraging phone call from the husband, a couple dozen huge deep breaths, I did it.

I walked in, told the first guy everything [including the sound effects the car was making] and it turns out he was the cleaner janitor guy [yes, just like the brian regan video...] and he pointed me in the right direction. After retelling the whole thing over again, he went to go check it out. There was no magazines, no pop corn, and no chairs to wait in. But, barnes and noble was right next door so I spent some time over there.

Anyways, to cut to the end of the story, no one laughed at me, I did make the car noises [3 times...], no one kicked me out of the story, I wasn't asked any questions I couldn't answer, the husband was helpful in answering my questions via text and phone call, it didn't take days to fix, I didn't get ripped off, and it was overall a successful experience. I bought 4 new tires and received all 3 of the discounts I was supposed to [benefits from the husband's job!]!!!

So there! Tada! Hoorah! The car is happy, the husband is happy, and I am happy.