I'm told it's all in the ATTITUDE

The night after my birthday, I decided I'd try to get some extra sleep and go to bed early. 10:30pm or so. I know, real early, right? As I had just barely drifted to sleep I was jolted awake by the sound of a car alarm. Now, this wasn't super alarming (no pun intended) as this is not entirely unheard of (again, no pun). This is thanks to the ultra-sensitive and ultra-annoying multi-sound alarm across the street.

At second thought - it sounded pretty familiar. My head popped up off my pillow and I dashed out to the living room where Michael was on the computer. "Did you hear that? It sounded like my car alarm..."

He threw on a jacket, bolted out the condo door and down the stairs to the covered carport while I watched from behind the side of the blinds in my bedroom window. Then my heart sunk as he motioned up to me to grab my phone. Uncertain if there was still someone next to my car, we called 911. Before the police arrived, we had discovered that they had already ran away leaving my driver's side window smashed and a massive amount of tiny little glass pieces all over the inside of my car like snow on Christmas Eve. My center console was open and debris was tossed all about. Several cars down, a neighbor was less fortunate and had both side windows of their 2-door coupe shattered and even more belongings tossed around.

Several cop cars and one canine unit later, we were told there was no evidence they could use. And although we could file a police report, there was likely no way we could identify who the culprit was. Apparently this part of town is divided between two local gangs and all property within range is free game to be tagged, broken and sometimes even stolen. Funny how that piece of information isn't willingly offered during a condo sale agreement....note taken to research police reports.
Of course, this left me in a fury. How is it that "these kids" could break windows costing owners hundreds of dollars, take personal property and then just skip away scot-free? (Yes, I'm pretty sure they skipped.) Probably leaving them more confident for next-time around. And there's absolutely nothing we can do about it? Nothing besides not park in my reserved and covered parking space? Nothing besides emptying the contents of my car every evening and locking up the steering wheel with a Club?? Letting them..... WIN??? Nuh uh.

Well, the irony in it struck me the next afternoon as I sat in Quality Auto Glass' old and very used waiting room. Just enough space for three chairs and a table full of old magazines. There was a framed quote up on the wall, pointed out by the very kind mechanic, that talked about "Attitude." This was the piece that I remember:

It's 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react.

So I took that little piece of wisdom and decided to make a list of all the good things that have come from my car being broken into. Here is the Top 10.

1. The inside of my car has finally been vacuumed clean.
2. The perpetrator now has discs 4 through 9 of "Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship At A Time," a well-known audio book by Keith Ferrazzi. Hopefully, they learn something from this. 
3. They can now charge their iPod while driving and simultaneously listen to it through an audio cable. Now THAT's one high tech burglar!  
4. I got to work from home, on my couch, while sitting in my sweats right up until my Auto Glass appointment.
5. I made friends with a very lovely local police officer named Officer Kohn, and had an educational discussion about the happenings of juvenile punishment in the Seattle metro area.
6. I met some new neighbors (in their pajamas) and bonded with old ones.
7. I now have the chance to get darker tint on my front windows - take that you interstate pervs!
8. I now, more thoroughly, appreciate a nice solid atuo glass window - very underrated, mind you. Especially going 60 in 40 degree weather.
9. It didn't rain once while I had no window. And we're in SEATTLE!!! What are the odds??
10. I still have a car.

The Help

In hopes to keep my road rage ay bay during my hour commute into work and hour drive home every day - I've started listening to audiobooks. In just a matter of about two weeks, I finished the 18+ hour audiobook for The Help by Kathryn Stockett.

The book takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s during the height of racial segregation. It is narrated in the perspective of three southern women - one white, young woman who has just returned home from graduating college and two black women who are maids for middle to upper class white families. What caught my attention about this book was that it not only provided the point of view of various lives, it also wove in significant historical moments in a way that makes you feel like you have lived through them.

When Skeeter returns from college to find her beloved maid, Constantine, is gone she does what she can to find answers. In the process, she is exposed to a whole new world that exists in Jackson, MS - the ugliness of racial segregation and cruelty of hate crimes. And she crosses lines that turn much of the town against her as she fights for what is right in the only way she knows how - writing.

The touching storylines and various points of view were very captivating and the three female narrators were top-notch. The southern accents portrayed in the audiobook version is something you definitely do not get from reading the printed book. Although I would undoubtedly recommend this book to anyone, I highly recommend listening to the audiobook. It had me thinking and occasionally speaking in a southern accent!

So what are you waiting for? Go out an get this ASAP!

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