Thursday, December 14, 2006

More drama than a daytime soap opera

That's been the past week for me - drama filled.

It started with last Friday with our cat going missing. We couldn't find him that evening, and I figured some neighbor had let him in because temps dropped into the 30s. The next day we still couldn't find him, and we started to get a little worried. I got home from lunch, and my sister burst into tears. There I am trying to pry info from her - "Is Hodge Podge dead?" No. "Is someone else dead?" No. She lost the cat. I didn't understand, so she explained that on Friday, she had been trying to leave, and he wouldn't get out from under the car. However rather than put him in the house (which would be the logical thing to do), she put him in the car and went to run the errands she had planned, one of which was having her oil changed. We think one of the people there (at WalMart) let him out while vacuuming the car or something, and didn't bother to tell her because she obviously didn't realize he was gone. She had called my dad, but he was unsympathetic and basically told her that's what she deserved for being totally irresponsible. So I calmed her down, and told her we'd call the animal shelter when they opened again. Well Sat. evening my mother went back to WalMart, and after about a half hour's search of the woods next to it she found him! My mother's calling it a Hanukkah miracle, but I don't think Hodge Podge would burn for 8 days if we set him on fire.

The next big stuff happened within the last 24 hrs. Last night I was in the middle of a police raid at the library! Margaret, the other person at the front desk with me, had gone out to get the book drop when these two guys came in with a little girl. They returned a book, and one picked up an interlibrary loan we had gotten for him. They then asked about books on the history of Virginia and tourist guides, so I sent them on to the reference desk to ask Zulima. While I was helping them, I had noticed someone outside just out of my field of vision at the desk who was yelling at the last couple of people to leave, telling them to get away. All of a sudden someone appears at the front door telling me to get out. WTF?! Then I saw his badge, and he told me to get out again, and I promptly complied. After I got out the door about 10 people swarm in with guns drawn, and about 2 minutes later they come out with the guys handcuffed - but without the little girl in sight. Finally a police officer came out with her and asked me if she was the same one with them earlier, and she was. They questioned the guys outside, and eventually let one of them go, because after I left he came back inside to get the book he had dropped when he was wrestled to the ground. The thing that gets me is that people were still coming into the library even though there were 7 cop cars surrounding it. One woman told me she thought it would look bad if she turned around and left.

About 10:30 I got a phone call from my brother - "So, dad told me you're picking me up tomorrow". Um, what? Let me back up and explain. My brother is in Ft. Lauderdale with his friend and his friend's girlfriend because she wanted to buy a monkey, and Nick decided to go along for the ride. Well she wrecked the car down there, and now they're waiting for it to get fixed, but my brother only brought a fixed amount of money, and now the g/f is wanting Nick to pay for the hotel room, even though that wasn't originally part of the deal. My dad told me all this when I called him a couple of days ago. We had talked about maybe me picking him up, but made no actual plans, so the phone call was a complete suprise to me. I told Nick I had to work, but I was off Fri, though I didn't have any money for gas. I told him he needed to call dad to sort this out. 15 minutes later he said Dad was going to wire him $20. Kellie didn't believe him however, and called Dad to verify. He had promised to send money, but apparently had already wired $300 before, which was now gone. 1 am I got another call from Nick asking me to pick him up Fri, and my dad was depositing money into my account for gas. In the middle of writing this my brother called to tell me the car was getting fixed today, and that they'll be leaving tomorrow, but I'm not holding my breath. I just hope he makes it home safely somehow.

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