did you ever know that you're my hero?

today started off with me waking up to settle a fight that was raging between my brothers. i should have known from then what this day was going to turn into. not even when vacuuming took two and a half hours instead of fifteen minutes did i realize that this was just not going to be a good day. it didn't really hit me until i was sitting in class suffering through another hour plus lecture about public key encryption. i mean, after three and a half years of undergrad learning this same thing over and over and over, i honestly thought i was done with it. i honestly thought that moving on to my master's would at least get me some new lecture material. i was obviously very wrong.

we get out an hour early, which would usually be a good thing, but i had to wait for my sister to get back from prince william before i could go home. and after having my brain drugged to sleep by my class, i just really really wanted to get home. my sister got back at eleven. we walk to the parking garage and i click the remote, but the car doesn't beep. i think i just must be too far and click it again when we get closer. still no beep.

great, i think. the battery must have died. i have lots of experience with dead car batteries, but that's a story for another day. anyway, i unlock the car with the key and the alarm goes off. that doesn't happen when your battery dies, in case you didn't know. that thing is super loud and it. wouldn't. stop. and the car wouldn't start. i call the non-emergency police and get them to send a car to jump ours. you know, just in case. it takes them about ten or fifteen minutes of waiting with the hood up, with the alarm blaring, echoing in the empty garage. needless to say, my ears were ringing. the dude comes and i fill out the waiver forms and then he goes to jump my car, only it doesn't work. because, like i thought, nothing was wrong with the battery. he's sitting there trying to talk over the wailing alarm, when we see two police men walking towards us.

apparently, they heard the ongoing alarm from their office which is across the street and a bit away from the parking garage. they thought someone was trying to steal a car or something. so now the jumper guy and two police men are trying to figure out what's wrong with the car. one of the police dudes is asking for a screwdriver to try and unscrew something or other on the battery to restart the system or something. i couldn't hear much. right when the jumper dude says that he doesn't have tools, another policeman in his car drives up to see what the commotion is. they all fiddle around under the hood for a while as my sister tries to subtly take pictures of them, though it was really not subtle.

anyway, one walking police guy finally gets a ride with the driving one back to his car where he was awesome enough to have a toolbox. he starts unscrewing stuff and then says that he's gonna disconnect our alarm for a bit because it was driving him insane. he does, and in the silence that follows, our car can finally start. he reconnects everything, says the problem looks like it was from the way that the alarm was connected, and we are able to go on our way... after thanking them all profusely. they are my heroes.

thing is, this car was just at the mechanic's yesterday. they were checking why the ABS light wouldn't turn off. i was pretty sure they fixed it cause the light didn't turn on all day. when the police dude fixed our car, the light immediately flicked back on. whatever. i'd so rather have that than the alarm. anyway, we get home at around twelve. and i have to wake up early tomorrow. yay.

also, today i've consumed more calories than i know what to do with. boredom + bad day will do that to you.

not to say that the entire day was bad, though. it had its bright spots. one of which was that i finally finished darkness. there's an email in my drafts waiting to be proofread for you, hannah, because i'm sure it's chock full of typos and grammar mistakes. i'll probably send it out to you tomorrow.

*Wind Beneath My Wings - Bette Midler