It all started last night.
Kennedy Center Detour
Mike and I had tickets to see a tribute to Stephen Schwartz at The Kennedy Center while looking for parking we may have a wrong right turn onto a ramp that put us immediately on I-66 West and taken another wrong right turn that took us down the George Washington Parkway where we couldn't turn around for 5 miles and then it was just a U-turn to eventually journey back past The Kennedy Center where we ended up paying to park instead.
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| Beautiful cloudy view from The Kennedy Center patio. |
Jeremy Jordan is just....a phenomenal singer and I will definitely look forward to seeing him in The Last Five Years (coming out this year, I think) starring opposite Anna Kendrick. My favorite arrangements were the animated movie medley which featured "Colors of the Wind"from Pocahontas and "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt and "Wicked: A Fable for Orchestra". I also really enjoyed the music from Schwartz's musical Children of Men so i'll probably be looking into that.
After the show at Mike's place I spotted a bug that needed to be killed immediately. It went underneath Mike's bed and I asked Mike if he had a flashlight because I was to scared to randomly aim into the darkness. Mike did not have a flashlight, but someone had placed some really weird small lights on his desk and he decided that would do the trick. Helpful, because I kill the bug. After killing the bug, I notice that me moving the bed frame has slightly broken the bed frame and we plot ways how to fix this new problem.
Halogen
While we're plotting, I ask Mike if he smells something burning. He says no. Approximately one minute later, Mike says he smells something burning now and he runs to the light that was left on the floor. When he lifts it off the floor, we discover it has burned a hole straight through the carpet by melting the upper layer. Our first reaction is: What is this thing that we used as a flashlight because we've never seen a light do that....Our second is: resignation and hopeful for a better tomorrow....
Good things: The bug died, we figured out how to fix the bed, and we learned the light was a halogen light and that you should pretty much never use one ever because it's scary and melts things!
...but there were still lessons to be learned...
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| The result of having a halogen lamp near your carpet. Don't do it, kids. |
Sunday, Mike and I had plans to meet up with Alex and Kelly for brunch at Le Grenier, a new french restaurant on H street that has been getting great reviews. Brunch with Kellex is always the best. Kelly and I talked about how Jeremy Jordan was the first Jack Kelly from The Newsies. We learned that Kelly had an Elmo stuffed animal when she was little that perished from halogen lamp contact. We all talked about the new Star Trek movie and started planning the next location for NYE reunion. Mike and Alex tried to talk Kelly and I into going to see some really nerdy alien war movie or something? The food was amazing! However, I had to leave after about an hour and a half because I was going to see The Great Gatsby with Sara and Davia.
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| Brunch Bunch does Le Grenier. |
When Mike and I got back to my car after saying our goodbyes, this random lady approached me asking if it was my car. I told her yes and she said it had been broken into. I guess I had to walk over to the other side of the vehicle to see that my front passenger window had been shattered. Wow. I had left my laptop and my giant coach purse in the car because I was going to babysit after the movie. We were parked two blocks from the restaurant. We had been gone for a little under 2 hours. We had parked in a really nice sunny flower-y neighborhood in DC in the middle of the day on a Sunday. And I couldn't believe I had come back to this.
This was clearly a tight knit community because I had people coming out of their houses offering me their phones and water and saying that they had called the cops and telling me these kind of crimes had actually been happening in the area. My purse was missing from the car and I had wanted to check my laptop bag that was still in the car, but one bystander told me to wait until the cops got there. When I mentioned my purse being gone, she said "Oh well, yeah, your laptop's gone." When I had to explain to the cop what was missing, it started to hit me. Mike later said to me that he knew I wasn't upset about the things being stolen, but that I had momentarily "lost my faith in humanity." He knows me well. I just felt violated on such a beautiful sunny day. I know I'd left stuff in my car, but I just didn't expect....this. When I started crying Mike told me: "Remember what Mr. Rogers said? Look for the helpers. There are helpers all around you." And there were. Like random people coming up and touching my hand and getting riled up for me. It made me feel better. That's why, when a young couple who said that they had video surveillance on their door and might have a picture of the suspect in the footage invited us inside (I immediately made Mike call Kelly and Alex to come be there when I found out what had happened), I said yes. Because I just needed to refind my faith in humanity.
Our new friends offered us water, an adorable yappy dog names Ziggy, and a chance to feel some control in the situation as we sifted through video clips from their camera playing detective. Then we found the guy on the tape! He had my beige coach purse! I saw him walk away with it! How could he just do that? We called the cop in to give him the guy's description and then decided to take my car someplace safe until we could get the window fixed. Upon getting back in the car, we noticed that my laptop bag did not look empty and in fact did still have my laptop in it. (Okay I know we should have checked that first, but there was a lot going on and it was assumed the thief would take the most valuable thing in the car!) We tell the cops and our new friends and I feel very lucky. I call my mom to tell her what had happened and, after telling her I had only books and notebooks and pens and a water bottle in my purse, she says that sometimes these guys will just throw it in a trash can after they see there is no money in it.
Well....
After getting back to Mike's place less than 2 hours after this craziness began, I get a call from a man in DC who found my purse in his recycling can (I had my phone number in a journal inside of it). We retrieve my purse with everything in it.
Thus, as it happens, the only losses from the past 24 hours include:
- a small section of destroyed carpet (which we can cover until it is eventually replaced)
- an unstable bed frame (which we were able to fix)
- a detour to VA on our trip to the Kennedy Center (which took us down the beautiful GW Parkway)
- missing Gatsby
- a $250 window replacement
Thus, as it happens, gains from the past 24 hours include:
- goosebumps from listening to Stephen Schwartz's music played live
- a run to the new time exhibit at the Air and Space museum the morning of the brunch
- tasting the best (according to me) smoked salmon eggs benedict I've had in the city
- making friends with almost an entire street of people
- a lesson in locking valuables in the trunk, using icloud and the findmymac app to locate your computer if it's stolen, always having your computer serial number, always checking the laptop bag and accounting for everything
- learning that no matter how bad your day has been, there are always going to be helpers to look for
