Now that I've survived the first two weeks of school safe and sound I know a few of you are waiting for a new blog post. Might even have been expecting this one! Sit back and revel in story time...
This story starts a week and a half ago, no, further back. I have this school schedule this semester of attending classes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Technically I have a class on Monday too, but I only had to attend the first day of class and then just email in the assignments ('cause that's a lot of commute time for a 50 minute class...). My wonderful friend Christine told me that I could stay in La Mirada on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in their spare room for the entire semester. I was so happy I did a heel click when she told me that late last December.
Well, classes started a week and a half ago, so I packed my bags and early Monday morning made the trek up to school. Some of you have now started putting a few pieces together... No, I didn't have "official" reservations with anyone anywhere to sleep that night. I had a couple of emails out to folks, and there were a few others that I simply didn't want to bother knowing that they already had a lot on their plate. So, just in case I couldn't find anyone to put me up Monday night I was mentally prepared to camp out in the car. After all, I had all the goods with me for Tuesday and Wednesday night (pillow, blankets, teddy bear, toothebrush, deoderant...) I figured there was no harm. I'm resourceful. Sometimes you've just got to do what you have to do.
Monday night arrives and I realize I'm on my own for the evening. Around 9:45 I hop in my car, move it to the ideal, secluded spot in the lot and set up camp in the back seat. It took a little rearranging, but it was sort of comfortable. Except for the light shining from the parking lot lights. So just as I sat up to find a better position, or to move something to block the light, I saw a security car do a real slow drive by. I froze until they moseyed on and then snuggled back in. Five minutes later a large security SUV pulls up.
You know what I'm talking about. The huge ones with the spot light and the security logo and the reflective stickers and the officers in uniform that carry exceptionally large flashlights.
One of those.
And they were parked right in front of my car. I stayed down until the guy got out of the SUV and then I came to my senses and got out of my car.
Did I mention that I locked my car from the outside with my key and then hopped in pulling the door closed after me? It gets better. You see, when you lock your car that way, you need the key to unlock it or else the alarm goes off. So as I reach for the door handle to get out my alarm triggers and locks me back in. Oh joy. But I managed to get out and shove my key in the lock to stop the alarm. Meanwhile there's this officer at my right shoulder looking at me (in my socks-beige ones with little white rubber grippers on the bottom that are now black from the pavement.)
He asks me, "So, is that your alarm?"
"Yes."
"What's going on here?"
So I tell him I didn't have a place to spend the night that night so I was going to sleep in the car.
"Okay, we were just checking to make sure no one was stealing this car, Ma'am." (Ma'am? Oh yes, he did.)
I hand him my student ID and as he's doing his thing he asks me if my housing isn't set up yet. "Something like that. I'll have a place to stay starting tomorrow, Officer."
Thank goodness I'm a Grad student because I think the under 21 crowd would have gotten a different treatment than me, bless that sweet security guy's heart. After he calls in that I'm a grad student in x car with x student number, I asked him if it was okay that I was spending the night in my car on that lot. He said it was, buuuuut since I was a woman, he'd prefer that I move to a lot that was closer to the heart of campus rather than the one by the main road. He started to recommend a lot, but then came up with a better one. Mr. Officer asked me if I knew where Lot B was, which I did...its the one behind the bell tower...and other handy student services....
"Isn't that the lot next to Campus Security?"
"Yes. Yes it is. You should be all right there."
Now isn't that sweet? Not only was that officer considerate and kind, he did a nice job of trying to keep me safe. He remained oh-so polite as I started babbling about how embarrassed I was. He kept cool even with my annoying alarm going crazy. He never made any sort of face that indicated how crazy I might be, or how ridiculous he thought I might have been. He just took it all in stride.
Even the blackened beige socks.
Bless his heart!
