Smashed

Last night one of our neighbors had a party. I was exhausted and was in bed by 9:30 p.m. I didn't recall hearing a party or many cars pulling into the court. Apparently, though, the party had begun around 8ish as Robin noticed some cars in the court when he got back from his volleyball game.

I was awoken at 11:30 p.m. by loud voices, honking horns, extremely loud music and shining headlights. I peeked outside and saw what I could only describe as a rave type crowd. Literally over 100 people, cars parking every where and the overflow of the party on the street. I went back to bed hoping someone would call the cops (yes, I'm a chicken; besides, I barely had enough wherewithall at that point to realize there was a party. I think bleary-eyed would describe me fairly well). I actually thought I might be dreaming.

This morning, I awoke to a very grumpy husband. He led me to the front window and I saw that the side back window of our van had been smashed. No one else's cars on the court had been vandalized. Only ours. Apparently, Robin found it around 2:30 a.m. and filed a police report. Apparently, he had also called the cops last night because of the noise and the fact that someone was shooting off fireworks which are totally illegal in this state. Now, we don't know if the person/people who smashed our van window did it out of retaliation for the cops arriving to break up the party or whether someone/several people got carried away and smashed it. Regardless, my van has a smashed window and I'm oscillating between being angry and crying at the injustice of it all.

We've called the insurance company. We have someone slated to come to my school on Monday to fix the window as I refuse to drive into a not-so-great neighborhood in D.C. to get my window repaired today. We'll pay our deductible and hope that our insurance rates don't rise.

I feel so helpless. I know in the grand scheme of things, this is mild. It's not the worst crime that could have been perpetrated against us, but I still feel violated. Someone, whether drunk, stoned, stupid or all of the above destroyed something that belonged to me for absolutely no justifiable reason. I hate it. I'm having a hard time not wanting to retaliate. I'm having a hard time turning the other cheek. No. I don't know for sure whether it was the actual neighbor or an party attendee, but I so want to break the neighbor's car window. Childish? Yes. Would it make me feel better? Maybe. I feel totally awful for feeling this way. I certainly don't feel like I'm behaving like a good Christian...

Dontcha love Catholic guilt?