Sheldon: A Tragedy.

Hole. Eee. Cow. Yesterday was -was -I don't know! It was ...interesting, long, hard, stressful, painful, time consuming -everything!

I guess I'll start at the beginning, which is actually near the end of the day. It was six thirty and Seth and I were headed out to go and see a play in Kansas City. The play was Shakespeare's Othello and it was required of all my fellow English students to go and see it. It was free so long as you wanted to sit in the very back in the grass behind all the people sitting in chairs. Erm, no. I bought reserved seats instead for twenty bucks a chair. I had originally bought two tickets not knowing at all who I was going to take, knowing only that I didn't want to go alone. I had a while to figure out a second person. But here I was, a week after the purchase still without a companion. I asked my cousins if one of them would go with me and Melinda consented. On the day of, however, Melinda didn't feel up to it and requested that Seth go in her stead. So, here was Seth and I, driving to Kansas City in Sheldon, windows rolled down, and talking about the day.

We were driving up a hill when it happened. Thump-thump! I clutched the wheel as a thunderous sound echoed from under the car. If I wasn't nervous then, I definitely was now! "Is that my car?" -okay, now that might have been a really stupid question -of course it was my car! But Sheldon is known to make strange noises and have it not mean anything. Like for the past few months the left tire has been making a slight ticking noise (something brushing up against another, I don't think it's very serious) and nothing bad has come of it. Today however, it was the right wheel and something was obviously very wrong.

"Yeah," Seth said holding tightly to the frame of the door. "You need to pull over."

So, as best I could, I pulled over into the grass, leaving room for inspection of the drivers side wheel without having to stand in traffic. We were stranded on the side of a very busy highway and all those close cars made me uncomfortable. Not that anything in this situation was comfortable anyway. I waited as Seth climbed out of the car and made his way to the back of the Buick. I popped the trunk, as I was instructed, and I too climbed from the car. I watched, surprised, as Seth opened the trunk and pulled away a lid, cleverly disguised as the floor of the trunk, and pulled from this hidden compartment a car-jack and a puny looking wheel. (I had no idea that that was there! I figured that since this car was well over twelve years that no such equipment would be found. I am grateful that I was wrong. Yes, very grateful.) I watched carefully as Seth detached the flat tire and replaced it with the tiny doughnut. It wasn't long before we were on the road again, headed the opposite direction to trade cars; my car for Seth's car. There was no way my big Buick could make it to Kansas City on this tiny so-called wheel.

We managed to make it up, yet another hill when the car started to shake violently. Car-Blond that I am, I had to ask, "Is this normal?" I was once again instructed to pull over and I did, but not before I heard the noise again. Boom! I pulled over, just before the ditch of some large yard with a large house. My door was too close to traffic so I couldn't climb out and inspect the damage. But seeing Seth's expression as he rounded the car was enough for me. The doughnut had been blow, totally and utterly shredded. We called Melinda then and asked her to come and save us. I also left a message for the people at the play that I had blown a tire and asked if I could switch my reserved seats to another night as there was no way in the world we could make it there in time. I just hope that they'll consent.

As we drove to Wal-Mart with my flat tire in the back, I had time to reflect on the days events. The main question on my mind was, simply, "Why?" I'd like to be the kind of person who believes that there are no such thing as accidents. And I'm usually pretty good about twisting situations to sound better than they are or even about learning something new from an experience. But yesterday... I couldn't think of anything. Even as I turned the situation over in my head -looking at it from every side, I still couldn't see any good thing about this experience. Sure it gave me an opportunity to change a tire, but I already knew how to do that. And sure, it made me aware that my cousins would help me whenever I needed it, but I already knew that too... I don't know. Yesterday was just stinky.

"Well," I said to Seth as we waited for Melinda. "We went to see a tragedy. We sure got one."

Seth smiled, "And there were even two deaths."

We brought the tire to Wal-Mart and they fixed it without charging us anything. It didn't seem like the problem was by any means big, but the solution was definitely foreign to me. He never even told us what was wrong. We were there for about fifteen minutes and then we drove back to the busy highway, I reattached the tire, and then we made our way home again. It was a little after nine when we got home. Bleh.

I guess all I mean to say is 'Thank you Seth for helping me with my car, I owe you a ton! I don't know what I would have done if had blown on me on my way to school, instead. Probably freaked out, but anyway. I'm glad you were there.' and to Melinda. 'Thank you so much for saving us! Sorry for the inconvenience. If there is anything I can do to make it up to you, just let me know!'

So yeah, I was really bummed yesterday. I didn't make it to my play, though that didn't hurt as much as the wasted forty dollars did. I had a flat tire -that alone is enough to ruin anyone's day. I have to buy a new doughnut today. And I dragged my cousins into this gigantic mess of tires and wasted gas... Ungh. As easy as it is to blame myself for everything that happened yesterday, I think it would make me feel better if I just blamed Sheldon. His feelings can't get hurt. He's a car. I guess yesterday he was just being stubborn. He didn't want to go to the play, but he didn't want to come home either. Do you ever think that inanimate objects have a mind of their own...?

But as Melinda always says "Life is good. Everything will work out." And she's right. Everything will. I'm not sure how, but it will...