To Infiniti and beyond!

Today did not start out so great. Finn has been feverish off and on since Wednesday night. He woke up at 4:30 this morning, screaming and pretty hot to the touch. I put him in bed with me, but neither of us really ever fell back asleep until I finally put him back in his own bed around 5:30, when he and Claire both decided to cry for an undetermined amount of time. I know that Duncan was awake at this point and it all starts to get foggy. Somehow, I got Duncan to school on time and he was in relatively good spirits. He got to wear his new Good Citizen tee shirt, so maybe that had something to do with it. And it was his day to bring snacks.

I knew Finn was not feeling well, and Claire had not slept well but we had things to do. Like sell our old Infiniti at Car Max. I must also add that this was a MOPS day. I rarely miss MOPS. But today, with Finn's fever I knew I could not bring him so we had to miss which put me in a grouchy mood to begin with. I will try to make the Car Max saga brief, but cannot leave out many details or the whole story loses something.

Our Infiniti is '98. It has 135K miles on it. We bought it right after Ziggy died, almost ten years ago and it's been a good car. I drove it for years, then at some point it became Iain's car. It needed some work and some cash put into it at this point. We were talking about putting money into it when my sister decided to sell her '00 Acura. Bam. We decided to buy my sister's car for Iain for not much more than we were going to put into the Infiniti, and the Acura is a MUCH better car and only has 85K miles on it! Win win!

My sister came to our house Tuesday night to see Duncan get his award at school (Good Citzen! Yay!) and brought the Acura. She and Iain headed to Car Max afterward to sell the Infiniti and she would leave the Acura with us. First roadblock. I am also on the title and since I was not present, they could not sell it. Plan B. Iain will keep the Acura and drive it to the airport Wednesday. Becky took the Infiniti home and will meet me at Car Max on Thursday and we will get the deal done. Iain signs a Power of Attorney at Car Max, notarized, so he will not also have to be present and I can sign for him. **foreshadowing**

Thursday after school, I drove to Car Max to meet my sister. Did I mention I could not find my driver's license? Because I could not. So I grabbed my birth certificate and said a prayer and went to a car dealership with all three of my children in the afternoon. Claire in her pink shiny nightgown, because she refused to take it off. In a genius move, Car Max put play areas in their show rooms. My sister stayed with the kids in what is not unlike a McDonald's play place while I went back to the business office to seal the deal! Oh, I am sorry Mrs. Michie, you must have a government issued photo ID.

Okay, Plan C. There is a DPS not five minutes from Car Max! It's only 3:30 so I can easily hurry over there, get a new license (I even have my birth certificate!) and be back in time to sell the Infiniti so I can pay my sister so she can go pay for her new car that she has already sealed the deal on. I drive speedily but safely to the DPS and see "SORRY! WE HAD A BUSTED WATER PIPE AND FLOODED! YOU WILL HAVE TO DRIVE ACROSS HELL'S HALF ACRE TO GET A NEW LICENSE". I laugh. I cry. I call my sister. We forge Plan D. I go back to Car Max, leave the Infiniti and we all pile in the minivan and drive to the complete other side of Dallas where they drop me off at DPS and my sister takes my now three hungry, cranky children to a drive thru while I fill out my form and get my picture taken. Oh, and they don't let you wear your baseball cap in your driver's license photo even if you haven't washed your hair in three days. Becky and the kids come get me just as Iain calls. He is nervous about me leaving the Infiniti in the lot but OH MY GAWD I can't go back there again with all these children tonight. Really, truly, I cannot. We go to my mom's and shake off the afternoon with pizza, animal crackers, and Bailey's on the rocks.

Fast forward to today. Armed with my brand new driver's license I marched my snotty-nosed, feverish, cranky twins into Car Max (or Car's Max as Finn calls it...it's fun! It has cars! And a play area!) ready to sell this dad gum car. After about a 45 minute wait, one bag of Skittles, 1 bag of Lay's and 1 bag of cookies (for them, not me) they called me over with this "don't be pissed at us!" look. Turns out that back in September when the emissions test was done some genius tech entered the mileage as 165K instead of 135K so now there is a 30K mile discrepancy between "the records" and the odometer. I do not know who holds "the records" only that Car's Max depends on them. The look on my face, and the howls from my now over-the-top impatient two and a half year old twins was enough for them to call for someone from another department to come over, look at everything and give me his stamp of approval for a sale. Blah, blah, blah...type, type, type...wait, wait, wait...okay, Mrs. Schmitchy, all we need is your husband's driver's license! SCREEEEEECH. What? At this point, I considered my options of jumping over the counter and typing the check myself, calling Iain in California, or falling to the floor like Finn and Claire were about to do. Instead I turned into Agressive Mommy of Toddlers and in my best sarcastic voice asked why they had my husband execute the power of attorney without getting his driver's license, knowing he would not be there to complete the sale with me? Or something like that. I also think the tears forming in my eyeballs helped, and they agreed to let Iain fax them a copy.

And that's all it takes to sell a car at Car's Max!