another crazy weekend...i need a break!!

so here's what happened...friday night i was looking forward to just chilling and getting stuff prepared for my friend cyndi's bachelorette party. instead, my mom was reading the korean newspaper and came across a toyota ad...so we called the dealer and he quoted us a good price over the phone (14,200 for the corolla). ended up going over there and spending a coupla hours there, during which he managed to convince us to get the camry instead. (that's when i called the world and everyone told me to get the camry...he quoted 17,500). but then he tells me that the only camry in the color that i want has leather seats, which would cost 800 more. (that should have been a big hint as to what kind of salesman i was dealing with...well, maybe that was true, but...) i had done most of my research on the corolla, so i felt a bit uncertain and kinda sandbagged (my mom and him were ready to close the deal right then and there) , so i decided to go home and do a little research and then sleep on it. went to sleep a little late and got up early the next morning to run some errands for the party and go to the dealership. so we get over there, and i decide that instead of spending 800 extra, i'll just get the car in a different color with cloth seats. at one point, he gave us that same quote of 17,500. so i ask my mom to ask him (he didn't speak english) if that included tax and fees. my mom asks him and he says that it does, but in hindsight, he said it really short and didn't go into detail, then quickly left to do something. i was kinda surprised and happy 'cuz that's a good deal...so i go through all of the paperwork, even gave them the down payment...in the middle, they give me a figure of 18,500 not explaining until i asked them point-blank what the extra 1,000 was for, and then they tell me about the extended warranty (didn't even ask if i wanted it...just threw it in there and probably wouldn't have said anything if i hadn't asked). so we haggled over the extended warranty and i have to decide whether 1,000 extra was worth it...the finance guy was trying to convince me that i needed it and the salesman said that he cut the price down from 1,500. so finally, i'm not entirely happy, but i say that i might as well so i sign all the paperwork for that...and then i get to the last document...the sales contract. and i see that the final price of all this is 22,000. that was a bit of a shocker. so i got kinda upset. okay, maybe more than a little upset. i walked out...with a little bit of drama. it was even more frustrating because i couldn't explain why to the salesman because of the language barrier. the salesman tried to convince us that the time we asked him about if the figure included taxes and fees, it was a misunderstanding/miscommunication. whatever...he's a car salesman, he knew what we were asking.
so i was upset, and then feeling bad for getting upset 'cuz my mom thought i reacted badly, and just trying to reconcile myself to the fact that i was going to go another coupla weeks or so without a car. then cathy and ernest came and saved the day. it was really God's grace and providence. they originally had a meeting in the afternoon, so we were going to meet up with them for lunch, but their meeting got cancelled. when i called them about what happened, they came straight to the dealership and helped us get out of there. then, cathy told me about this guy her dad knew who quoted us 18,500 out the door. so we went there (el monte, longo toyota) after lunch and got the car for that price with the alarm, in the color i wanted, and drove it off the lot. (btw, the finance guy there offered the extended warranty for 750) it just took a while just 'cuz the dealership was incredibly busy that day and he was helping 3 other customers at the same time. so i had to jet home, pick up stuff for the party, then pick up a friend in santa monica, then go to hermosa beach...an hour and a half later than i had intended on getting there (half an hour late for the party).
the party was fun...kinda stressed most of the night 'cuz i felt responsible for it. we had dinner and played an ice breaker-type game. then we went to the hermosa beach comedy and magic club...that was really fun. the comedians were really good, and they had a really good magician.
afterwards, we went to the hotel for other stuff. nuf said. if you want details, you can ask me personally.
so i got home that night at around 3:30 and woke up the next morning at 8:30 'cuz i wanted to see cathy and ernest off. then, the highlight of my weekend (getting the car wasn't really a highlight 'cuz by that time, i was just tired and stressed)...mungsu got baptized, along with mike and dom, at dockweiler beach (a perfect beach day) out of the six people getting baptized that day, three of them were from our life group! it's cool 'cuz while mike and dom have been christians for a while but have just never been baptized, mungsu came to know the Lord just about a month ago...it's amazing and i've been so incredibly blessed just being able to witness how God changed her heart to recognize His truth and apply it to her life. she has a great testimony, and she's already at work witnessing to her other non-believing friends...God is so great!
the other thing that made this time a highlight is that we found out that another girl from our life group accepted Christ that day. she'd been thinking a lot about it, but had a hard time reconciling some nagging questions and doubts and that was keeping her from the commitment. but we had most of our life group together at the beach, and when she came, she told us all and we were so happy!! our group has been praying for these girls for a while, and it's so awesome to see God's work and will unfolding...the process is amazing. praise God!!!
so yeah, i'm tired.
also, i feel i should make this clear....i haven't just been sitting here writing this at work...everytime i get a little break, i've been writing a little here and there...though i guess if you put it all together, it's a good amount of time...