One of the things that I have had to get used to is feeding William in public places. Usually, I try to find a spot kind of out of the way so that I can discreetly nurse him. It's still a little weird, but it's necessary. And I often see other women doing the same thing, so it's not like I'm doing anything unusual. But I think I have now broken new ground when it comes to breastfeeding in public. I feel safe in saying that there's probably no precedent for nursing a hungry infant while negotiating the price of a new car.
Yes, David and I bought a new car, a family car, this weekend. We are now the proud owners of a shiny new silver Honda Accord. It's really nice. And oh, it's so spacious. Such a change from my little Protege and David's Integra. And, David points out, has XM satellite radio built in. We were pretty certain we were going to be getting a new car, but we both hate negotiating car prices. David was planning to use USAA's negotiating service, but then when we finally found the car we wanted, the dealership started playing hardball (you knew they would) and telling us they couldn't hold the car. Knowing that my role in this whole process was to be the bad cop, I held firm in telling the dealership guys that we weren't interested in their offers. But David finally took me aside and told me that we might as well go ahead and negotiate because we couldn't risk them selling the car we had found. Not when David's upcoming call schedule would preclude us from being able to drive around and look for new cars. So I said, fine, whatever.
The salesman and his manager sat down with us to negotiate, and of course, William chose that time to begin crying. When he gets hungry, as you faithful readers know, there is no negotiating with him. It's feed him or else. His little face turned red, and he began flailing his arms. Too late for the binky. Too late for a nice turn around the lobby in the stroller. But I couldn't exactly go off with the baby and leave David alone with these sharks---er, salesmen. I was worried that David would be too nice if they tried to convince him to do something that he might not want to do. I'm a reporter by profession; it's hard to intimidate me. People often assume that I look like a nice person and try to convince me that I don't really need that piece of information or that I can't talk to this person. That's pointless, of course, because I'm used to standing up for myself in such situations and I don't back down. So I knew what had to be done. I hitched up my chair next to David, draped a baby blanket over my shoulder and gave William his mid-afternoon snack, and we agreed on a mutually acceptable price. The salesmen never even blinked at what I was doing.
If you had told me even two months ago, that I'd be simultaneously debating prices with a car salesman and nursing my son, I'd never have believed you. Would it be too much of an understatement to say that parenthood brings all sorts of new experiences that one cannot anticipate? Not exactly how I envisioned buying a new car, but you know, you do what you have to do. William was happy--and more importantly, he was quiet---and we got our new car. Man, it's a nice car, too. Definitely worth the weird way we got it!
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