I love my Vue. Plain and simple. I’ve always been a practical person. The first car I’ve ever wanted was a blue four-door car. Blue … because that’s my favorite color. Four doors because I hate climbing in and out of the backseat of a two-door car. I think my sisters dreamed of having something sporty and flashy … I think Krissy wanted a Lamborghini at one point in her life … Becky, I can’t remember what she wanted. Anyway, I wanted a blue four-door car … that’s all I wanted. My first car that I bought myself was a blue 1988 Plymouth Sundance with four doors.
I believe I named that car Evy … in all honesty, she was a little crappy car that got me around the great city of Winona. I decorated the back bumper with clever stickers, such as “Mean People Suck.” Toward the end of her life, when I should’ve known better, I know I dropped a ton of money to keep her around a little longer. My next car was a 1996 strawberry red (read: pink) Dodge Neon … it wouldn’t have been bad except that my parents had bought a similar car years earlier. Strawberry pink. Four doors. The only difference was mine had a gray stripe running across the doors … to make it look sporty or something.
I can’t remember what I named the Neon … no, I do remember. I named her Neo, because that was about the time “The Matrix” (starring Keanu Reeves … I love you!) was one of my favorite movies. Just take away the last n in Neon, and you have Neo. Brilliant. Once again, Neo was a good car until she started dying on me. Oh, the fond memories of me and Neo … I remember heading to Plainview, Minn., to visit my parents and Neo decided to blow a gasket while chugging up a steep hill in the middle of Minnesota farmland. This was before I owned a cell phone, and so I walked to the nearest farm to ask for help.
My dad thought I was crazy to sell Neo for $100 to my then-neighbors (two young 20-something women). We were nice to each other whenever we saw each other outside of the apartment complex. We shared a love for cats … not to mention, they only had one crappy car between the two of them. I believe their car was even crappier than Neo, who was filled with many problems at the time (broken odometer the biggest problem I can think of at the moment). To me, helping my neighbors was more important than trying to get $400 for Neo. I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Which brings me to my beloved Anouk … ever since my former roommate, Heather, and I sat in a Saturn Vue at the mall (for some reason the Vue wasn’t locked), I just fell in love with the Vue. As much as I wanted a blue Vue, I’m happy with my 2003 silver Vue. I had a hard time thinking of a good name for the Vue that could until I watched a documentary about an ubercute polar boar named Anouk Shook (I think I’m totally misspelling the last part). I think the bear was abandoned at birth or something, and zoo owners had to keep the cute bear alive.
As you can tell, my memory for details is just invaluable … anyway, the show entranced me, and I ended up liking the name Anouk. In my previous blog about a STUPID MINIVAN, Anouk wasn’t feeling well and the Saturn dealership kept her for a few days. I was extremely happy to have Anouk back up until Friday night. After I got off work Friday night, I headed home … the music was blaring because I was pretending to be a rock star (again). But over the loud music, I heard my engine was making a really funny noise whenever I stepped on the accelerator.
The noise got worse when I turned onto the highway … fearing for my life, I parked in a Knights of Columbus parking lot (it was closed). Something was definitely wrong as a puddle of something was pooling and running underneath my poor Anouk. After calling my co-worker, Al, he dropped by to pick me up after warning me not to drive home. I set my alarm to wake me up promptly at 8 a.m. Saturday so that I could call the Saturn dealership and tell them to fix my Anouk. To make a long story short, the dealership took care of everything … getting Anouk towed to the dealership and fixing her all before I had to head to work at 1:30 p.m. AND at no charge to me.
I know Anouk isn’t going to last forever … I already have my next dream car picked out: a blue Saturn Vue hybrid. 
That’s how much I love my Vue. It’s a small SUV … I love driving it. I love having the ability to keep all kinds of crap in the back (at the moment, my scrapbook stuff sits in the back … come to think of it, I should really store that stuff in my garage). Krissy says the back seat is a little small and cramped, but when am I ever going to haul five people around? Anyway, I love my Vue and I’m glad to have her back … she’s way better than any stupid minivan.
