I should have mentioned ...

We bought a brand new red Mazda MX-5 Touring Miata on Friday.

I've been aching for a Mini Cooper since I test drove one in 2002. So after Jeffrey's last car payment on his Honda, we went to Scottsdale and test drove the 2007. But my ache sort just became a pang. It just didn't feel the same.

So then I started thinking about what else was out there that was fun and  financially feasible ... sort of. The MIATA! I'd kind of forgotten about it. I still remember going to the dealership with my parents when I was 11 or 12 to see the new special little roadster when it first came out. I think I even had a poster of it on my wall as a kid -- granted a weird car liking kid -- but whatever.

I went online, started poking at trims, colors, packages, etc. I went on my insurance company's web site and did car pricing quotes, insurance quotes, etc. 

Then I called the dealer here in Tucson. I went out for a test drive last Friday evening while Jeffrey was in Yuma.

By Saturday I was shopping for cute accessories for it online.

After a week of negotiations, make Jeffrey go sit in one in Yuma to make sure he fit in it (he does! With a little room to spare!), trying to find people online who really hated their Miata (no one but a 17-year-old whose parents had bought him one and he thought it was a chick car) I WANTED IT.

My parents went to their local N.C. dealership to check one out. My friend Suzette started looking for scarves for her hair and Lena in Asheville was already finding babysitters for her soon to be born child so that she could go riding in it if I was willing to drive it across the country to see her (I'm not ... I'll fly and we'll just go test drive one crazy girl!)

I told everyone about it! Jeffrey apparently told no one judging by everyone's reaction to my previous blog where some thought maybe I just posted pictures of a cute car.  I neglected to mention that I had bought it because I just took it for granted that most of you knew. (I wanted to get the pic up for those that were following the saga. I hadn't thought it through that I had to mention we'd bought it. Sorry! Bad reporter! Bad reporter!)

There was a little anxiety over losing the little red one my salesman, Rene, had found in Phoenix. Some people were scheduled to come look at it and the dealer wouldn't send it on until he was sure he didn't have a deal himself. Two days of pain! Then on Friday I drove my little silver Honda for the last time and my eyes welled with tears. I really loved that car, too. But it was time to take that good pal and put it to work getting my next good pa.

So the purchase had all the excitement, highs and lows, and resulting joy of a poorly written TV show you watch because there's nothing else on.

Yesterday we spent the day zipping around town in it. I woke Jeffrey up around 6 am (I'd been up cooing over it since 5) to go drive the curves of Mt. Lemmon. Then we ran errands around town and when it started to rain, we put the top up.

Jeffrey, amazingly, fits in the car. He doesn't have a lot of leg room and his head is about an inch from the top when it's up. But at 6'4", that isn't really that different from most cars I'd wager.

The car is really fun. It's a sporty car. I didn't buy it because it goes really fast. I bought it because it handles amazingly and because it feels like a go-kart when I drive it.

It's small. It's cute. It's fun. It's quick. It's mine ... and Jeffrey's. 

But Jeffrey can't drive it. 

' Cause it's a stick.

So now, read the below post again and check out video with the full understanding!