Bad Carma
On Friday, after several employees in my company were handed pink slips, I was asked by my boss to stay an extra night in San Francisco so we could meet up Monday to discuss my imminent lay off. Despite dreaming about this for months, if not years, I was still anxious and apprehensive about meeting my fate after almost three years of working at the company that shall not be named. Gradually, over the course of the weekend, and eating and talking with friends, I had basically come to terms with being let go before my desired lay off date (January or February). Instead of thinking about the lost salary for my trip and savings, I began thinking about starting my trip earlier.
So flash forward to Monday. I started work on time from bed and texted my boss to find out when and where we were to meet. When it became apparent that the meeting was not going to happen I found myself sadly “rejoicing” the fact that not only did I slip by with another day’s pay, but that I was going to capitalize off Veteran’s day too. My plan then became to beat traffic going from San Francisco to Sunnyvale, and cash my check while I was at it. I packed up all my stuff, got to my car, looked at it, felt momentary confusion, and then came to accept that some jerk had smashed in my front passenger window. Yes, of the very same door that was very recently damaged by said boss.
Prior to these two mishaps, nothing like this had ever happened to me. As I spoke to the AAA operator to file my car insurance claim, I did not notice anything missing, only that the contents of my glove compartment and center console were tossed around. Then I realized my cell phone headset was missing, and mentioned this to her. After, I found the cord for my ipod to car was gone, but thankfully my brick of an ipod was not in the car at the time. I swept the glass off the driver’s seat, stopped the bleeding of my thumb when a sliver of glass embedded itself in there, and prepared to drive home without stopping by the bank to cash a check that will now probably bounce.
A month ago, I thought it was annoying when my broken door was open a crack and the air hissed in while I drove. Try going 75 mph on the highway with the entire window missing. Not only did I have to punch out the rest of the glass and tint to prevent broken chunks from flying into my eyes, but I had to deal with little chunks flying off randomly as I drove. The wind whipped my ears and made a noise so deafening I thought my left eardrum was going to pop. Plus, it was cold out, and though I wore a pea coat and had the heater on, my hands were ice cold by the time I got home.
It wasn’t until I got home, plastic bagged my window and started cleaning out my car that I realized it wasn’t just $20 worth of cables that were taken, which I had thought was a petty thing to steal (given they were out of sight), but the air mattress that I had been schlepping around in my car for months was nowhere to be found. That’s right, the air mattress was the gold mine. Not the computer speakers in the back of my car, but the box I recall being marked “air mattress.” Based on where I parked, I am assuming that some literate crackhead, or homeless crackhead, peered into my car, saw the air mattress box, smashed in my window, and set up camp in some store front, luxuriously lighting up from a queen aerobed.
As the night crept on me and after recounting the story to numerous folk who can actually tolerate my whining I just started thinking, “Why didn’t I just get laid off Friday?” Any other day I would have gladly stayed an extra night, but wanted to go home before my parents left for Egypt. Could this have happened any other time? Sure, the broken glass lining the sidewalks is an indication that windows get smashed. I guess after months of parking without incident I became negligent about hiding everything that could be of interest. It just never occurred to me that an air mattress could be so coveted that someone would break into an otherwise boring car (and smash my River Phoenix poster that has been in the car for two years!). But what irks me most is that I stayed longer for a canceled meeting, didn’t get laid off, and now have to deal with the hassle of fixing my car. There’s something about my car, my boss, and San Francisco that just doesn’t mix.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Air mattress?? River smashed?? Egypt?? I am so sorry Grace- sorry that unemployment is so close yet still so far away!