little girl, big city.

After school today i drove a few blocks away for dinner and then, remembering what everyone's favorite custodian (and mime, in his spare time) Joe had told me about cars getting vandalized behing the school after hours, parked with confidence in the front. When i got into my car later i noticed that i was missing a window.

My first thought: those f-ing bastards.

My second thought: i don't have time to lose the whole night taking care of this.

Third: I feel like an idiot calling 911 for something that is so clearly not a dangerous situation, but I don't have the patience for 311 (ring the bad citizen alarm...)

Fourth: I wish I weren't locked out of the school - it's raining.

I found myself on the phone with a lot of people who were willing to listen. I noticed that I was smiling and laughing a lot, and that my potty mouth came out of the closet when i wasn't careful, both signs that I am annoyed/upset, but not too much so to handle.

"Do you still feel safe?"
"yes, but i probably won't after i have time to think about it."
That time came sooner than expected, but the police showed up pretty promptly and my biggest worry is when on earth will i have time to take my car to the shop, and do i really have to wake up 10 minutes earlier to take the bus...

Later, I decided that the piecces of glass might make nice jewelry if properly set.

So that's the story. The things to think about:

1- i feel little or no guilt at initially assuming that it was one of my students (until i realized that it had, in fact, happened at least an hour after school). This might hve bothered me back in the day...

2- i am completely incapable of understanding why someone would smash the window of what is arguably one of the more ghetto cars in the neighborhood (92 old, with assorted scrapes and dents...)

3- I am amazingly lucky that this is really the first time I have been the victim of anything approaching physical violence.

The real questions is, how to break the news to the parents, owner of both the car and its insurance policy... (or should one just absorb the cost and pretend nothing happened?)