Sunday, April 10, 2016

Cookie Monster

Much shinier than ours...
Larry stopped by our credit union yesterday and, while he was there, decided to check out the new car sale going on. I don't really understand WHY there was a new car sale happening there, but hey, it seemed convenient.

Anyway, long story short, he went into sticker shock when he saw the prices ($37K for a minivan? Really?) True, it's been 7 whole years since we bought our Toyota minivan (which is hard for us to remember, because, hey, we still call it the "new" car), so I guess prices have gone up a bit. Still, that's a LOT of dough. Is everyone paying that nowadays? And how much longer do you think we can make our 2004 Honda Odyssey last?

Yes, we ARE a two-minivan family. We refer to it as "the fleet."

In other news, last night I attended a cast party for LTYM DC that included former cast members. It is sort of a blur, but I vaguely remember going all fangirl when introduced to someone from the very first year (2012), someone whose piece I loved. Also, it gradually dawned on me that many of these women were fairly serious about writing. I mean, there was talk of writer conferences and fellowships and how to get the attention of the Huffington Post, among other things.

It's hard to describe how it feels to meet a whole bunch of these women at once. Picture it - I sit here in my den, writing my silly little blog posts for what? 8 or 9 years now? Toiling away in relative obscurity, as it were, all while attending LTYM and following other people's blogs. Suddenly, I am in a room full of flesh-and-blood people who take this stuff seriously. People who talk about writing stories as if it is something important, something that matters.

It's as if a world I made up in my head turned out to be real, imaginary friends and all.

Irresistible
So, yeah, a pretty cool experience all around. Also, the hostess had those awesome Trader Joe's crispy cookies that have caramel and chocolate inside. You know, the thin, crunchy ones that look sort of lacy on the outside? When I wasn't fawning on former LTYM people, I was taking it upon myself to save everyone the calories by eating as many of these cookies as I could. I'm nothing if not a team player, you know.




[Cookies image: Bran Appetit]

6 comments:

  1. Isn't it exciting that something you think only you could dream up actually exists? And with delicious cookies, too!

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  2. I was shocked that $10,500 was a good price for the 2008 prius my daughter just bought with 80,000 miles on it. Our newest car is a 2012 camry, purchased last fall. It was $12,000, I think. For a while our vpn software at work was not staying connected, So I had to drive in daily for several weeks. It is only $50 more a month for the car payment and insurance verses what I spent on gas and parking for my 15 passenger van, 😃

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  3. I was shocked that $10,500 was a good price for the 2008 prius my daughter just bought with 80,000 miles on it. Our newest car is a 2012 camry, purchased last fall. It was $12,000, I think. For a while our vpn software at work was not staying connected, So I had to drive in daily for several weeks. It is only $50 more a month for the car payment and insurance verses what I spent on gas and parking for my 15 passenger van, 😃

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  4. Still tootling around in my 1998 Camry, bought about 10 years ago. I can't imagine buying a "new" car, even if I could afford those prices! Before that I had a [used] 1995 Honda Accord which was an absolute soldier--it had 250k miles on it and was happy to keep going! And those Lacey cookies are my favorite "store" cookie, no contest.

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  5. We are a Honda Odyssey family, too. But just one van. It is quite banged up (apparently our student driver hit the pole that holds up the deck, but now while I was giving her lessons, so actually I suspect that it was my husband). We've poured so much money into it that it just has to last. Your post gives me extra incentive.

    I've been meaning to get over to Trader Joe's. Those cookies will be extra incentive for that!

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  6. We're on our 3rd minivan (now with over 120,000 miles on it) but we've only had one at a time. I'm getting worried about it now that I've read about prices, since it is our newest car...
    Real world, with cookies!

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