My long time (since elementary school) friend, Charles “chuck” Wong contacts me.  I haven’t heard from him in a while (a year or so?) and he tells me he bought a car a while ago.  We get to talking and I ask him what kind, he says an MR2.  I ask “a what?”, so he shows me a picture,

picture chuck sent me of his mr2 (tho this isn't actually his but looks like it)

and I respond: “not bad”, although not that impressed.  He also informs me that the picture he showed me isn’t really his car but it looks just like it, with different wheels, so my impressed-ness falls a bit.

We go hang out to catch up on old times and he picks me up in his car and I get a little more impressed, but it still seems like ‘just a car’.  It wasn’t until we drove off to a shopping/arcade mall type place in bayside, queens, that I start to get into his car more and more.  On the way back, he shows off what his car can do, and takes a regular street turn at like 30-40 MPH and my jaw drops.  I’ve never seen anything like it before.  It was incredible, even from inside the car in the passenger seat.  At that time, his car was still stock too!

I start doing research on this MR2, becoming a regular in channel #mr2 on EFNet (IRC), talking to people, learning about the car.  I start investigating how much one would cost, and run it by my mom.  She eventually reluctantly approved, after many lectures and arguments about how impractical a 2 seat car is, and how unsafe it probably is being so small.  My requirements for an mr2 take shape.  I decided on: a silver MR2 turbo with a sun-roof.  Silver because that is a beautiful color (in general, not specifically on cars), turbo because I couldn’t understand anyone not wanting that extra power, back then I thought power was everything.  Sun-roof because Charles has a sunroof and the only other car I’ve ever driven, my mom’s Pontiac Grand Am, is a hard top, which I didn’t think I could stand on a car of my own.

My birthday is coming up (17th) and I really (unrealistically) want a car as present.  I don’t really know what kind of car I want yet, i just know i want one though, I  don’t  even really know why, it’s just one of those things i really want but am not sure why.