A Series of Unfortunate Events

This week has been something else.

1) Sunday evening I went to plug in my phone so it could charge overnight. I was perplexed when it wouldn't charge. After trying several times in several different outlets, walking away and coming back to it five minutes later, and silently cursing at the darn thing, I finally surrendered and resolved to taking it to the Verizon store the next day. I walked there early Monday afternoon, as it was gorgeous weather and just over a mile away. The biggest question I wanted answered was 'is it my phone or the charger?' Go figure it was my phone. The charger port was broken. Of course my "best" option would be to upgrade and start a new 2 year contract. I said "No thank you," because my family who has so graciously kept me on the family plan is not feeling the upgrade and renewal vibe quite yet. That means I got to just buy a new (read: refurbished) phone. The cheapest option? A Motorola something for $90. Ouch. But I had no option. My current phone had two battery bars and no way of re-charging it. I signed my hard earned greenbacks away and looked forward to my new (to me) phone's arrival via FedEx the next day.

2) Tuesday morning my phone was DEAD. Not an ounce of life to it. I was kind of excited to not be always checking my phone and wondering if that soft buzz I heard was a text message or my mind playing tricks on me. I've been (assistant) coaching this high school team and I love it. This week the practices have been on the south side of the city, down by Boeing Field. The two JV coaches and I live fairly close to each other on the north side of the city so we carpooled. Tuesday, I drove to our carpool meet up point, parked, and left with the other coaches. We got back a good three to three and a half hours later and I walked to my car-- quickly as it was raining and it had been for the past three hours-- only to find that my car was not where I left it. WTF. I walked up and down the street a few times thinking "Open your eyes, Kristin, it HAS to be here!" Nay. No matter how much I wished it to reappear, my car was very much gone. Did I get towed?! Is it STOLEN?! NOW WHAT?!?! I felt the lump rising in my throat as panic set in. As if my missing automobile wasn't enough, I remembered my phone was dead. At times like these I call my dad because he knows what to do in most situations... or I call my mom who can somehow interpret my incomprehensible sobs in times of great turmoil and strife. I also considered calling Mr. Wonderful who lives in that neighborhood (but of course who was at work in Bellevue..) to see if he could piece together where in God's green earth my car might have wandered off to. No. None of those were possible. I was 3.5 miles from home so, I started walking. In hindsight, the walk was good because I had a lot of adrenaline and negative energy that needed to be released and the long walk helped. I got home maybe an hour later and was drenched, hungry, pissed off and defeated. I found Mr. Wonderful on Facebook chat and he told me I should call the police. I thought it sounded dramatic... that's for like car wrecks and robberies and stuff. He insisted-- I'd essentially been robbed of my car. There is a pay phone at the "BEER WINE" store across the street from my apartment. I somberly walked over with my laundry quarters and the small amount of dignity I had left and tried calling people. I tried calling my dad first but that damned payphone robbed me blind. What's worse is that I kept feeding it quarters thinking "This time it will work! It just needs warming up!" Seriously-- ALL of my laundry quarters-- gone. I called 9-1-1 and that was only successful because it's a free call. Lame. I told them all my information and the woman said, "Ma'am your car has been impounded." I was silent. (truthfully I was thinking 'what?! they took it to a junk yard?!' and then I remembered impounded=towed, not demolished.) I didn't know whether to be excited or pissed off. I was glad that it was (hopefully) intact somewhere, not being stripped down by hooligans then lit on fire. But I was so mad because someone towed my car for no reason. The 9-1-1 operator must have been reading my mind because she said "There is a note here that says 'driveway,' so that means it was parked too close to a driveway." "Really?! That's... crazy." I really try to not unleash my fury on the poor souls that answer phones because they're usually not directly involved with what ever caused my wrath. She told me the phone number of the towing place, I thanked her for her help (maybe half heartedly) and moped back to my apartment.
The whole morning I'd been wondering about my phone getting delivered that day. The nature of my apartment makes it impossible to get packages that require a signature (there's no front door buzzer... FedEx doesn't have keys to the front door.. it's ridiculous). I used Skype to call FedEx and ask "where is my package?" They said that it would be delivered by 3pm (at the time it was 2:30). I was pleasantly surprised that delivery hadn't been attempted yet and that it was a short wait period. I camped out at the front door and right at 3, the FedEx lady came. I could have hugged her. I needed to hug SOMEONE. I didn't though-- don't worry. I ran back to my apartment, eventually got the new phone (which btw is short and stout and ugly... not a big fan...) activated and started calling people.

a) Towing place: I learned it would cost me $170.22 to get my car back if I picked it up before midnight, and that they were open 24 hours a day and that they were kind of far away from where I live. Boo.
b) My dad: mostly to vent.

Well... I guess that's all the people I called. I talked to Mr. Wonderful online and he offered to take me to the towing place later. We had plans to have dinner with people in our small group at church and I was supposed to make a salad to take. After the day I had, I was so unmotivated to hoof it to the store in the rain to spend money I DON'T HAVE to make a salad. So I didn't. I laid down in my bed and I pouted. Not long after my pity party started, he showed up ready to go to dinner and I still was in sweat pants without any makeup or anything. He was so nice regardless of my ridiculous nature! I found a winner, folks. He talked me almost all the way out of my funk and we went to the store then dinner. Dinner was so great and exactly the distraction I needed. I had a great time and am so excited for my very slow growing social circle.

After dinner we drove to the towing place and I forked over the $170.22. While waiting I saw a sign on the wall about paying tickets. Man, that'd suck to get a ticket AND get towed! When the lady was giving my my paperwork she said (sympathetically, not mean) "And just to add insult to injury here is your ticket and information on contesting it." I could have thrown up. SERIOUSLY?! Speechless. I left, too exhausted to be actively mad anymore. I haven't looked at that paperwork since.. I probably should.

Anyway-- it was kind of a crappy day due to getting towed and being phone-less. However, I am really grateful for the people I've found here that are so quick to help and be supportive. It's actually quite exciting. The first six-ish months that I lived here were pretty lonely, and while I would hardly call myself a social butterfly, it's nice to have people that I know and who are enthusiastic to help when I need it.

It's only Thursday. I work Friday through Sunday and go back to nights on Tuesday. Pray for me, friends. As my attitude about my social life gets better and better, I've had a harder time being excited about work. Several factors play into that, but still. Night shift will not help anything at all.

And just so you know, parking within five feet of a driveway is apparently illegal in Seattle. For the record, I think that's the most BOGUS law ever-- five feet is almost a whole parking spot. Dislike. Major.