Monday, September 08, 2008

Picking up the pieces...

...luckily of nothing earth shattering or overly dramatic. I did get to spend a good 45m sweeping up broken glass from my garage floor this morning, though. At a time far, far earlier than anyone should ever be awake on their day off (okay, so that is slightly exaggerated - it was, like, 9:00a, but given the fact that I'd already been up for two hours, and had only fallen asleep four hours before that, it felt wayy too early).

Why the sudden urge for cleanliness? Because some jackass (pardon my language, but I'm not really in a mood to be polite) decided to break into my garage...AGAIN. This is the third time in less than three months my garage has been broken into. Oh, and the third time's quite the charm, too - this time he/they decided to break into my car, as well. Luckily, I apparently keep nothing of fenceable value in the car; I never leave my purse or phone in the car, my stereo is crap, I don't really listen to CDs, and my portable XM radio was brought inside at the beginning of the summer in order to better listen to Cubs games. Things *I* consider valuable, like the over $150 worth of sparring, kickboxing, and haganah gear and weapons I keep in my duffel bag in the very back, apparently aren't worth stealing. Which is good, because I also keep my current belts in that bag, and I'd've been REALLY pissed if someone had stolen my black belt. As far as I can tell, the only thing missing, oddly, is the little binder that contained the car owner's manual and my registration and insurance cards. (A fact that I didn't notice until much later, when I realized it wasn't on the passenger floor with the rest of the stuff from the glove compartment and notified the police promptly when I saw the registration was gone.) The back window was shattered, and the lock on the front passenger door is broken on the outside. There doesn't seem to be any body or paint damage, though, which is good. Insurance will cover anything over my deductable, and the police have filed a report and even dusted for fingerprints, though they aren't sure there's anything useable.

But still...why me? This time, mine was the ONLY one hit. Why my garage AGAIN? And how in the world can I prevent it? Padlocks, as we know from previous experiences, just get cut. And completely negate the point of having a remote door opener. I told Gil about it before kickboxing today, and he volunteered to sit in my garage for a few nights with a comfortable chair. As he's a big guy, does haganah and aikido, and is literally covered in tattoos, *I* wouldn't want to mess with him if I came upon him in such a situation. I was talking with Mrs. S and Ma'am about it after classes tonight, and Mrs. S said that they'd had both their vehicles broken into on the street in front of their house. She has a couple of numbers for repair shops for me, which I'll call tomorrow.

The ladies (Mrs. S and Ma'am) taught tonight, as the guys were apparently watching Monday Night Football (yes, it's that big of a deal in our dojahng, you can even forego uniform shirts for team jerseys on Monday nights during football season). It was fun. It always makes me a little nervous when Mrs. S is there, because I'm just not used to working with her in that context, but it would be fun to have her in class more. Ma'am did kickboxing today, too, which was fun. She partnered with one of the newer ladies, as Gil had already claimed me as a partner after I'd told him about my morning. That was good - I'd really needed someone like Gil or Mr. R or Sir as a partner today to work off some frustration. They can hold the bag really well and don't look shocked or surprised if you just pound the hell out of it (some of the newer/less active in the school people look like I'm trying to break them sometimes). It was the first time I've really been angry enough to imagine a face on the bag, even though I have no idea whose face belongs there. We also started regular class with sparring, and I initially got partnered with Mr. M and Bob (our punching dummy), so by the time I got to the lower belts, I didn't have quite the anger energy going anymore. No instructor class tonight, since Sir wasn't there, so I didn't start my weapons form. I don't really get any new material in regular class at all anymore; it all comes in instructor class now. Mrs. S told me afterward that if I'd mentioned it, she would have started teaching it to me, but alas. Someday! I have hope!

In happier news, CP #1 is moving along quite nicely. I seem to always jinx myself if I say that I'll have something finished soon, so I won't say that. I will say that it is going much faster than I had anticipated, although I think I might have to rework something after I block it. I'm going to finish another section of it first, though. And I've finally settled on the yarn for CP #2. I still have no idea what I am going to use for CP #3, though. I have a few ideas, but not sure if any of them will fit into the budget. I'll have to shop around and see. Yarn shopping, sigh, life is so rough!

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