fiesta – Jenmenke

“Jennie Menke takes Whit Scott’s challenge to enter and win the chance to drive a new Ford Fiesta. She describes herself as “the missing demographic” and laments the fact that — until now — she has been stuck driving a suburban.”

So goes the copy I quickly scribbled and posted for all the world to see (well, actually, only about 35 people so far) in my very first video post to youtube. After watching a handful of other entries, I suddenly realized this was the solution to my Suburban Saturation problem — a problem that doesn’t garner a lot of sympathy from anyone in my inner circle. I’ve been lobbying and crunching numbers now for over 2 years in an effort to convince Dave of the logic. This continued coveting of just about any subcompact car has started to cause tension in the familial circle…

Taking the bull by the horns I made a “quick” video and posted it. Now the hard work begins. Even if I don’t win the contest, at least it’s finally spurred me to taking the time to set up a blog and will get me thinking about all kinds of other stuff.

Course, buying the domain and sifting thru WordPress installation issues, then experiencing major log-in problems all added up to an entire day of angst. Here’s a clue to the solution: not “jennifermenke” as intended, but “jennNifermenke” instead. So the process wasn’t exactly painless. How often I have tried to figure out if all this online stuff enhances or detracts from our lives? Still. I’m an addict.

As an aside, my husband — who has had two naps so far today — had the audacity to ridicule me for my effort.

[UPDATE: I did not become a Ford Fiesta Agent. I could go on and on about the dreary days waiting for my phone call and then all the sad and bewildered days that followed. After my interview and some personal contact with the marketing people at Ford, I have to say now what I wouldn’t say then: I seriously thought I was a shoe-in! So what happened??

Well, I’ll tell you some scenarios that played out:

Me on chairlift: I wonder if it’s because we live in the boonies and they want people who live in cities…
Dave, in response: Or maybe it’s cuz you rolled out of bed in your sweats and made a video with no make up on…

(The rest of that vacation, Dave spent pretty much alone, by the way…)

Me: Maybe it’s cuz I really am out of the demographic.
Dad: Yeah. You are way older than the rest of the people they picked…

(I pretty much stopped speculating with other people, due to the affect it was having on my self esteem.)

And then I had an idea:

Me: Maybe it’s my driving record…
A friend who shall remain nameless: I’ll pull your record for you at work, but you can’t tell anyone…

(I hope this doesn’t count as telling anyone)

Guess what I found out?

I have a careless driving citation from our road trip to Montana in 2007 which is, apparently, a pretty serious ticket.

Nevermind the fact that I got the ticket by being on the inside of a semi that was turning right. He was in the middle lane and I was in the turn lane and didn’t see his signal. If that’s careless driving, then you can call me guilty!

So that, coupled with the video where I’m driving with my knee? I’m thinking it was a lethal combination. Which, in hindsight, is pretty funny, if you really think about it.

Besides, who really wanted to spend all that time editing video anyway. Bah!]

The Ford Fiesta Movement – The Missing Demographic

jenmenke