Tonight, I want to tell you about Annie, my VW Beetle Convertible. I love this car and for those of you who don’t know me, don’t really understand when I say I love my car, I la la la love my car! I plan to be buried in it!

Tonight’s posts will be happy, sad, then happy again.

I have loved beetles since I was a kid, one of my day’s first cars was a beetle and bringing home my sister from the hospital, a green beetle bug. I remember sleeping on the back shelf at the drive in (and daddy, if I have imagined any of this, please don’t burst my bubble!)

I have wanted a beetle for the longest time and hoped, but didn’t think it would happen. My dream car…a triple white (white top, white interior, white exterior), I just love a VW.

When it was time to retire the go-cart, my white Mitsubishi Mirage, I went to a dealership looking for another one, they didn’t have one, so I said, how about a Cabriolet, they didn’t have one of those, but they did have a red convertible beetle, did I want to try it? Um…how fast can a head spin?

I test drove it, it was an automatic and I’d been driving a manual, but it was a beautiful car, smooth ride, red exterior, black top and tan interior, perfection! I didn’t want to get out of the car, I knew what I wanted so the search began.

When the new beetles came out back in the late 90s, I said I wanted to wait, first, until there was a convertible and there were issues with the car, so I would wait until they worked the bugs out, ha ha.

After a long time, in August of 2003, I first met Annie. Jim Ellis VW was the dealership, Miles was the sales guy. I have to tell you, I went to another dealership closer to home and the sales guy, didn’t like him, he kept trying to be sneaky…guess what he was doing the next time I was at that dealership…in the parts department.

Went in with what I wanted to pay, all my questions and ready to purchase. Miles wanted to talk about the mirrors, I wanted to hear the stereo, it was a Monsoon, very good stereo and sound system. I wanted it, I wanted it, I wanted it!

August 18, 2003, I signed the paperwork for a brand new 2004 VW Beetle Convertible! She was in the middle of the showroom and she was all mine. They opened the doors and I drove out! I drove out of the showroom, I couldn’t believe it!

I think I may have had one of the first convertibles, let alone red ones in the state. I would get people waving at me, honking, telling me how pretty she was, even after 5 years “Is she new?” “My mom likes your car!” I took such good care of her, had someone come to my house every other week to wash her, inside and out! I babied this car! If you are ever in my car, you might be tired before you get to the store, I park way, way, way out there, where it’s less likely someone is going to park next to my car!

She’s a good car, cute, has pickup and attitude! Hmmm..kind of like, oh I don’t know, me! I say this as I laugh because one night I was out to dinner with friends and we went around the table to describe ourselves like our cars…small, compact, curvy and fun!

I love to drop the top, crank the music, sometimes until the mirrors shake, drive and just live in the moment and love life. How can it be bad if you have the sun above, maybe the stars, the wind in your face? In the fall, crank the heat, put on a sweater, sounds good to me! I remember thinking during some very difficult times, there is nothing wrong, I am in my car and all is right with the world.

I haven been driving a beetle convertible for over ten years and most days when I get in, I still say “I LOVE THIS CAR, I LOVE DRIVING THIS CAR!” I can’t imagine myself without a beetle convertible.

Ok, so we had fun and happy, here is where the sad comes in. September of 2010, I was on my way to work and involved in a fender bender, she caught on fire, yes, I said fire… The entire story is below, I don’t want to repeat myself.

Sad time is over, on to happy. A few months later, I found a red Chrysler Sebring convertible, black top, black interior, what are the odds? It was a great car, but not the same, never felt the same and t was like driving a land yacht! With a beetle, you park in a space, there’s a mile in front and back, Sebring, not so much! But I was happy and never stopped looking to replace Annie.

Well, one year ago this month, Memorial Day weekend, to be exact, I purchased Annie II! It was one of the hardest searches ever! Lets just say, trying to find a 5speed is near impossible, especially in the color scheme I wanted, yes, red with black top. After an exhaustive search, I now have a red convertible beetle with black top, black interior and heated seats!

I know this is a super long post, but I love my car and if I don’t stop, you’ll be here all night! Thank you for letting me talk about my car, she treats me right and I treat her right! If you see a red beetle bug and a person bouncing up and down in the drivers seat, guess who!

The reason I was inspired to write about Annie tonight was when I was coming out of the grocery store tonight, I was looking at her and struck by how perfect she is, how much I love her and what she means and represents to me. Some of it may seem shallow, all about a car, but it is so much more than that to me.

Here is the story of what happened that fateful day (the picture below is not pleasant):

Tuesday morning, I was on my way to work, Ronald Reagan Parkway for those of you in the know and the person in front of me stopped, I did not stop in time, engaged the brakes, but still rear-ended him. The airbags deployed and then there were flames.

I got out of the car in plenty of time, grabbed my laptop bag, but my phone, my poor wonderful Droid, was not so lucky. I exited the car and watched the flames get higher and higher and higher and eventually… a big ball of orange with black flames that climed high into the sky.
Captain Carl or Herb, my apologies to the traffic dude… announced there was a Car-B-Q on Ronald Reagan Parkway that morning [and I thought I had coined a phrase of my own] and to take an alternate route.

I watched the fire fighters put out the fire and the tow truck operater load what was left of my be-be onto his flatbed and shovel the charred remnants onto the truck, then drive away.

I was able to call someone by searching my work e-mails for auto-signatures with cell phone numbers, realizing just how dependent we are on our cell phones!

I got to work eventually and heard about a lot of people who were late to work because of me, I was famous. When they found out it was me, I think they took back the things they grumbled about having to detour. I publically apologize to anyone who I knew I’d made late, I felt really bad!

So…I have MILD whiplash, which is getting better every day, I only took a muscle relaxer the first night, was not fully functional the next day, so no more of those.

The next day, while speaking with the adjustor, he asked me if she had heated seats, I said “well, yesterday she did”. I get to make jokes.

So, in closing, I am 100% fine, my car, sadly is not. Annie was such a great car, many happy memories, I still remember the day I brought her home, August 18, 2003, they opend the Jim Ellis show room doors and we drove out. She just passed 116,000 miles and had had a service completed. We all know how particular I am about where I park, even one of the firefighters said she looked brand new, as she was going up in flames. I got at least two complitments on her condition every month, a very proud momma!

Goodbye Annie. I will treasure you forever.

Bye Bye Annie