Under The Shiny Rock

It's tempting in this online world to make yourself into a perfect product. It's all too easy to showcase just the good stuff.

The trips

The accolades

The good pictures (and delete the 57 where your arms looked fat)

The home cooked meals

The fresh flowers

I'm guilty. Yep, it's always easier to report on the good stuff. And I think that's ok. It helps to document the blessings, so you can look back on them during the dry times and remember. And give thanks.

But I also want to remember some of the bad times. I'm really glad I've written about situations that have been tough to maneuver. And I'm glad that I've written about battles that we are still fighting. Facing and acknowledging the bad has always been, for me, the best ways to deal with it.

So here, for posterity, is the story of today. If my life seems like a shining diamond on the surface, here's a bit of the moss and bugs that live underneath:

Today I went to the Define West University studio for my desk job training. I'm going to start working there part time, just 20 hours a week or so. It's going to be a little bit of mad money, and a way to take up some of my eternal free time (I know, it's so so sad that I have too much time for Breaking Bad marathons).

I showed up at 10am and parked across the street from the studio. The bar across the street is fine with Define peeps parking there, so I pulled in no probs. I did notice a "You will be Towed"sign for the auto repair shop that is next to the bar, but since I was parking next to a bunch of other girls all going to work out, I figured that lot must be safe.

No dice.

An hour later, the owner of the studio came into the back and said that cars were being towed out of the lot across the street. And as I looked out the window, there was my 4-Runner being dragged gracelessly away by a large tow-truck.

At this point, as is usually my reaction when something shocking is happening, I couldn't feel a thing. I wasn't angry or upset in anyway. This just can't be happening. To me. On my first day. The first time I parked in that lot.

When the emotions did kick in was when I went to the auto shop to ask how I could get my car back, and the angry manager decided to take out all his months' worth of rage at the Define trespassers on me. And no amount of my teacher tricks (ie using a calm voice, apologizing, trying to listen respectfully) could calm his wrath.

When he finally ran out of lung capacity, he was kind enough to give the me address of the towing company. My sweet friend, Mallory, then drove me out to the far south side of town where I encountered my first towing lot and the lovely employees and patrons that frequent such places. And despite his lack of teeth and mouth full of cigarette, the guardsman of all rebellious, imprisoned vehicles was able to tell me that I could in fact have my car back, for reasonable price of $218.

And there you have it. I would like to say that I laughed merrily through this all, just grateful for my health and the love of my family and friends, and that this was just a funny little story to tell later over scones and iced raspberry tea.

I wish I could tell you that. But life just massively sucks sometimes. And instead of handling those moments with grace, sometimes we cry, sweat, and order the large queso and chips at lunch.
Side Note: You know I will truly have let go of my vanity when I post a picture of my sweaty, red, tearstained face while holding a greasy chip covered in melted cheese.

And my pettiness also was quick to rise to the surface. Out of all the cars trespassing in that lot, why did they tow mine? What about the girl in the red Range Rover? Or the lady next to her in the Acura? Do they have something against 4-Runners? Or me? Why me?! Why, world, why??!!!

Side Note: Remember this is all being wailed with a mouth full of queso and tortilla chips. And I was still sweating. A lot.

While consoling me at lunch, Mallory was quick to point out that these terrible events tend to happen in 3's. I'm hoping this is true, because since June:

1. My car broke on vacation and needed over $1000 worth of repairs. Kind of hard to enjoy Dollywood to it's fullest with that going on.

2. Our washing machine leaked into the unit below us ruining the new owners recently installed hard wood floors. Whoops! Welcome to the neighborhood!

3. Walton lost an eye. And you think losing an eye would be relatively inexpensive, I mean, you're not gaining something right? Nope, not right at all. Basically, you can lose an eye or fly to Thailand (with money left over for a round of drinks at the airport bar).

and now the car towing.

So that's 4? Does that mean I have 2 more coming my way? Or do 2 of the previous events somehow count as 1?

I'm no pro at Karma Math, but I'm really hoping I've felt the last of "that sinking feeling" for awhile.

So there you go folks. Ain't life a doozy?!

But that's just the nasty, mossy, dank, underbelly of my shiny diamond of an existence. The rest is all trips to Europe and skinny arms. I swear.