Breaking

You say a long goodbye to your cat, who always gets upset when you leave...you walk out of your house and head to your car, which is only a few paces away...it's freezing, and way too early for you to be dressed and headed out into the world...but it's Friday and you're supposed to get off work early that day, as well as have a four day weekend ahead of you, so it could be worse.

As you walk past your passenger side door you notice it's unlocked (did you forget to lock it last night?) and slightly ajar. Then you notice a flash of color from your dash and the thought that your neighborhood friend, who's been known to leave silly things in your windshield for you to find in the morning, might have noticed your door unlocked and left you something inside. This thought quickly vanishes though, when you realize the pinks and greens and blues that are protruding haphazardly from your dash are actually the remains of your car stereo...the ends of the wires that once held it in place.

You stare inside your car in amazement for a minute, before noticing your cd's strewn about on the drivers seat. They left behind everything but your mittens. The watch that your grandmother died in that you had been meaning to have fixed?...still there. The things you needed to return to Target and Bed Bath & Beyond?...still there. Thinking about the thief's annoyance when he realized all your cd's were worthless (monetarily speaking) mixes that previous crushes and friends had made you gives you some satisfaction...they're all still there.

It could be so much worse, you know this. Across the street from your house, your neighbor's car window is smashed to shimmery bits...presumably by the same nefarious fellow that relieved you of your stereo. You're lucky that you still hadn't fixed the fuse in your car which would have made it possible for your passenger-side window to roll up all the way, and would have required it to be smashed to bits before the prize could be claimed. You don't have money to replace the stereo, but you have even less money to replace a busted out window. There's no way to get into your trunk from the inside of your car, so the $1500 stenograph machine which you stupidly never brought into your house is safe. Your glove compartment hasn't opened since you've owned the car, so whatever's in there (a brick of heroin? someones last will & testament? the dead sea scrolls?) is still safe.

You attempt to feel violated...someone had been going through your personal things, after all. But you're not the kind of person who feels sorry for yourself. You're a worrier and you know that people get raped...people get killed...people loose their children in atrocious ways. Life isn't pretty, you know this, but really?, when you consider it as a whole, your life is one of the prettiest girls at the ball. So you turn this crumby situation around and do what you can with it, which in this instance, is an entertaining blog post.